Customer Reviews

Becoming the Compassion Buddha: Tantric Mahamudra for Everyday Life

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This teaching, which comes from the (late) marvelous Lama Yeshe, is for serious practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, specifically those who have received the Avalokiteshvara (Buddha of Compassion) empowerment or are interested in this practice. It is a teaching Lama Yeshe gives on a particular Avalokiteshvara practice combined with guru yoga, a practice composed by HH the XIV Dalai Lama when he was 19 years old at the request of one of his students. As such this practice and text is especially appropriate for those with a connection to Avalokiteshvara, HH the Dalai Lama, Lama Yeshe, or all of the above!

The book begins with a short introduction to Lam Rim (the stages of the path to enlightenment), and then gets into the commentary, and includes the actual meditations.

I am a big fan of Lama Yeshe and his books. I think they are superb. This book may be more suitable for medium-level students, as it assumes some familiarity with basic practices and concepts. For total beginners, a better bet might be Lama Yeshe's "Introduction to Tantra", a fabulous book that can be read by anyone. Advanced level students should also check out Lama Yeshe's on tummo practice ("Bliss of Inner Fire" I believe it's called).

In general, I like everything that I have read by Lama Yeshe. He is very credible author from the Tibetan tradition with a gift for explaining things in easy to understand language. He is also very gifted at presenting difficult ideas in a way that is easy to understand for Western people.

This book provides a nice introduction to the general philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism and a variety of compassion practices. Specifically, it elaborates on the Dalai Lama's Avalokitashvera guru practices. In addition, however, it also provides a broad context for any kind of compassion practice.

Tibetan Buddhism is not an easy worldview for most Western people to understand. Lama Yeshe is great at bridging this gap and relating difficult ideas back to familiar Western psychological concepts, easy to understand analogies and everyday life.

If you are new to Tibetan Buddhism, this might not be the best place to start. However, it is a useful complimentary text to other resources. You can find a Tibetan Buddhism listmania list on my profile with specific references depending upon your specific area of interest.

I am not a Tibetan Buddhist myself, but I study world religions and find some of the works of the Tibetan Lamas to be difficult to relate to a Western paradigm. If your interest is primarily scholarly, then Lama Yeshe will be more accessible than some other authors. For an even broader context on Buddhism, try Huston Smith's "The World's Religions" or his volume on Buddhism. Both of these are top notch and will help you to understand where Tibetan Buddhism fits into a historical and religious context. It's easy to get confused if you start reading Buddhist works without this kind of roadmap.

This was sent as a gift. The recipient is very pleased. He is growing more compassionate day by day.