Masters of Meditation and Miracles: The Longchen Nyingthig Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism [Hardcover]

Tulku Thondup (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 26, 1996

Masters of Meditation and Miracles presents colorful biographies of thirty-five realized teachers whose lives were full of peace, enlightenment, and amazing miracles. They flourished in Tibet, the Roof of the World, in its golden days. These teachers belong to the Longchen Nyingthig lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, a cycle of mystical teachings revealed by the great scholar and adept Jigme Lingpa.

From the first master, Garap Dorje, to the present, each spiritual personality has his or her own distinctive role to play in this great lineage. In retelling their stories in his own words, the author has sought to bring out their inner feelings as well as their external activities: how they faced and healed physical pain, how they dealt with emotional turmoil, how they overcame spiritual or meditative illusions, and most important, what experiences they had when they awakened their own inner Buddha Mind and Buddha qualities. These biographies not only provide great sources of teachings on meditation, but will also kindle a spiritual flame in the hearts of readers.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, an esteemed author and teacher, was born in East Tibet and studied at the famed Dodrupchen Monastery. In 1958 he settled in India, where he taught at Indian universities for many years. He came to the United States in 1980 as a visiting scholar at Harvard University. For the past two decades he has lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, engaging in translation and writing on Tibetan Buddhism, particularly the Nyingma teachings, under the auspices of the Buddhayana Foundation. Among his books are The Healing Power of Mind, which has been published in seventeen languages, and Boundless Healing, in twelve languages. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 383 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; 1st edition (March 26, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570621136
• ISBN-13: 978-1570621130
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,499,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lives of Buddhist Masters, December 5, 1999

By 

Susan Law (Hudson Valley, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Masters of Meditation and Miracles: The Longchen Nyingthig Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism (Hardcover)

Tulku Thondup presents here the biographies of 36 Tibetan Buddhist Masters. They belong to the Longchen Nyingthig tradition which is currently one of the most well known and practiced among Western followers of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Introduction and first chapters explain the setting of the Longchen Nyingthig tradition within Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhism as a whole, and give detailed lineage lists. Then follow the biographies, the heart of the book.

These life-stories vary greatly - some are brief and others run to many pages. Some of the masters lived over a thousand years ago while others are still alive now. But each story is told with simplicity and freshness that help the reader to connect with these masters. As Tulku Thondup says in his Preface, "If the lives are read in order to feel and unite with the experiences of the masters, the stories will certainly arouse spiritual realization, love, peace, openness, light, and healing in the reader's heart."

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspired work of scholarship and translation, November 18, 2000

By 

John W. Pettit - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masters of Meditation and Miracles: Lives of the Great Buddhist Masters of India and Tibet (Buddhayana Series) (Paperback)

Tulku Thondup's book is a great contribution to English language resources on Tibetan Buddhism. The background information in the introduction and footnotes is extensive and provides what scholars and neophytes alike would need to know about Vajrayana Buddhism in general, and the Nyingma tradition in particular, in order to better understand and appreciate the sacred biographies of great masters that are collected here. The life-stories themselves are redolent of the spirit of enlightenment, and as the title suggests, abound in descriptions of meditational experience and miraculous events. This is a good book for Buddhist practitioners, because it shows the true meaning of discipline and devotion, as exemplified by the lives of great masters.

Though the life-stories are not all told chronologically, as tends to be the case with Western sacred biographies, this also tends to be true of the original Tibetan biographies. Tulku Thondup, with the skillful editorship of Harold Talbot, has done a great service in navigating many difficult and rare primary sources in Tibetan language, and compiling and translating these stories from them.

A small word of caution regarding the first book review above, [e-mail] from Groningen, Holland. Tulku Thondup's book has little if anything to do with Phowa. The Phowa or "transference of consciousness" taught by Ole Nydahl is a distinct practice of the Karma Kagyu tradition (though it is found in similar forms elsewhere, including the Nyingma traditions such as the Longchen Nyingthig). The Nyingthig tradition is much more than just Phowa, so the two should not be confused, as our Dutch friend suggests here. Those interested in the Kagyu tradition of Phowa can learn something of its transmission in another excellent example of Tibetan sacred biography in translation, _The Life of Marpa the Translator_, Shambhala (1995 et. al.).

4 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book!, April 20, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Groningen, Holland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masters of Meditation and Miracles: Lives of the Great Buddhist Masters of India and Tibet (Buddhayana Series) (Paperback)

If you are interested in Tibetan Buddhism, I've found that it's much more useful to start of with reading some biographies, rather than reading theoretical works. Buddhism is, by definition, a matter of practice and experience, not of letters and concepts. These are the lifestories of the masters of the Longchen Nyinthig. Some stories are amazing fairietales, full of symbolical and theatrical events. Some stories are very close to our own experience. All stories are valuable accounts of the lifes of people who were willing to look beyon their own gardengate, to the needs of others. Very, very inspiring.

But... I have two points of criticism: 1) the text is sometimes very sloppy, with alineas full of unrelated facts and remarks,which are not necessarily in chronological order. 2) The style is somewhat Tibetan, and not all jargon is explained. This may be an obstacle to new readers.

But anyway, this book is a definite must-have, especially for people with an interst in the Nyingma-tradition, or people who have done a Phowa-course with Lama Ole Nydahl (this Nyinthig-lineage is the Phowa-lineage).