Buddhist philosophy is concerned with defining and overcoming the limitations and errors of perception. To do this is essential to Buddhism's purpose of establishing a method for attaining liberation. Conceptual thought in this view can lead to a liberating understanding, a transformative religious experience. The author discusses the workings of both direct and conceptual cognition, drawing on a variety of Tibetan and Indian texts. The Gelukba interpretation of Dignaga and Dharmakirti is greatly at variance with virtually all other scholarship concerning these seminal Buddhist logicians.

Tibetan medicine holistically restores and maintains balance of the body's various systems through a variety of treatments, including diet, behavior modification, and the use of medicine and accessory therapy. Tibetan medicine is delicately responsive to patients' complete symptom patterns--no complaint being disregarded. Its wide variety of curative techniques are clearly explained. Dr. Donden's book was seen on NBC's "Dateline "during a feature on Tibetan medicine and breast cancer.

Fearless Simplicity is about training in the awakened state of mind, the atmosphere within which all difficulties naturally dissolve. Here, the gifted Tibetan meditation master and author of Carefree Dignity, Drubwang Tsoknyi Rinpoche, in his exceptional and skillful teaching style, guides us through the methods to be at ease with our surroundings and ourselves. He shows us how to de¬velop confidence and be in harmony with every situation as the basis for true compassion and intelligence.
As confidence grows stronger, you find yourself turning into a real warrior -- a compassionate bodhisattva warrior. The true bodhi¬sattva spirit grows out of this personal sense of freedom. With this sense of security and freedom, you begin to direct your attention to the needs of others. The compassion expands. This is my point about inner simplicity as the basis for living fearlessly in a complex world. We are now open and spacious and from within that sense of fearless simplicity, you can accommodate all phenomena. You can naturally care for others unpretentiously; no one is a threat any longer.
-- Drubwang Tsoknyi Rinpoche

Following the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, the People's Republic of China gradually permitted the renewal of religious activity. Tibetans, whose traditional religious and cultural institutions had been decimated during the preceding two decades, took advantage of the decisions of 1978 to begin a Buddhist renewal that is one of the most extensive and dramatic examples of religious revitalization in contemporary China. The nature of that revival is the focus of this book. Four leading specialists in Tibetan anthropology and religion conducted case studies in the Tibet autonomous region and among the Tibetans of Sichuan and Qinghai provinces. There they observed the revival of the Buddhist heritage in monastic communities and among laypersons at popular pilgrimages and festivals. Demonstrating how that revival must contend with tensions between the Chinese state and aspirations for greater Tibetan autonomy, the authors discuss ways that Tibetan Buddhists are restructuring their religion through a complex process of social, political, and economic adaptation. Buddhism has long been the main source of Tibetans' pride in their culture and country. These essays reveal the vibrancy of that ancient religion in contemporary Tibet and also the problems that religion and Tibetan culture in general are facing in a radically altered world.

The Dalai Lama has represented Buddhism as a religion of non-violence, compassion, and world peace, but this does not reflect how monks learn their vocation. This book shows how monasteries use harsh methods to make monks of men, and how this tradition is changing as modernist reformers - like the Dalai Lama - adopt liberal and democratic ideals, such as natural rights and individual autonomy. In the first in-depth account of disciplinary practices at a Tibetan monastery in India, Michael Lempert looks closely at everyday education rites - from debate to reprimand and corporal punishment. His analysis explores how the idioms of violence inscribed in these socialization rites help produce educated, moral persons but in ways that trouble Tibetans who aspire to modernity. Bringing the study of language and social interaction to our understanding of Buddhism for the first time, Lempert shows and why liberal ideals are being acted out by monks in India, offering a provocative alternative view of liberalism as a globalizing discourse.

Chogyam Trungpa's unique ability to express the essence of Buddhist teachings in the language and imagery of modern American culture makes his books among the most accessible works of Buddhist philosophy. Here Trungpa explores the true meaning of freedom, showing us how our preconceptions, attitudes, and even our spiritual practices can become chains that bind us to repetitive patterns of frustration and despair. This edition features a new foreword by Pema Chodron, a close student of Trungpa and the best-selling author of "When Things Fall Apart. "

This title is a continuation of the ideas explored by the author in a previous title Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior. There, the author offers a practical guide to enlightened living, or nowness. In Great Eastern Sun, he asks how nowness can be extended to the future.

"The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way " was written in the second century and is one of the most important works of Nagarjuna, the pioneering commentator on the Buddha's teachings on the Madhyamika or Middle Way view. The subtle analyses presented in this treatise were closely studied and commented upon by many realized masters from the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Using Nagarjuna's root text and the great modern master Ju Mipham's commentary as a framework, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso explains the most important verse from each chapter in the text in a style that illuminates for modern students both the meaning of these profound teachings and how to put them into practice in a way that benefits both oneself and others.

Sixteenth-century wall paintings in a Buddhist temple in the Tibetan cultural zone of northwest India are the focus of this innovative and richly illustrated study. Initially shaped by one set of religious beliefs, the paintings have since been reinterpreted and retraced by a later Buddhist community, subsumed within its religious framework and communal memory. Melissa Kerin traces the devotional, political, and artistic histories that have influenced the paintings' production and reception over the centuries of their use. Her interdisciplinary approach combines art historical methods with inscriptional translation, ethnographic documentation, and theoretical inquiry to understand religious images in context.

In these teachings, Dudjom Rinpoche calls upon us to follow the Buddha's instructions to "get a grip on our minds". He points the way to giving up our habitual ways of behaving in order to liberate ourselves from suffering. He also offers advice on how to view the Vajrayana teachings - which are said to be so powerful that they can be dangerous if misunderstood or practised incorrectly. This is a useful book of wisdom from an influential teacher.

A complete translation of Asanga's classic work on the distinguishing qualities of bodhisattvas that describes how to awaken, develop, and perfect the mind of enlightenment in the Great Vehicle, or Mahayana, Buddhist tradition. Arya Asanga, famous for having been the conduit through which the teachings contained in the Five Texts of Maitreya were received and recorded, is also considered to be the author in his own right of several other foundational works of Yog c ra philosophy. One of these, considered the definitive text of the Yog c ra school of Buddhism, is the encyclopedic synthesis of Mahayana Buddhist doctrines and practices known as the "Yog c rabh mi, " or "Stages of Spiritual Practice." The "Bodhisattvabh mi," or "Stages of the Bodhisattva Path," is one portion of that massive work, though it is considered a stand-alone text in the Tibetan traditions--for example, it is counted among the six core texts of the Kadampas. However, despite the text's centrality to the Yog c ra school and its seminal importance in the Tibetan traditions, it has remained unavailable in English except in piecemeal translations; Engle's translation will therefore be especially welcomed by scholars and students alike."

Happily, we do not have to remain trapped by the past. His Holiness reveals how life-enhancing Buddhist practices, as relevant today as they have ever been, can help us break free from the cycles of suffering that ensnare us. He encourages us to broaden our outlook and to adjust our personal values. And he gives us the tools to deal with any negative emotions we may experience in the process. Practical, step-by-step exercises, steeped in wisdom, show how to make the most of each moment; how to undo the negative effects of past deeds; and how you can enjoy spiritual growth and find deep inner happiness.

This book is unique in the way in which it explains the rich iconography of Tibetan Buddhism in relation to spiritual psychology and the exploration of our inner world. It is a door into the rich and profound symbolism of Tibetan sacred art. The author uses concepts from Western psychotherapy to bridge an understanding of the meaning and functions of these symbols.