Blooming in the Desert: Favorite Teachings of the Wildflower Monk Taungpulu Sayadaw [Paperback]

Anne Teich (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 1996

In 1978, at the age of 80, the Burmese forest monk Taungpulu Sayadaw left his native country for the first time and came to California, where he taught and established the West's first Burmese Buddhist temple and monastery. Revered as a saint in his lifetime and after his death in 1986, Taungpulu Sayadaw's calm, joyful presence, forged in a lifetime's dedication to the austere spiritual path of the Theravada forest tradition, was a beacon of hope to Burmese people in exile and a radiant example of living Buddhism for all who encountered him. This selection of the Sayadaw's favorite discourses, parables, chants, and meditations distills the essence of the fundamental Buddhist practices of mindfulness, non-attachment, and loving-kindness.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Taungpulu Sayadaw, modern Buddhism produced an authentically holy being, one whose life and teaching continue to convey to anyone who comes to learn about them the humble nobility of the Theravadin ideal... It is one of the joys of this fine selection that Taungpulu's spiritual personality should be so clearly revealed throughout in all its shrewdness, wit, hardheaded noble realism, and deep natural compassion for the suffering of all sentient beings... Such a personality and such teachings have the bracing and refreshing power of a clear and cooling mountain stream."
-from the Foreword by Andrew Harvey

About the Author

Editor Anne Teich has been a student of Buddhism since 1975, and is a founding member of Taungpulu Kaba-Aye Monastery in Boulder Creek, California. She received her doctorate in Buddhist Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 1990.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books (September 10, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556432232
• ISBN-13: 978-1556432231
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,650,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meeting A VERY Great Meditation Master..., January 28, 2006

By 

Raul Garcia (PR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blooming in the Desert: Favorite Teachings of the Wildflower Monk Taungpulu Sayadaw (Paperback)

Together with Anne, the Books author, we both lived and meditated intensely under the guidance and very, very deep influence of Taungpulu Sayadaw, who was well known in Burma and Asia as an Arhant - a fully Realized master of meditation.
I am 100% a wittness to this truth.

Any book about this little-known, but immensely respected Burmese Master is welcome! Thanks Anne for your efforts!

Many of Taungpulu's students were themselves highly developed masters, with many students and their own monasterias, he was a teacher of teachers. Anyway he was totally humble, without any pretensions of superiority. He was available 4am to 11pm to all who came. In Burma he gave over 800 interviews a day! He was the truth he preached: 'The Truth is simple but exceedingly profound'.

I wittnessed how he had totally trascended the need to sleep,
since near his room the light of awareness made sleeping impossible. I had to go the the pagoda to rest...

In seconds he could still your mind and body and transport your conciousness to any infinity you desired - happiness, light, love, wisdom, faith, compassion, freedom...But to make this experience permanent and natural we have to undergo many changes...a spiritual evolution and revolution.

His presence illuminated the TKAM (Boulder Creek - near Santa Cruz, CA) monastery and transformed the place - go and see for yourself. There's a pagoda there and his stupa - ideal places to mediate.

He was reputed, and I sincerily know it's true, to have possesed all supernormal powers a human being can achieve! This came to him in an insight after over 13 years of meditation in caves.

On TKAM he left a spiritual bomb of infinite (literally) peace and stillnes waiting for anyone to tap into. His blessings helps us all...even in ignorance.

Read the book, practice what you can, then visit TKAM and stay for a while. Be prepared for change. His stillnes will gradually become yours...and at last, the ocean of Happiness will become clear.

The essence of his teaching is contained in 'Patience'
and the Four Foundations of Mindfullnes.

raul garcia
[e-mail]

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard won wisdom from a relativley unknown master, June 14, 2001

By 

A. Hogan (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blooming in the Desert: Favorite Teachings of the Wildflower Monk Taungpulu Sayadaw (Paperback)

Taungpulu Sayadaw was a burmese forest monk{one who lives in the Forests in southeast asia,literaly meditating} who came to the United States in the late 1970's, and established the first Burmese Buddhist Temple in the United States.This gentle master of the Theravada tradition passed on his teachings , some of which have been lovingly recorded here by Anne Teich. These are not soft, new age readings,but straightfoward teachings that come staright to the herat of the matter.Chapters[some are only a paragraph long, others several pages long] such as UNWHOLESOME CONDUCTS,SAINTHOOD AND NIBBANA and THE HINDRANCE OF SENSUAL DESIRE are up front and not easy{the Sayadaw ,though coming off as quite gentle,doesnt seem to be interested in softening his message to make it palatable to the west. More's the better] Andrew Harvey contributes a short preface,and Ms. Teich gives us an excellent introduction. A very,very good primer on Buddhism from one considered by many to be a saint, a bodhisattva. Deserves to be more widely read,very very good, though the message is not easy...Excellent.