Customer Reviews

The Way of White Clouds: A Buddhist Pilgrim in Tibet (Shambhala Dragon Editions)

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You'll need your reading glasses, for sure, when you pick up Lama Govinda's The Way of the White Clouds because you won't want to miss one word of this marvelous text. Travel log, personal diary, and spiritual pilgrimage - I have read this book twice and will read it again. I have only loaned it out once - and only to a family member. It is that previous to me. Govinda's images of Tibet of the 40's are vivid - he takes you there. Another - much more modern - book that shares a similar place of importance on my shelf is The Blessings Already Are by John Morton. You may have to ask for it at your favorite book store as it was just recently published this year. Peace, fellow travelers.

The Way of the White Clouds by Lama Anagarika Govinda is one of the most wonderful spiritual classics ever written. Govinda made two lengthy pilgrimage trips to Tibet in the Mid-40s. The book concerns itself maily with these eventful journeys, although some moving and instructive autobiographical material about his life is included as well. Govinda has the power (by no means common among Buddhist writers...or any writers for that matter)...to combine the poetical and the ibtellectual reals in a very wonderfully effective manner. He manages both to inform and instruct you through his meetings with great Lamas including his Guru, Domo Geshe Rinpoche. He conveys thr experience of being in and travelling through Tibet giving you the dimensions of his experience. You feel the could night frosts, the rarified crisp thin air, the fierce sun burning out the dark blue sky, the sounds of hid shoes crunching through the desolate yet beautiful landscape, the smell of incence butrning, the impact of rituals recited besides sacred Lake Manasarovar, on his way to Holy Mt. Kailas, sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists...and on and on.

It is a tragedy that this book has been allowed to go out of print, and a publicly call here for its reissue. If you find thisd book anywhere at any price Pilgrim, GRAB IT! You will not regret it! I have my battered copy...it is anon-loaner. I read passages out of it for people..Namaskar...honoring through this review one of the great spiritual beings of this century.

"The Way of the White Clouds" is a truly wonderful piece of art. On my own path this has been the most significant book to open my mind and heart to what is beyond the obvious.

Govinda writes from the heart with an openness and clarity which is rare in this world. Combine this with a description of a journey of Tibet just prior to it's invasion, and you can nearly grasp the Heart of tibetan spiritual culture.

Highly recommended, I truly hope Rider/Random House get enough requests for this literary gem to be printed again.

This is a wonderful book by a sensitive contemporary practitioner, a German who became a Buddhist monk in a SE Asia monastery and traveled through Tibet with his wife Li Gotami (who published a book of fascinating photographs). The author is probably best known for his "Foundations of Tibetan Buddhism" which is probably a modern classic. This book is, perhaps, more personal in nature, however. But, as I've heard Lama Govinda (Anangavajra Khamsum Wangchuk) quoted (but I don't know the source), "A religion whose ideal is only a matter of the past or the distant future has no living value for the present day." He has considerable insight into the human condition and its relation to religion and spirituality as demonstrated in some quotes from this book:

"Seriousness and a sense of humor do not exclude each other; on the contrary, they constitute and indicate the fullness and completeness of human experience and the capacity to see the relativity of all things and all `truths' and especially of our own position. The Buddha's sense of humor--which is so evident in many of his discourses--is closely bound up with his sense of compassion: both are born from an understanding of greater connections from an insight into the interrelatedness of all things and all beings and the chain reactions of cause and effect. His smile is the expression of one who can see the wondrous play of ignorance and knowledge against the universal background and its deeper meaning. Only thus is it possible not to be overpowered by the misery of the world or by our own sense of righteousness that judges and condemns what is not in accordance with our own understanding and divides the world into good and bad. A man with a sense of humour cannot but be compassionate in his heart, because his sense of proportion allows him to see things in their proper perspective. pp. 176-7.

"Events and facts become meaningful only if seen against the back¬ground of inner experience." 1970 p. xiv

"Personality consists in the power to influence others, and this power is due to consistency, harmony, and one-pointedness of character. If these qualities are present in an individual, in their highest perfection, then this individual is a fit leader of humanity, either as a ruler, a thinker, or a saint, and we recognize him as a vessel of divine power." p.297

This book will fill you with love, compassion, warmth and dreams.It will take you on an unforgettable journey through Tibet and this in turn will urge you to follow your dreams and not just your ambitions.Its written from the heart and written beauifully.I will be reading it again and again.Having been on a 21 day journey through Ladakh, I could almost relate to the author's experience.Its a truly wonderful and I urge all of you to partake in it.Tholing and Tsaparang, here I come..

Lama Govinda visited Tibet in times pre-chinese. His tale is of a personal character - and wonderfully so. It feels as if the author is present, when reading.
I have the book in German, purchased thru Amazon.de, and can highly recommend this to anyone who is able to read German fluently. It is, as said in the title of my review, a wonderfully poetic tale.

German born Lama Anagarika Govinda knows better than any other writer to describe the life in Tibet 1940-1960. He does this in a romantic way as he tells about his mystic adventures in one of the most fascinating cultures in the world , giving explanations about Tibetan Buddhism without ever getting bored. This book is a must and a jewel for any person who is interested in buddhism..

If you want to know what Tibet was like in the 1930s before the Chinese invasion, this book will give you an intelligent and detailed account of travel, nature and the meditative spiritual practices of that time. Anagarika Govinda has the highly educated mind of a German scholar and the depth of Buddhism from 20 years of Sri Lankan monastic education. This book leads you on a journey into a world that has been lived for thousands of years in Tibet but is totally hidden from the world now. I believe that there still exists this intense life of prayer and compassion some where in Tibet. It could not be exported into other countries and he explains why.
What this book made very clear to me is that religious practices are the same all over the world, just with different degrees of sincerity. I found information in Tibetan practices that I had learned already from Carlos Castaneda.
This book is a rare jewel. Andreya von Waldenfels

...to enjoy again and again-to recapture the spirit of a soulful journey-and keep with you- Govinda's sophistication merges beautifully with his reverential innocence...