A clear-headed and relatable guidebook for navigating the student-teacher relationship by one of the first female Buddhist teachers in the West. All major forms of Buddhism stress the need for a teacher. However, the importance of having a guide or guru is sometimes a source of cultural and spiritual confusion as Buddhism expands in the West. A clear understanding of the Buddhist view of the guru is essential for the student-teacher relationship to be beneficial for one's spiritual growth. Collecting over fifty years of personal experiences as both a student and a teacher, Shenpen Hookham writes candidly of the opportunities and challenges facing modern Dharma students in the West who wish to study with a teacher. Traditional texts often do not reflect how the student-teacher relationship manifests in practice, which leaves many pressing questions and a great deal of confusion in communities taking root in the West. With honesty and clarity, Hookham discusses the roles of the teacher, practices related to the guru, and commonly asked questions she receives as a teacher. This handbook is the first of its kind, breaking down in a pragmatic and relatable way everything you need to know to enter a student-teacher relationship with open eyes and an open heart.

This book is currently intended as an internal training book for the Awakened Heart Sangha, the community of Lama Shenpen's students. It may be republished in another format later for the wider public.

A clear-headed and relatable guidebook for navigating the student-teacher relationship by one of the first female Buddhist teachers in the West. All major forms of Buddhism stress the need for a teacher. However, the importance of having a guide or guru is sometimes a source of cultural and spiritual confusion as Buddhism expands in the West. A clear understanding of the Buddhist view of the guru is essential for the student-teacher relationship to be beneficial for one's spiritual growth. Collecting over fifty years of personal experiences as both a student and a teacher, Shenpen Hookham writes candidly of the opportunities and challenges facing modern Dharma students in the West who wish to study with a teacher. Traditional texts often do not reflect how the student-teacher relationship manifests in practice, which leaves many pressing questions and a great deal of confusion in communities taking root in the West. With honesty and clarity, Hookham discusses the roles of the teacher, practices related to the guru, and commonly asked questions she receives as a teacher. This handbook is the first of its kind, breaking down in a pragmatic and relatable way everything you need to know to enter a student-teacher relationship with open eyes and an open heart.

In this time of confusion and cynicism about spiritual authority, Andrew Cohen speaks with unusual candour and passion about his own experience as a spiritual mentor and the rare challenge that this role presents when lived without compromise.

Tathagatagarbha -- Buddha Nature -- is a central concept of Mahayana Buddhism crucial to all the living practice traditions of Tibetan and Zen Buddhism. Its relationship to the concept of emptiness has been a subject of controversy for seven hundred years. Dr. Hookam's work investigates the divergent interpretations of these concepts and the way the Tibetan tradition is resolving them. In particular she does this with reference to the only surviving Indian commentary on the Tathagatagarbha doctrine, the Ratnagotravibhaga. This text addresses itself directly to the issue of how to relate the doctrine of emptiness (the illusory nature of the world) to that of the truly existing, changeless Absolute (the Buddha Nature). This is the first work by a Western writer to present an analysis of the Shentong tradition based on previously untranslated sources. The Shentong view rests on meditative experience that is inaccessible to the conceptualizing mind. It is deeply rooted in the sutra tradition of Indian Buddhism and is central to an understanding of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions and Tantric practice among Kagyupas and Hyingmapas.

"Armed with wit, insight, and truly astonishing research, Falk utterly demolishes the notion of the enlightened guru who can lead devotees to nirvana.--John Horgan, author of "Rational Mysticism."

This collection of original essays on Yoga in honour of Professor Gerald James Larson provides fascinating new insights into the yoga traditions of India as a historical and pluralistic phenomenon flourishing in a variety of religious and philosophical contexts.