Product Description

This much-awaited first English edition of Jamgon Kongtrul's autobiography is refreshingly real and has a ready audience among Western followers of Tibetan Buddhism. In addition to its inspirational value, Kongtrul's story, is a rich source of information on the religion, culture, and political climate of Tibet during his times.

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye (1813-1899) was one of the most influential figures and prolific writers in the Tibetan Buddhist world. He was a founder and the single most important proponent of the nonsectarian movement that flourished in eastern Tibet and remains popular today. Two additional texts are included which discuss his previous lives and recount Kongtrul's final days.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #738635 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 544 pages

Review
The core autobiography presents a treasure trove of nuanced allusion and insight. -- The Tibet Journal

From the Author
This much-awaited first English edition of Jamgon Kongtrul's autobiography is refreshingly real and has a ready audience among Western followers of Tibetan Buddhism. In addition to its inspirational value, Kongtrul's story, is a rich source of information on the religion, culture, and political climate of Tibet during his times.

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye (1813-1899) was one of the most influential figures and prolific writers in the Tibetan Buddhist world. He was a founder and the single most important proponent of the nonsectarian movement that flourished in eastern Tibet and remains popular today. Two additional texts are included which discuss his previous lives and recount Kongtrul's final days.

From the Inside Flap
This much-awaited first English translation of Jamgon Kongtrul's autobiography is refreshingly real. In addition to its inspirational value, Kongtrul's story is a rich source of information on the religion, culture, and political climate of Tibet during his times.

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé (1813-1899) was one of the most influential figures and prolific writers in the Tibetan Buddhist world. He was a founder and the single most important proponent of the nonsectarian movement that flourished in eastern Tibet and remains popular today.

Also included with the autobiography are two additional texts: one, authored by Kongtrul himself, discusses the past masters of whom he was considered to be an emanation; the second was written by one of Kongtrul's close personal students and recounts Kongtrul's final days, his funeral, and the commemorative rites following his death. Taken together, these three texts place Kongtrul firmly within a historical context as one of the most important figures in the history of Tibetan Buddhism.

Customer Reviews

Get a complete picture of Tibetan Buddhism as a whole
From the foreword by ven. Ringu Tulku: "If one wants to get a complete picture of Tibetan Buddhism as a whole, especially from an inner perspective, I think there is no book more important to read than The Autobiography of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great. This is the autobiography of a yogi who studied, practiced, and found the essence of each and every spiritual path in Tibet. Jamgön Kongtrul was a true saint, a great scholar, an exemplary teacher, a renowned physician, a peacemaker, and one of the most prolific writers of Tibet. The Five Great Treasuries of Kongtrul, which comprise over one hundred volumes of a thousand pages each, enshrine all the wisdom of Tibet. It is so very easy to see that if he did not compile, transmit, and publish these teachings, most of them would have been lost during the recent turmoil in Tibet.
"Jamgön Kongtrul's greatest contribution, though, is seen as being the Ri-mé movement that he and Jamyang Kyentsé Wangpo revived, a movement that is actually the essence of the Buddhist approach. (...)"

In the introduction to "Creation and Completion; Essential Points of Tantric Meditation" the enormity of Kongtrul's contribution is aptly expressed by the following quotation from the late Dudjom Rinpoche: "So if we examine Jamgön Kongtrul's career (...) it is as if he spent his whole life as an author. None the less, if one thinks of his teaching and propagation of the empowerments, guidance, esoteric instructions, recitational transmissions, and so forth (...) it is as if he spent his whole life teaching and propagating. And, if one investigates how (...) he experientially cultivated the stages of creation and perfection associated with inconceivable myriads of mandalas, it seems as if he passed the length of his life in a retreat house sealed up with mud. Likewise, if one considers (...) his legacy in connection with the ten modes of doctrinal conduct, it is as if he passed his whole life diligently engaged in the sphere of work and activity. In these ways [his career] was inconceivable, within only the reach of those who are truly sublime."

RE:A great gem
A great book that impresses you with the life of a siddha.After reading the book, your faith to your guru will be aroused so much!All the bodhisattva acts of the 1st Jamgon rinpoche should be rememebered by the practitioners of all lineages.He's a good example for ALL.