The Door of Liberation: Essential Teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition - Softcover

Geshe Thupten Wangyal

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0861710320 ISBN 13: 9780861710324

Publisher: Wisdom Publications,U.S., 1998

This book contains seven fundamental Buddhist texts considered essential to Western students by Geshe Wangyal, who first brought Tibetan Buddhism to America. Ranging from early scriptural sources to meditation and visualization guides of Tibetan Buddhist practice, this is indispensible reading for those interested in opening the door to the highest realms of freedom, wisdom, and compassion.

Review:

"A truly fine introduction to Tibetan Buddhism as a way of life and thought... The venerable geshe selects a mosaic of teachings that provides useful keys to liberation for the contemporary reader." --Robert A.F. Thurman, Columbia University

"The scholar-adept Geshe Wangyal was the first to bring Tibetan Buddhism to America. He had extraordinary love and humor as well as ferocity. He taught untiringly... To live with him was to live with emptiness." --Jeffrey Hopkins, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia

About the Author:

Geshe Wangyal (1902-1983), who arrived in the U.S. in 1955, founded the first Tibetan monastery open to Americans. Many of his earliest student have become leading Buddhist scholors, teachers, and practitioners.
Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He frequently describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. Born in northeastern Tibet in 1935, he was as a toddler recognized as the incarnation of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and brought to Tibet's capital, Lhasa. In 1950, Mao Zedong's Communist forces made their first incursions into eastern Tibet, shortly after which the young Dalai Lama assumed the political leadership of his country. He passed his scholastic examinations with honors at the Great Prayer Festival in Lhasa in 1959, the same year Chinese forces occupied the city, forcing His Holiness to escape to India. There he set up the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, working to secure the welfare of the more than 100,000 Tibetan exiles and prevent the destruction of Tibetan culture. In his capacity as a spiritual and political leader, he has traveled to more than sixty-two countries on six continents and met with presidents, popes, and leading scientists to foster dialogue and create a better world. In recognition of his tireless work for the nonviolent liberation of Tibet, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. In 2012, he relinquished political authority in his exile government and turned it over to democratically elected representatives.
His Holiness frequently states that his life is guided by three major commitments: the promotion of basic human values or secular ethics in the interest of human happiness, the fostering of interreligious harmony, and securing the welfare of the Tibetan people, focusing on the survival of their identity, culture, and religion. As a superior scholar trained in the classical texts of the Nalanda tradition of Indian Buddhism, he is able to distill the central tenets of Buddhist philosophy in clear and inspiring language, his gift for pedagogy imbued with his infectious joy. Connecting scientists with Buddhist scholars, he helps unite contemplative and modern modes of investigation, bringing ancient tools and insights to bear on the acute problems facing the contemporary world. His efforts to foster dialogue among leaders of the world's faiths envision a future where people of different beliefs can share the planet in harmony. Wisdom Publications is proud to be the premier publisher of the Dalai Lama's more serious and in-depth works.

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications,U.S.
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0861710320
• ISBN 13: 9780861710324
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 264
• Editor: Geshe Thupten Wangyal