Customer Reviews

The Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava: The Indian Consort of Padmasambhava

5 star:		(4)
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This book is an excellent insight into the life and times of both Princess Mandharava and the great Guru Padmasambhava, as told by Padmasambhava himself and recorded by his Tibetan consort Yeshe Tsogyal. This book is a terma (a teaching which was written down and then hidden for this present time). Also, it has a blessing prophecy attatched to it, making it very beneficial to read or even be near a copy of this text. The terma itself is very easy to read and follows Mandharava's extrordinary life, in a most interesting progression. It's a very inspiring story!

A great account on the Life of a realized being. Shows how a female can overcome the cultural limitations placed on her and progress on the spiritual path, attain realization and then lead countless beings on that same path. Wonderful.

Princess Mandarava, like all bodhisattvas, had to endure many intense sufferings in samsara (wandering in transmigration) on her way to becoming a Buddha. She was a close disciple of Padmasambhava, the single greatest teacher of Mahayana Buddhism since Shakyamuni Buddha himself, and the single greatest preceptor of Atiyoga since Garab rDorje, the Prahevajra Buddha who received the revelation of Atiyoga from the Vajra-incarnate, pure and total consciousness (bodhicitta) in the highest heavens above. Mandarava's story as told by Padmasambhava is mesmerizing, haunting, beautiful, harrowing and enlightening. As the text states, "Those who know this teaching know they are have found the right path to perfect enlightenment." These words of Padmasambhava will blaze brightly within one's heart from the moment of hearing them up until the indescribable, blissful moment of ecstatic enlightenemt. For this reason, all seekers of truth must learn this teaching.

I am still giving this book 5 stars. It is a worthwhile read about Mandarava and describes both her process or realization and her service to sentient beings to relieve their sorrow and become enlightened. I have one reservation about the book and that is that many of the chapters are almost like written summaries and outlines. For instance, there is a section where she and Padmasambhava conquer aging and death at Maratiki Cave. This shows that there is a Buddhist tradition of physical immortality and light translation. The rituals that she and Padmasambhava used to accomplish this are covered. They practiced extensively quite a large number of practices which are only named. You would have to go elsewhere to find out about these and cannot learn much about them from this book. This kind of summarization is common in a number of medium to advanced Buddhist books. I have found some books which explain the practices in more detail and some Buddhist glossaries that help define many terms that are undefined in some of these books. With the internet it is getting easier to search for these missing elements. A reader would need to do this with this book if one were to try to understand everything that it is saying. But even without this, you do get a flavor of her process and her enlightenment.