Get our latest staff recommendations, award news and digital catalog links right to your inbox.
Meditation for Modern Madness
Published by Wisdom Publications
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
You are already enlightened.
You don’t need to get enlightened again or to make your enlightenment better. It’s not something you have to create or believe in. You just need to recognize who you already are.
Dzogchen is an ancient Tibetan tradition that is perfect for countering the stress of our modern lives. A simple and quick method, Dzogchen is practical and direct, and open to us all—you simply need to recognize the great potential that is naturally born within everyone.
In his highly anticipated first book, the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche, Jigme Losel Wangpo, shows us how our everyday lives can be turned into spiritual practice—not only to ease our stress, but to allow the true nature of our minds to reveal itself, right now, on the spot. The Dzogchen view is the highest view, the view from the top of the mountain. We need to build a platform that will hold the view, and Dzogchen Rinpoche provides the meditations and advice for living that will help you do just that. In turn, you’ll find true peace in a mind at rest.
You don’t need to get enlightened again or to make your enlightenment better. It’s not something you have to create or believe in. You just need to recognize who you already are.
Dzogchen is an ancient Tibetan tradition that is perfect for countering the stress of our modern lives. A simple and quick method, Dzogchen is practical and direct, and open to us all—you simply need to recognize the great potential that is naturally born within everyone.
In his highly anticipated first book, the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche, Jigme Losel Wangpo, shows us how our everyday lives can be turned into spiritual practice—not only to ease our stress, but to allow the true nature of our minds to reveal itself, right now, on the spot. The Dzogchen view is the highest view, the view from the top of the mountain. We need to build a platform that will hold the view, and Dzogchen Rinpoche provides the meditations and advice for living that will help you do just that. In turn, you’ll find true peace in a mind at rest.
Excerpt
Preface
The ancient wisdom of Dzogchen has been kept isolated for many years in the Himalayas, without being connected to the lay community. That has been a little bit frustrating for me. I remember saying twenty years ago, “We have to break this habit and connect it to the people who really need these teachings.” Western students have very busy and stressful lives, with family obligations, jobs, kids, and mental and physical stress of all kinds. Dzogchen is the excellent teaching for this sort of time and for this sort of people, rather than the monks in the monasteries, who have a very easy life already. They have received an overload of teachings, while the lay community hasn’t had access to the teachings at all for a long time. I was told, “Oh, they don’t need that, they won’t understand it.” I thought this was a little bit odd, which is why I decided, around fourteen years ago, to change that. I said, “I’m going to teach Western people to understand this, it’s very important for them. They should have access to philosophy, meditation, and rituals. They should all have access.”
It’s a great opportunity that lay people, particularly in Western societies, have access to the Buddhist teachings, particularly to Dzogchen. Dzogchen is very simple compared to other teachings. You don’t need to spend thirty years in a monastery to learn it. I don’t think you have that time. You may have time to go into retreat for five days a year, or for two weeks a year, or something like that, but you have your jobs and family commitments for the rest of the time. How will you find lasting happiness and enlightenment in that short period of time?
This can only be attained through Dzogchen, nothing else. I am introducing this simple and quick method because it is very, very practical and everyone can practice it. You simply need to recognize the great potential that is naturally born within everyone. You are already enlightened. You don’t need to get enlightened again or to make your enlightenment better. It's not something you have to create or believe in. You just need to recognize who you already are. It’s quite simple.
His Eminence the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche,
Jigme Losel Wangpo
The ancient wisdom of Dzogchen has been kept isolated for many years in the Himalayas, without being connected to the lay community. That has been a little bit frustrating for me. I remember saying twenty years ago, “We have to break this habit and connect it to the people who really need these teachings.” Western students have very busy and stressful lives, with family obligations, jobs, kids, and mental and physical stress of all kinds. Dzogchen is the excellent teaching for this sort of time and for this sort of people, rather than the monks in the monasteries, who have a very easy life already. They have received an overload of teachings, while the lay community hasn’t had access to the teachings at all for a long time. I was told, “Oh, they don’t need that, they won’t understand it.” I thought this was a little bit odd, which is why I decided, around fourteen years ago, to change that. I said, “I’m going to teach Western people to understand this, it’s very important for them. They should have access to philosophy, meditation, and rituals. They should all have access.”
It’s a great opportunity that lay people, particularly in Western societies, have access to the Buddhist teachings, particularly to Dzogchen. Dzogchen is very simple compared to other teachings. You don’t need to spend thirty years in a monastery to learn it. I don’t think you have that time. You may have time to go into retreat for five days a year, or for two weeks a year, or something like that, but you have your jobs and family commitments for the rest of the time. How will you find lasting happiness and enlightenment in that short period of time?
This can only be attained through Dzogchen, nothing else. I am introducing this simple and quick method because it is very, very practical and everyone can practice it. You simply need to recognize the great potential that is naturally born within everyone. You are already enlightened. You don’t need to get enlightened again or to make your enlightenment better. It's not something you have to create or believe in. You just need to recognize who you already are. It’s quite simple.
His Eminence the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche,
Jigme Losel Wangpo
About The Author
His Eminence the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche, Jigme Losel Wangpo, is the holder of the Dzogchen lineage. Rinpoche began his spiritual training at the Nyingma Institute, where he received private teachings from Dodrupchen Rinpoche and Khenpo Rahor Thupten. At the age of twelve, Dzogchen Rinpoche was invited to study at the Buddhist School of Dialectics in Dharamsala by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, who personally supervised his education. Dzogchen Rinpoche excelled as a scholar and obtained the title of Rabjampa at the age of nineteen. He displayed a great capacity to realize the highest teachings across both the Nyingma and Gelug traditions and was ahead of the rest of his class despite being much younger than his fellow students. This vigorous training prepared Dzogchen Rinpoche for his role of leading Dzogchen Monastery a few years later at the age of twenty-one.
The Dzogchen Rinpoches are known as the guardians of the Dzogchen lineage and are responsible for the preservation of its ancient rituals and teachings. Rinpoche travels the world teaching the Khandro Nyingthig and he preserves the authentic rituals of this wisdom tradition that is so beneficial for the modern world through the activities of Dzogchen Monastery. As holder of one of the remaining unbroken spiritual traditions in the world, His Eminence the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche is an authentic guide revealing to us our true nature and showing us, through his example, that we have everything we need within ourselves to unlock our own inherent wisdom.
Product Details
- Publisher: Wisdom Publications (September 10, 2024)
- Length: 232 pages
- ISBN13: 9781614299486
Browse Related Books
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Meditation for Modern Madness Trade Paperback 9781614299486
- Author Photo (jpg): Dzogchen Rinpoche (0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit
