Customer Reviews

The Bodhisattva Vow: A Practical Guide to Helping Others

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

The author presents in a traditional Tibetan Buddhist manner the Mahayana practice of confession to the 35 Confession Buddhas. He clear sets out the importance of purification and the steps that need to be taken for the individual to overcome delusions and to progress on the spiritual path to enlightenment.

The text then explains the ritual of confession and contains detailed descriptions of the Buddhas and instructions on how you or I should engage in this practice. The text is very clear and avoids the tendency of some writers to obscure the meaning by using technical jargon - Kelsang Gyatso has avoided this and should be thanked for his efforts.

This book is most helpful for those following or interested in the Bodhisattva way of life. It clearly lists all vows, and gives brief explanations on the meaning of each one, (It's size makes it reasonably portable, so is useful for those who have just recieved the vows and find them difficult to remember). It also contains a brief commentary on the practise of the six perfections. I have found this an indispensable guide to help me along the Bodhisattva path, and know of no other like it. I hope others will find it as useful as I do.

The Geshe's style of elucidation is clear and step by step. This will be of more interest to the practitioner than the casual reader, or one interested in anecdotes and stories.

I got this on audio and I would have given it more stars but for the recording is so soft that I have to turn the volume very very high. There is a lot of information on the vows of a bodhisattva as well as the 35 confession Buddhas... there are 22 chapters that are loaded with information. I would recommend this to anyone who already has a very good foundation of Buddhism in general and is curious about the vows of a bodhisattva or who is planning on taking the vows. Ven.Geshe Kelsang Gyatso is an amazing teacher who chooses his words very well for teaching and explaining. I highly recommend all of his books. There is a list of appropriate books for beginners, intermediate and advanced practitioners at www.kadampanewyork.org there is also a link that if you have any questions while reading or listening you can call or email the center and ask a monk or nun. I found that they are always very happy to help. I personally have purchased several of Geshe-la's books and plan on buying more.

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's beautiful book, The Bodhisattva Vow, gives an extensive explanation on how to practice higher moral discipline, the main path that leads to permanent happiness and enlightenment. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso demonstrates clearly, that developing a virtuous determination to abandon harmful actions such as: killing, stealing, lying, hurtful speech, malice etc, is essential to progress on and complete, one's spiritual path. If we conscientiously observe moral discipline, we can solve all our human problems and complete our spiritual practices powerfully.
I recommend this book to anyone who is seeking clear and practical advice on how to abandon harmful actions and negative states of mind, and how to cultivate positive, powerful states of mind that will cause all our actions to become pure and of benefit to others.

I should have posted this UPDATED review a long time ago in 2004.
Like any spiritual seeker I was reading many different spiritual books, and Gyatso's books seemed genuine to me as I love the teachings of BUDDHA.

In a nutshell, I joined their "meditation" group and went further to be trained as a teacher. What happened is SHOCKING.

They informed me that I could NOT write my own books!!!!
They told me I could not discuss any of the teachings!
They told me I could NOT write ARTICLES.

I couldn't believe how controlling this cult organization is. They give glory to Kelsang Gyatso - where a true Buddhist gives the glory to Buddha.

If you are looking for excellent Buddhist books I do *NOT* recommend this book, or any of the other Gyatso books. I do recommend the books by Eknath Easwaran such as THE DAMMAPADA.

I share this with the utmost pure motives and hope it helps you in your spiritual growth.

The audio-book is an excellent 2 disc set for the sincere students of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (New Kadampa Traditon - New Kadampa Buddhist International Union). It is not beginner material, but more advanced. The Joyful Path of Good Fortune is an excellent but BIG foundation book. MODERN BUDDHISM will be released shortly. Eight Steps to Happiness is helpful introductory material.
CDs of mantras can be purchased from your New Kadampa website.
Amazon has excellent prices for the NKT materials!
This book is likely NOT helpful to students of HH Dalai Lama, as a split occured between the 2 groups.
The Teacher Training Program is about 12 years. It is a long and serious process. And yes, New Kadampa Buddhism has its own dogma, as do most religions.
If you LOVE it and believe that the Lam Rim Buddhism presented in NKT is your own personal path to liberation and helping others, this book is very helpful.

The product description says:
"In this welcome guide to compassionate living, Geshe Kelsang explains in detail how to take and keep the Bodhisattva vows, and how to practice the Bodhisattva's deeds of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration, and wisdom."

Considering the plethora of books commenting on Bodhisattva vows, one would be better served by reading any one of those versus this nonsense. The author of this book (be it the hard copy book or the audio book version) is the same rigid character, who in his New Meditation Handbook, claims swatting a mosquito in anger will result in eons in the hell realm without any discussion of purification or karma. That is a very draconian statement from a very draconian "religious" leader. To learn more about the author, Google the "Dalai Lama" and "April 22, 2008" and then decide for yourself if you would want to follow these very non-Buddhist, Shugden-worshiping writings.

You can also Google the author and click on some of the web sites that are not part of his self-serving empire to see that not only does un-Buddhist-like controversy follow him, he is not even a real Geshe (he was offered the test, refused it, but took the title anyway... ugh!).

The presently reviewed title is yet another rigid outing for the self-proclaimed Geshe. Comparing this to genuine and authentic Buddhist authors will instantly reveal the inadequacies of this title. It is no more than "pop" Buddhism for the "new age" Western Buddhist mind rather than a serious commentary, which it purports to be. Again, with all the other commentaries available on Bodhisattva vows, pick a title written by a genuine and authentic Buddhist author instead of this narrow-minded book. Virtually any title would be better than this one, but an excellent book that immediately comes to mind and also available from Amazon is: NO TIME TO LOSE: A TIMELY GUIDE TO THE WAY OF THE BODHISATTVA by PEMA CHODRON.

I only write this because readers need to know the author is not an authority on his subject matter as he claims to be, and therefore, the information contained within the book is misleading. Would you buy a health book by an author who uses the title "doctor" when there is no actual medical diploma to back it up? If so, then you might feel comfortable taking your chances with this "Geshe" as well.

This is a useful book, about the practice of the 35 Confession Buddhas (a karmic purification practice) and the Bodhisattva's root and secondary vows (or 'training pledges'), associated with the Mahayana vehicle.

However, Kelsang Gyatso*, the author of this text, made a remarkable mistake, I wish to point out in this review, because it has to be seen in the context of the author's organisation, the New Kadampa Tradition - IKBU (aka as "Kadampa Buddhism"), in which he encourages and emphasizes the totally reliance on himself as the sole authentic (contemporary) Buddhist authority and actively discourages his followers to read other books, because this would 'confuse' them.

Kelsang Gyatso claims on page 23 the 34th Bodhisattva vow would be:
"34 'Preferring to rely upon books rather than our Spiritual Guide'
The root of Dharma realizations is sincere reliance upon our Spiritual Guide. If we neglect this practice and prefer to acquire our understanding from books, we incur a secondary downfall."

This is incorrect and misleading.

The vow is: "Deprecating him and referring to the letter". This has two meanings: not to be disrespectful to the teacher, and secondly: not to rely on his words literally; one has to look for the meaning of the teachers' words.

Je Tsongkhapa, based on Asanga's Commentary, explains the 34th Bodhisattva training pledge as follows:

>>"Deprecating him and referring to the letter."<<
"To deliberately discount the person speaking doctrine - not sincerely conceiving of him as a spiritual adviser and a teacher - and to fail to pay respect to him with one's body, while ridiculing him with humiliating [questions] and making sarcastic remarks with harsh words, and referring to the literary expression in the sense of making much of it, is a defiled fault.

Briefly, if the words are not good but the meaning is good he fails to rely upon the meaning, whereas if the words are good but the meaning is not he does rely upon it. Some would have it that the deprecation amounts to saying to the preacher that his teaching is only literary expression, without meaning, or that the meaning is incomprehensible--in other words, failing to enter into the spirit of the letter. This should be taken as explained earlier in the Bodhisattva Bhumi in context of the four points of reference.

Jinaputra and Samudra further gloss this as a misdeed of 'disrespect for the doctrine'.

These three misdeeds are explained by the new commentary as failing, respectively, in eliminating bad view, in application to study, and in service to the lama, [all] as part of collecting wholesomeness. 'Makes his reference the letter' is explained as relying upon the literary expression in the sense of discounting the person who is speaking doctrine."

(quoted from Asanga's Chapter on Ethics With the Commentary of Tsong-Kha-Pa: The Basic Path to Awakening, the Complete Bodhisattva, page 232)

As I said above this book of Kelsang Gyatso claims instead that it would be a fault in the Bodhisattva Ethic: "Preferring to rely on books, rather than to rely on our spiritual guide".

I don't know if Kelsang Gyatso invented this vow or not but this claim is defacto not correct when compared with the origin Indian or Gelug authoritative scriptures or even temporary commentaries-ecxept the LTWA edition which seem to have copy and pasted from Kelsang Gyatso's list of the vows...

It was Je Tsongkhapa himself who distrusted Tibetan authors much and was very keen to check if what had been said about Buddha's teachings is in accordance with Indian (Sanskrit) scriptures. Je Tsongkhapa remarked if something is in contraction to the origin Indian sources it should not be accepted.

The spin of this vow it would be a secondary downfall to 'Prefer to rely upon books rather than our Spiritual Guide' is the complete opposite of Je Tsongkhapa's own approach and invites to follow blind devotion.

Explanation of the Buddhist practices explained in the book without such errors can be found in:
- Confession of Downfalls, published by LTWA, and in
- The Bodhisattva Vow by Geshe Sonam Rinchen.

The most genuine and precise commentary on the Bodhisattva vows in the context of the Gelug school is the quoted text by Asanga and Je Tsongkhapa:
- Asanga's Chapter on Ethics With the Commentary of Tsong-Kha-Pa: The Basic Path to Awakening, the Complete Bodhisattva


* Usually the author is known to hold a Geshe degree, however different sources (e.g. his monastery Sera Je Dratsang, Newsweek or the Tibetan Government in Exile) dispute this claim.