A Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic Dezhung Rinpoche [Paperback]

David P. Jackson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2004

In 1960, the Tibetan lama Dezhung Rinpoche (1906-87) arrived in Seattle after being forced into exile from his native land by the Communist Chinese. Already a revered master of the teachings of all Tibetan Buddhist schools, he would eventually become a teacher of some of Western Buddhism's most notable scholars. This inspiring and unlikely biography of a modern Buddha is fully annotated, and includes photographs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 768 pages
• Publisher: Wisdom Publications; annotated edition edition (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0861713966
• ISBN-13: 978-0861713967
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #808,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspiring and compelling spiritual biography, January 2, 2005

By 

Tom Trabin (El Cerrito, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic Dezhung Rinpoche (Paperback)

A Saint in Seattle is a fascinating book that I did not want to lay aside. The early chapters are devoted to Dhezhung Rinpoche's childhood and early adulthood, and are a wonderful depiction of what intensive spiritual training was like for a gifted lama in early twentieth century Tibet. The brief biographies of his primary teachers are also great to read--both informative and inspiring.

The later chapters focus upon Dhezung Rinpoche's life and teaching activities outside Tibet, primarily in the United States. As one of the very first Tibetan lamas to reside in the United States in the early 1960s, he experienced first hand and helped nurture the gradual spiritual maturing of western students until his death nearly four decades later. This part of the book is filled with anecdotes about dharma in the west--some amusing and some inspiring--that include descriptions of several other famous Tibetan lamas and many Western students. As one of his earlier students, I enjoyed reading about many westerners I have known but had never read about in a publication before who helped to shape Buddhism in the west.

The author, Dr. David Jackson, demonstrates a scholar's attention to detail and accuracy throughout the book that I appreciated. He portrays Dhezhung Rinpoche's many-faceted personality through numerous anecdotes, capturing his great kindness and wisdom, sense of humor, unflagging patience and persistence, seemingly boundless energy, intense focus on meditation throughout all aspects of daily life, amazing breadth of knowledge, and profound humility.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in integrating spiritual practice into everyday life, particularly but not exclusively through the Tibetan Buddhist path. A Saint in Seattle provides spiritual inspiration and a tremendous wealth of information about Tibetan Buddhism as practiced traditionally in Tibet and as transmitted to and practiced by westerners. It is also a wonderfully captivating story of a great spiritual teacher and of the dramatically changing history of Tibetan Buddhism as it migrated west in the 20th century.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Saint from East to West, September 26, 2007

By 

Purplelotus "Purplelotus" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic Dezhung Rinpoche (Paperback)

A wonderful book, meticulously researched and full of detailed anecdotes. As one of the first Lamas to come to the west from Tibet it is very interesting to read about both sides, the westerners and the Tibetans, understandings and misunderstanding of each other, about how the Dharma was established in the west. Through all these tumultuous events in the life of Dezhung Rinpoche he always exemplified the Dharma -a real inspiration. One can only rejoice in the good fortune of those who had the opportunity to meet him personally.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Monumental Homage to a Holy Man, November 21, 2009

By 

Eileen Corder (West Coast) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic Dezhung Rinpoche (Paperback)

Writing equally with love, devotion and a careful attention to detail, David Jackson has not only created a monumental homage to a great man but has also offered a little bit of Dezhung Rinpoche to all us.

The first 250 pages chronicle Dezhung Rinpoche's life in Tibet from 1906 to 1959. Rinpoche's teachers, his fellow students and family, and the many places to which he journeyed are wonderfully represented in rare photos. The many texts he studied and transmissions he gave, and was given, offer an insight into a religious life outside the world wars and economic disasters of the first half of the twentieth century.

Dezhung Rinpoche's life in exile begins in 1959 in India but soon he finds himself in Seattle as part of a University of Washington, Rockefeller Foundation-funded research project. His many friends, colleagues and students over the next 25 years, including the biographer, lend many incredible anecdotes and first-hand reminisces. Between Seattle, New York and Vancouver he tirelessly travels even though his body is breaking down. But his dream to reestablish Tharlam Temple comes true in Nepal, where he later dies in 1987. Humble to a fault, this Saint of Seattle, learned beyond measure, insists, "All you need to do is recite Om mani padme hum." At the end, it's almost like one's father or grandfather has died.

Following the biography are ten appendices, which include a talk by Dezhung Rinpoche on the ri-me movement (Buddhism without Sectarianism) and a brief biography he wrote on Kalu Rinpoche. Past this are over 1500 notes and bibliography.