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A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism: Notes from a Practitioner's Journey

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When I was first studying physics, I found that it was sometimes more illuminating to discuss a problem with a teaching assistant than with a professor: Although the TA's level of understanding was greater than mine, he would consider more alternative approaches, and show more hesitation in deciding among them, than would a professor. Watching a graduate student proceed in this way, I felt validated in my own process of learning by exploring and stumbling around.

The author of this book, Bruce Newman, has certainly achieved a higher level of experience and understanding in the Dharma. For thirty years, he has been living the life that most other Dharma students have only day-dreamed about: living as a nearly full-time yogi, with continual guidance from his teachers, both in and out of retreats, in the East and in the West. As a result of his efforts, he has been given authorization, encouragement and continuing support by two highly regarded teachers in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages to introduce Western students into the Vajrayana and to train them in its meditation.

After teaching other Western students for a decade, and reflecting on his own process of coming to terms with and progressing in the Vajrayana, he has now written a guide to Tibetan Buddhism that explores the issues that arise for Westerners encountering this rather complex system. He is able to explain, in a very down-to-earth way, some of the central issues that we confront: how to deal with the lama most straightforwardly, how to relate to the ritualistic aspects, sexuality (what is "tantric" and what is not?), dealing with other students, fitting practice into your life, and so on. He discusses the detailed relationships among the different types of Vajrayana techniques, why they are done in a certain order, and what they are designed to do; and also some of the difficulties that are likely to arise while doing them.

One of the most important points he makes is that Westerners often have a difficult time with their relationship with the guru: They tend to believe that the lama is somehow aware of all of their issues and confusions, without their being discussed. This attitude leads to a lack of communication on meditational experiences that makes it difficult for the lama to point out the nature of the mind to the student in a definitive way.

He also explores the conceptual difficulties that arise for Westerners: Some of these come from cultural differences with Tibetans, but some are intrinsic to Buddhist thought. Westerners often come to the Dharma with the general idea that Buddhism is a form of super-logic, a kind of science with added spiritual insight; there is then the tendency to disregard aspects that don't fit into this picture. The author explains in specific detail how this conceptual view can limit one's understanding of how the Vajrayana actually works, and therefore one's experience.

The author mentions in general terms, but does not go into detail about, his own experiential phenomena during his career in meditation: This is probably in good taste, as practitioners' phenomena are individual and shouldn't be imitated; but it also means that this book will never serve as the basis for a movie script. He is honest about acknowledging in many cases his own lack of attainment of the lofty goals of the Dharma. (Of course, in the Mahayana tradition, of which Vajrayana is a part, there is, notoriously, no "attainment": It is really the quality of one's "non-attainment" that counts.)

One nit that I would pick: There is a useful discussion near the end of the book concerning the difference between the Western concepts of ego and the ego that Buddhists are always trying to get rid of. They're not the same. I believe this crucial point should be explained much earlier.

Overall, I believe that even for many Dharma students who have been around for awhile, this book, written in an informal style by someone a bit ahead on the path, will shed some light: validating some intuitions on how to proceed in the Dharma, while disabusing one of others. For newer students, it could be an eye-opener that can save years of orientation to a very complex system of spiritual development.

The following review is written by Jan and Linda Derksen.

Tibetan Buddhism has a steep learning curve. In this thoughtful, intelligent introduction, Bruce Newman's years of experience as a lama, serious practitioner, and Dharma teacher help us recognize and avoid many of the pitfalls that Western practitioners commonly stumble into.

His book is a gem for any newcomer who feels intimidated and overwhelmed by the multitude of details that we need to sift through when we set out on this path.

The book is equally helpful to practitioners with years of experience who are confronting increasingly subtle difficulties that are hard to uproot or even to recognize.

Bruce's book is not like other books about Buddhism available today. He assumes we have some interest in Buddhism and will seek out lectures or read books about Buddha's life and teachings. He focuses his attention on guiding us through the practical considerations that Western students confront.

Let's say we are serious enough to want to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Now what? Do we really need a Guru? How can devotion and trust function in the heart and mind of a well educated, scientifically minded Westerner? At the university Bruce's field of study was theoretical chemistry and quantum mechanics. Thus, we can relate to his tough-minded scientific mind and the effort he had to put into learning about devotion and trust first hand with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche in Nepal and Gyatrul Rinpoche in California. Over the years Bruce also learned about devotion and trust by answering questions from his students. His book gives us many of the details as well as a broad perspective on the Guru-devotion discussion so that if we follow his advice, we won't get hurt, and neither will our Guru.

Without the proper understanding, doing 100,000 prostrations looks like an enormous waste of time. Or, what exactly are we trying to do when we sit on our cushions and meditate? Bruce warns us about perfecting our outward performance and entirely missing out on the emotion-changing heart of the practice. He also cautions us about the dangers of getting competitive with our Dharma brothers and sisters.

Lets say we've taken the step of volunteering at a Dharma Center and feel like tearing our hair out because our fellow volunteers are so annoying. Bruce spends an entire chapter on all the emotional ups and downs that are inevitable when we practice in a pressured situation with many people, and he shows us how to use the difficulties as part of our spiritual training.

Bruce is the only author we've found who thoroughly and clearly explains the various lineages and stages one encounters. For example, he explains that Nyingma style practice has the following stages: (1.) Pointing-out Instructions->Ngondro->Deity Practice->Tsalung->Dzogchen/Mahamudra/Formless Practice, or the alternate possibility (2.) Pointing-out Instructions ->Ngondro->Shinay->Lhagtong->Dzogchen/Mahamudra/Formless Practice.

Bruce's honest, sometimes painful, self-revelations, especially about drugs, are there to help us confront our own emotional baggage. How does one go about removing the obscurations? Sometimes it can feel like we have all 84,000 of them at once, and life can get pretty discouraging. Other times we can fool ourselves by serenely shoving them aside and finding comfort in quiet meditation while our obscurations quietly fester and make our lives needlessly complicated. It's easy to spend years on the wrong track if we don't recognize what it is we're doing wrong.

No matter what level of practice we're at, troubles will arise, and with this book we have the comfort of a spiritual friend who's been there and his genuine, heart-felt guidance about how best to proceed. We can be very grateful to Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche for insisting that Bruce write this book for us all.

---Jan and Linda Derksen

The earlier reviews of the book are written by people who have been practicing Tibetan Buddhism for several years. I read this book after studying Zen for several years. I read it to prepare for a journey to Dharamsala, India, to attend a teaching by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.

Much of the difficulty in understanding all of Buddhism is its interlocking structure, and this book reflects it. To a newcomer to Tibetan Buddhism, this book does not offer a straightforward explanation of what to expect or to know. Admittedly, it would be difficult to provide one. However, the book was difficult to understand, and only after visiting Dharamsala and immersing myself in the Tibetan environment could I start to make sense of it.

If you're approaching Buddhism for the first time, Zen can be more attractive because it's much more stripped down, while there is much more complexity (and in the long run, I believe, more richness) to Tibetan Buddhism. The best western analogy I can think of is comparing Presbyterianism (probably the most straightforward Christian sect) vs. Roman Catholicism (with its saints and rituals and intensive symbolism). If you were new to Christianity, Presbyterianism would be probably easier to start with, but the volume of information available to a practitioner (regardless of the philosophy behind it) is greater in Catholicism. Now imagine trying to explain hundreds of years of Catholicism in a single 200-page book, including all of the mystic traditions, history, artwork, differences in monastic traditions, etc.! In this book, that's what Newman is trying to do with Tibetan Buddhism, and it's a difficult task at best.

If you're just starting to learn about Buddhism, I can't say I'd recommend this book; it's rather technical to start with. But if you've stuck your big toe in the water for a while and need some clarification, it's worth reading.

I haven't yet picked up a book on Buddhism that I found anything other than helpful, as it seems that anyone who writes a book on the subject has their heart in the right place, if that makes sense. The same goes for this book, but the title is woefully misleading, which is problematic for the unaware reader.

Bruce Newman writes in the introduction that he wrote this book to help bridge the gap between Buddhist ideas and Western practitioners, as Westerners sometimes have problems assimiliating Buddhist concepts due to the culture and language gap. This is an admirable idea for a book, but not a book for beginners.

When I picked the book off the shelf and skimmed it, I saw some charts on lineages, and I thought it would be a primer on the different sects and an introduction, in as much as that is possible, to the basics of Tibetan Buddhism. However, Newman assumes a shared, deep knowledge of the subject and so he cherry picks his ideas, frequently writing something along the lines of: "I know you're all familiar with these ideas, so I am going to talk about the specific points that I want to focus on." Again, that would be fine in a book that wasn't labelled "For Beginners," as the beginners (like me) will have no idea of the context in which the material fits.

Additionally, be prepared to read about the author's very specific point of view. There are multiple lineages in Buddhism, and Newman talks almost exclusively about the one in which he practices. Also, he takes for granted that the reader is about to get, or already has, a teacher or guru. Again, if you're a beginner, you are probably nowhere near that point.

Lastly, and this may be considered a petty point when compared to the depth of the subject (as well as being the fault of the publisher, not the writer) but this book is riddled with a ludicrous amount of obvious, almost laughable, printing mistakes. It's kind of hard to take the information seriously when it's clear that no one at the publishing office even bothered to read through the manuscript before approving the printing run. At one point, the author writes something and then, in parentheses, questions his own writing, and answers his question. Basically, the author's notes made it into the final printing of the book! Another obvious mistake occurs at the beginning of a chapter. You know how the first letter of a chapter is sometimes enlarged, or embellished? In one of the chapters, the first, enlarged letter is a "W," but the first word of the sentence is "By." No one bothered to update the first letter so the sentence reads: "Wy this time, we should have..." Because the "W" is so large, it made me laugh out loud. Other than those two, there are countless dropped words, doubled words, plurality mistakes, etc. Again, it might be considered snobbish or petty, but I find it really hard to take the writing seriously in the midst of all these mistakes.

I get the feeling that I will come back to some of the ideas in this book once I have a lot more grounding in the subject, but for now, it is simply too advanced for me. And there's a good chance that I'm a bit further along in reading on the subject than some other people who might pick up a book by this title.

If it had been named something more accurate, like "Explaining Vajrayana Practice: An Integration Guide for Western Buddhists," I would have known that it wasn't the right book for me at this time, but would have kept it in mind for later. And it would stand out to Vajrayanists, which is who it should appeal to, really: those who are interested in immersing themselves further in that particular lineage with the help of a Westerner who wants them to have greater access to, and benefits from, the Eastern texts and gurus.

I have been practicing Tibetan Buddhism for over eighteen years. I have found Bruce's frank discussion of the cultural clash most western dharma students face when seriously practicing Tibetan Buddhism to be delightful. His honesty does not put me off at all. Finally, someone has the courage to honestly share his experience of the path with me. He's brave enough to discuss everything in this book. I say, "Bravo!"

If you are a new, younger female student, be sure to read the chapter on Dzogrim and the Body. It discusses one of the most important issues facing women lay practitioners. How do we relate to the sexual imagery of tantra? What do we do when older dharma students or lamas hit on us? It could save you a lot of grief to read this chapter carefully if you are seriously interested in dharma practice.

I disagree with one reviewer who says the author's lama should've written about Tibetan Buddhism, with the author just sharing his experiences in anecdotal form. This isn't a translation of dharma material. It's an overview of the path for new students. It's a chance for older students to realize that we aren't the only ones who've faced these difficulties when attempting to practice Tibetan Buddhism. Sure, it would have been better if there weren't any typos, but hey, why not cut the author some slack? It's the meaning that is most important, not the words, right?

I want to thank the author for writing this wonderful book. It finally discusses in an honest way, many of the problems I've faced over the years. The chapter on ritual is also very important. It cautions western students to not dismiss any aspect of these practices, simply because we consider them unfamiliar and peculiar to Tibetan Buddhism.

I can't recommend this book enough. It is a unique and practical guide that is a must read for anyone seriously considering devoting themselves to the path of Tibetan Buddhism.

I'm sure in the future I will appreciate the content of this book and the effort placed into it, but this is not a book for me as a "Beginner". It seems to be a fine book, but the title should really be change to something like "Tibetan Buddhism for Westerners" or "Vajrayana Practice for Westerners". I think the other reviewers have too much experience in Tibetan Buddhism to remember what is needed for a beginner and I would discount their reviews accordingly.

I have been interested in Tibetan Buddhism for many years, but felt intimidated by its seeming complexity. A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism puts it all in order. Bruce Newman writes about the beginnings of his study, the people who inspired him, and his own development through study and practice. He has been practicing and teaching Tibetan Buddhism for many years. He describes his journey from student to teacher simply and logically. I highly recommend this book to anyone else curious about or interested in learning about Tibetan Buddhism

i received my book in only 3 days and was quite impressed with the speed. as for the condition...... it may have been listed as used but i consider it a Brand New Book!