Tutu: The Authorised Portrait is a celebration of eighty years of the life of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an icon whose humanity and compassion have touched the lives of millions around the world.

Born in Klerksdorp, South Africa, and trained as a teacher because his family could not afford to send him to medical school, Desmond Tutu was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1960. He vigorously opposed apartheid and has dedicated his life to fighting all forms of oppression, advocating non-violence, peaceful reconciliation and social justice for all.

This extraordinary book features a biography by legendary South African journalist Allister Sparks, authorised by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and includes over forty interviews conducted by Tutu's daughter Reverend Mpho Tutu with close family, friends, colleagues, comrades and critics.

Complemented by an unprecedented collection of images and unpublished artefacts drawn from Tutu's private files, this is a phenomenal story of one man's life-long commitment to the liberation of the oppressed. Includes interviews with Kofi Annan, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President Barack Obama.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama have been friends for many, many years. Between them, they have endured exile, violence and oppression. And in the face of these hardships, they have continued to radiate compassion, humour and above all, joy.

To celebrate His Holiness’s eightieth birthday, Archbishop Tutu travelled to the Dalai Lama’s home in Dharamsala. The two men spent a week discussing a single burning question: how do we find joy in the face of suffering?

This book is a gift from two of the most important spiritual figures of our time. Full of love, warmth and hope, The Book of Joy offers us the chance to experience their journey from first embrace to final goodbye.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships - or, as they would say, because of them - they are two of the most joyful people on the planet. In April 2015, Archbishop Tutu travelled to the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness's eightieth birthday and to create this book as a gift for others. They looked back on their long lives to answer a single burning question: how do we find joy in the face of life's inevitable suffering?

They traded intimate stories, teased each other continually, and shared their spiritual practices. By the end of a week filled with laughter and punctuated with tears, these two global heroes had stared into the abyss and despair of our times and revealed how to live a life brimming with joy.

This book offers us a rare opportunity to experience their astonishing and unprecedented week together, from the first embrace to the final goodbye.

Each one of us is responsible for all of humankind, and for the environment in which we live. . . . We must seek to lessen the suffering of others. Rather than working solely to acquire wealth, we need to do something meaningful, something seriously directed toward the welfare of humanity as a whole. To do this, you need to recognize that the whole world is part of you. --from "How to Be Compassionate"
The surest path to true happiness lies in being intimately concerned with the welfare of others. Or, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama would say, in "compassion."
In "How to Be Compassionate, "His Holiness reveals basic mistakes of attitude that lead us to inner turmoil, and how we can correct them to achieve a better tomorrow. He demonstrates precisely how opening our hearts and minds to other people is the best way to overcome the misguided ideas that are at the root of all our problems. He shows us how compassion can be a continuous wellspring of happiness in our own lives and how our newfound happiness can extend outward from us in ever wider and wider circles.
As we become more compassionate human beings, our friends, family, neighbors, loved ones--and even our enemies--will find themselves less frequently in the thrall of destructive emotions like anger, jealousy, and fear, prompting them to become more warmhearted, kind, and harmonious forces within their own circles. With simple language and startling clarity, His Holiness makes evident as never before that the path to global harmony begins in the hearts of individual women and men. Enlivened by personal anecdotes and intimate accounts of the Dalai Lama's experiences as a student, thinker, political leader, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, "How to Be Compassionate "gives seekers of all faiths the keys to overcoming anger, hatred, and selfishness-- the primary obstacles to happiness--and to becoming agents of positive transformation in our communities and the world at large.

"Peter Grieder has traveled from his home in the mountains of Europe and found inspiration among the great Himalayas. What unites the people that he met in Ladakh, Zanskar, Bhutan and Tibet is a remarkable sense of fortitude and contentment derived largely from a common culture rooted in Buddhism. One of the key elements of Buddhist teachings is the importance of the inner journey. No matter what external developments we may make in our world or what magnificent things we may see in it, without a corresponding inner development we will not find the happiness we ultimately seek. However, if each of us can journey within and develop a warm heart towards others and calm in our minds, there lies real hope for peace and joy in the world." (from the Foreword by the Dalai Lama)

Written in the 1990s after retirement from his services as a doctor and discovered by his daughter in the loft of their house in Darjeeling in India in 2017, this memoir of Dr. Tsewang Yishey Pemba provides an intricate portrayal of early twentieth-century Tibet. With his finger on the pulse of the Tibetan ethos, Pemba offers glimpses into the traditional sociology of Tibet and occasionally its snail-paced reforms, as well as the British Raj in India, while recollecting his young days in his native country. Pemba also draws information from prized sources like his fathers diaries and his conversations with Tibetan and British officials as well as people at the grassroots. His own metamorphosis, as he leaves Tibet in 1949 for higher education abroad, foreshadows the metamorphosis of Tibet and its inescapable fate in the decade that followed.

In this elegant self-portrait, an influential spiritual leader recounts his epic and engaging life story. The Dalai Lama's most accessible and intimate book, "My Spiritual Journey" is an excellent introduction to the larger-than-life leader of Tibetan Buddhism--perfect for anyone curious about Eastern religion, invested in the Free Tibet movement, or simply seeking a richer spiritual life. 304 pp.

From His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Mutt's cartoonist and award-winning author Patrick McDonnell comes a powerful and timely gem of a book on how to heal our relationship with the planet and each other. At the Dalai Lama's residence in Dharamsala, India, an unusual visitor has arrived. His Holiness interrupts his morning meditation to greet a troubled Giant Panda who has travelled many miles to see him. Welcoming him as a friend, His Holiness invites the Panda on a walk through a cedar forest. There in the shadow of the Himalayas, surrounded by beauty, they discuss matters great and small . . . With a galvanizing message about the future of our planet-text by His Holiness accompanied by McDonnell's masterful illustrations-Heart to Heart calls for a Compassionate Revolution, reminding us that "we are indeed all members of a single family, sharing one little house." Told with whimsy, wisdom, and warmth, this beautiful book is deceptively simple in its approach and all the more powerful for it, as it elegantly and decisively conveys a message of joy, hope and change. "There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called Yesterday, and one is called Tomorrow."

Unlike most books by the Dalai Lama which are edited compilations of talks that he has given, this book consists of two texts that he himself wrote and two that he chose--all especially aimed at helping Western readers become better grounded in Buddhism. He wrote "The Buddhism of Tibet" and "The Key to the Middle Way" sections to explain the principal topics and central practices of Buddhism. There are four sections to this compilation:
- "The Buddhism of Tibet" by the Dalai Lama: In this excellent introduction, the Dalai Lama explains the principal topics and central practices of Buddhism.
- "The Key to the Middle Way" by the Dalai Lama: The Dalai Lama leads the student to the discovery of the true meaning of emptiness. With acute precision, he presents many insights into the nature of"emptiness.
- "The Precious Garland" by Nagarjuna: Originally written for a king, this text is famous for its descriptions of the bodhisattva path of compassion and for its clear, concise analysis of the"Buddha's teachings on emptiness. It describes how to find happiness by cultivating virtues of body speech and mind and how to amass the stores of merit and wisdom required for enlightenment.
- "The Song of the Four Mindfulnesses" by the Seventh Dalai Lama Kaysang Gyatso: This short poem contains all the essentials of sutra and tantra. It is to be used as a basis for meditations on mindfulness of"the guru altruism deity yoga and emptiness.

This is the story of a young boy, born in Tibet to inherit the role of Buddhist lineage holder, whose life was interrupted by the Chinese army invasion and the ensuing Cultural Revolution. Two decades later, he walked out of Tibet and started on his journey of fully taking on leadership of the Drikung Kagyu lineage. Since then the teachings of this lineage have flourished and are practiced all around the world--after nearly being lost.

Helluva Job is Pulitzer Prize winner Lewis M. Simons's recollection of his 50 years as a foreign correspondent, one whose powerful stories contributed to transforming Asia from Vietnam War-era basket case to a global boomtown that today rivals the United States. Simons's investigative work led to the toppling of a dictator in the Philippines. He covered the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, bloody coups in Thailand, attempted genocide and societal collapse in Cambodia, and economic advance, decline and rebirth in Japan. He was expelled from India for his exclusive reporting on Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's political misuse of the armed forces. Breaking his own strict rule against becoming personally involved with people whose stories he covered, he saved the life of a dying teenaged Tibetan Buddhist monk. Simons molds the narrative of his lengthy, action-packed career from foxhole mud and backroom dirt. Layered with moments of tenderness and humor, as his camp-following family often accompanies him, the result is a masterful chronicle of war and murder; extreme poverty and suffering alongside repellent wealth and indulgence; wholesale larceny and ruling-class corruption-much of which escaped the scrutiny of other journalists. Readers who appreciate real-life historic drama will be enthralled.

The Seventh Dalai Lama wrote extensive commentaries on the Tantras and over a thousand mystical poems and prayers. "Meditations to Transform the Mind" is a highly valued collection of spiritual advice for taming and developing the mind.

A remarkable collection of Tibetan religious verse--of interest to students of any spiritual tradition.
The first major anthology of Tibetan spiritual poetry available in the West, "Songs of Spiritual Experience" offers original translations of fifty-two poems from all the traditions and schools of Tibetan Buddhism, spanning the eleventh to the twentieth centuries. These poems communicate spiritual insight with grace and precision, addressing the themes of impermanence, solitude, guru devotion, emptiness, mystic consciousness, and the path of awakening. Also included here is a thorough introduction exploring the characteristics of Tibetan verse and its role in Buddhism and a glossary containing notes on the poems.

"My Land and My People" tells the story of the Dalai Lama's life, as well providing a history of the shocking subjugation of the Tibetan people by the Chinese government. Rather than being an angry indictment, however, the book instead issues a gentle appeal for understanding and peace.

Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How do we get there? Many have asked these questions, and many have attempted to answer them. But there is another question Good Life, Good Death asks us to contemplate: how does the idea of life after death affect how we live our lives? Gelek Rimpoche tells stories of the mystical Tibet he lived in, as well as the contemporary America he is now a citizen of, and shares the wisdom of the great masters. He asks us to open our minds and see if we can entertain a bigger picture of life after life, even for a moment. He makes the connection between powerful emotions such as anger, obsession, jealousy and pride, and our past as well as our future.

Compassion's COMPASS: Strategies for Developing Kindness and Insight offers a systematic approach to developing compassionate insight that has been adapted from Tibetan mind training strategies, secularized for modern audiences, and supplemented with relevant research, anecdotes, and exercises in accessible language. This book contains easy exercises for regaining composure, boosting compassionate insight, preventing compassion fatigue, and maintaining compassion resilience. "COMPASS" is an acronym for "Compassion and Analytical Selective-Focus Skills". Selective-focus skills suggest contemplations that can help to generate and enhance compassionate insight. These exercises follow an "emotional logic" in which one step produces a basis for cultivating the next. These skill steps are broken down in detail within each section of the book containing a discussion of the purpose of the skill being presented, supporting research for it, examples of its use, and short exercises for the reader to try in order to cultivate and enhance it. These techniques have been piloted with social workers and therapists-in-training. Details of these pilot studies are included along with a handbook for helping professionals in the prevention and healing of compassion fatigue. The exercises that are presented in each chapter are also compiled in order for easy use in the handbook in back of the book.

Compassion's COMPASS: Strategies for Developing Kindness and Insight offers a systematic approach to developing compassionate insight that has been adapted from Tibetan mind training strategies, secularized for modern audiences, and supplemented with relevant research, anecdotes, and exercises in accessible language. This book contains easy exercises for regaining composure, boosting compassionate insight, preventing compassion fatigue, and maintaining compassion resilience. "COMPASS" is an acronym for "Compassion and Analytical Selective-Focus Skills". Selective-focus skills suggest contemplations that can help to generate and enhance compassionate insight. These exercises follow an "emotional logic" in which one step produces a basis for cultivating the next. These skill steps are broken down in detail within each section of the book containing a discussion of the purpose of the skill being presented, supporting research for it, examples of its use, and short exercises for the reader to try in order to cultivate and enhance it. These techniques have been piloted with social workers and therapists-in-training. Details of these pilot studies are included along with a handbook for helping professionals in the prevention and healing of compassion fatigue. The exercises that are presented in each chapter are also compiled in order for easy use in the handbook in back of the book.