Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67949 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 389 pages

Synopsis
Drawing on Buddhist spirituality and wisdom, this is a view of the world written for Western seekers.

From the Publisher
Lama Surya Das, the most highly trained American Lama in the Tibetan tradition, presents the first definitive book of Western Buddhism from the ground up, combining wisdom and practical teaching for the modern-day spiritual seeker.

From the Back Cover
Lama Surya Das, the most highly trained American Lama in the Tibetan tradition, presents the first definitive book of Western Buddhism from the ground up, combining wisdom and practical teaching for the modern-day spiritual seeker.

In this comprehensive book, Lama Surya Das provides a bridge between East and West, past, present and future, making sacred and profound Tibetan teachings clear and easily accessible for anyone who wants to lead a more enlightened and sane life. Utilizing the unique Buddhist guidelines embodied in the Noble Eight Fold Path and the traditional Three Enlightenment Trainings of Virtue, Meditation and Wisdom, he elucidates the tried and true path of spiritual transformation - including key principles such as karma, rebirth and mind-training, as well as the highest, most secret teaching of Tibet, Dzogchen.

In this wonderful marriage of the practical and the profound, Lama Surya Das reveals how sacred wisdom can be integrated into our busy lives. He offers a unique approach to the comprehensive wisdom of ancient Tibetan teachings on conscious living and dying and shows that the power of the Buddha is resting within us all.

Customer Reviews

Fly like a guru
Buddhist practitioners can levitate. They can see the future. When they die, their bodies turn to light.

So claims Surya Das.

I genuinely enjoyed Awakening the Buddha Within. The book is a primer on Buddhism, with a chapter on the Four Noble Truths, and one each on the Eightfold Path, clearly explained and illustrated for the western reader making his or her first encounter with Buddhism. Surya Das' writing is breezy and conversational, an easy-to-read style that keeps you turning the pages. Das doesn't get bogged down in the minutiae of theology or philosophy and personalizes his teachings by relating relevant stories from his own life and his own search for meaning. As much "what is," the book also offers "how to" in the form of simple meditations and other exercises, such as keeping a dream journal or a journal of favorite spiritual quotations, simple steps to for helping build new awareness.

As much as I liked the book, I also found some fairly outlandish claims within, such as the section on Lucid Dreaming, in which Das writes that we can multiply our bodies, travel to heavenly realms to receive special spiritual teachings, and that he himself was able through such practices to see into the future.

He sets us up early on by letting us know that such super human powers, while manifest among the Buddhist elite, are ultimately mere distractions along the path.

================QUOTE================
Seekers, curious about the unknown, might want to know more about levitation, conscious dying, lucid dreaming, astral travel, rainbow bodies, and clairvoyance. However, that's not finally what it's all about. The Buddha did perform certain miracles, but he always instructed his disciples not to demonstrate miraculous powers except to inspire faith in the skeptical. Lamas say the same thing. The magical, mysterious and occult are special effects that can be produced, but it's not the whole story. The miracle of Buddhism is a miracle of love, not levitation. [pp 12-13]
==============END QUOTE==============

As we're only on page 12, it might be reasonable to expect some future explication of such feats, but the only thing I recall reading is a couple of paragraphs in the last quarter of the book, in the section on Lucid Dreaming.

================QUOTE================
By seizing a dream we can perform spiritual activities, multiply our bodies, as well as go to pure realms of existence to receive teachings and blessings from Buddhas, transcendent Bodhisattvas, and saintly sages. In this way we train to master altered states and different ways of being, including astral travel and other out-of-body experiences.... With guidance from my teachers, ... I was able to get some indication of future events and to understand certain signs, portents and omens. [pp 330-331]
==============END QUOTE==============

Amazing.

Perhaps not so amazing for a Tibetan who's grown up listening to stories about such super-human feats. But Tibetans are not likely to be reading this book, at least not in large numbers. This book is for Europeans and North Americans, the people most likely on planet Earth to be skeptical - and curious - about such claims.

And yet Das provides no evidence, no proof, not even an accounting of what he experienced or what he witnessed. For over 300 pages he covers the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path, a topic that is covered by most authors in a few pages. Das' account is padded with quotations, examples, stories, and illustrations, from the lives of saints, from every day life, from his own life. But here - nothing. He falls strangely silent.

I do not claim that such feats are impossible. They certainly may be. But Das' refusal to engage the subject makes it seem he has something to hide, which in turn casts a shadow of doubt across the rest of what is a well-written introduction to Buddhism. If he can't talk to us honestly about this, then what else can't he discuss openly? What else might he be hiding?

I know of no evidence demonstrating these powers or abilities. If Das does, then he owes it to his readers to explain.

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Tibetan Buddhism for Beginners
Lama Surya Das does a good job of introducing the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Many people see Buddhism as an exotic Eastern tradition without any relevance to our lives here and now. However, one need not embrace Buddhism to gain much from Buddhist concepts. This book is a little soft on certain concepts (like reincarnation). However, this book is meant for one not already deeply involved in the practice of Buddhism, so maybe it's better that way. I also highly recommend "Open Your Mind, Open Your Life: A Book of Eastern Wisdom" by Taro Gold. Excellent.

A book for those who believe that there must be more
I have read this book several times till today and I think I will reread it, because it simply has offered to me a new perspective about the meaning of life and our daily issues. This perspective was at the beginning in some ways quite new to me, but I noticed that from the beginning on, it started to change my life,my behavior patterns and help me a great deal. This book does not only provide an insight to how we live our lives and what make us suffer here but also encourages and shows us how we can get in touch with our innate nature , purify our minds and improve our ways to live "our lives". This is exciting and worth to try.