Being Human and a Buddha Too

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“In fluid and engaging language, Being Human and a Buddha Too brings to the wider international audience a beautiful gem from the Tibetan tradition. Based on Longchenpa’s Sevenfold Mind Training, enriched by Adzom Rinpoche’s commentary, Anne Klein maps out a clear path to our natural state of wholeness. Rarely have I seen such a lucid and compelling account of the seeming paradox of being at the same time human, with all its failings, and a buddha, a fully enlightened being. This is a must for anyone who is interested in Tibetan Buddhism, especially in the key insights of Dzogchen teaching.” —Thupten Jinpa, PhD, author and translator of Essential Mind Training and Mind Training: The Great Collection, founder, Institute of Tibetan Classics, cofounder and chair, Compassion Institute

“Anne Klein, one of this generation’s most accomplished Buddhist scholar-practitioners and Tibetan translators, has done it again. If you are looking for a deep and accessible entry into the path of nonduality in the Buddhist tradition, this is it. Being Human and a Buddha Too gives us a wondrous glimpse into the deepest of all Buddhist teachings, demonstrating that each of us—no matter how flawed—can find the path back to wholeness. Her articulation of the Dzogchen view, emerging from decades of deep study and practice, is simply stunning. Readers, be forewarned . . . it is not an overstatement to say that Anne Klein’s work might wake you up!”—Willa Blythe Baker, founder and spiritual director of Natural Dharma Fellowship, author of The Wakeful Body: Somatic Mindfulness as a Path to Freedom

“Thorough, informative, and written like a narrative from a lifelong friend—Klein weaves theory and storytelling together in a graceful and exciting way. A wonderful collection of ancient voices from India to Tibet, gathered here in the pages to further dissipate the devious myth of separateness.”—Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness

“Contains a lifetime of meditation on our deeply human capacity for contemplation, reflections on our brokenness and wholeness, and insights into the vastness and intimacy of our lives. Anne Klein weaves together a rich tapestry of memories of her decade of living with Tibetan teachers, texts, ideas, practices, and inspirations; her own deeply poetic reflections on wholeness and separation; and Tibetan voices from the Great Perfection tradition from Longchenpa to Jigme Lingpa and Adzom Paylo Rinpoche, talking about the pathways that wind through karma and impermanence to wisdom and awakening. In the language of the tradition, this is a book written in the jeweled letters of hard-fought realization and the easy grace that precedes and follows it.”—David Germano, professor of Tibetan Buddhist studies and executive director of the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia

“Anyone who has even thought about a practice or whose mind has alighted even once on the paths of buddhas and bodhisattvas will benefit from this book. Read Longchenpa’s fourteenth-century Sevenfold Mind Training in its simplicity, and ordinary experience will become a door to wholeness. Then read the oral commentaries by Adzom Rinpoche and Anne Klein to find elegant insights on Dzogchen. The best of Indian, Tibetan, and Western traditions are strung together in this book—a garland of clear jewels that cannot help but reflect the open sky.”—Laurie Patton, professor of religion and president, Middlebury College, author of Bringing the Gods to Mind and House Crossing: Poems, and translator of The Bhagavad Gita

BEING HUMAN AND A BUDDHA TOO

Longchenpa’s Sevenfold Mind Training for a Sunlit Sky

Anne C. Klein

In writing that sparkles and inspires, Anne Klein (Lama Rigzin Drolma) shows us how to liberate our buddha nature to be both human and a buddha too.

This first volume in the House of Adzom series centers on Longchenpa’s seven trainings in bodhicitta, our awakened mind, the ultimate purpose of our practice and training. Anne Klein’s original composition masterfully weaves in Adzom Paylo Rinpoche’s commentary and Jigme Lingpa’s five pith practices and commentary on the trainings, in keeping with Longchenpa’s skillful integration of sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen, to resolve our most challenging questions about what awakening involves and how it relates to the truth of our human situation right now. As foundational teachings for Dzogchen practitioners, the seven trainings are framed as contemplations on impermanence, the adventitiousness of happiness and its short duration, the multiple causes of death, the meaninglessness of our worldly activities, reliance on the Buddha’s good qualities, the teacher’s pith instructions, and ultimately nonconceptual meditation on bliss and emptiness, clarity and emptiness, and reality itself.

 

book information
  • Paperback
  • 258 pages, 6 x 9 inches
  • $19.95
  • ISBN 9781614297581
  • ebook
  • 258 pages
  • $14.99
  • ISBN 9781614297772
about the author
Being Human and a Buddha Too

Anne C. Klein is a professor and former chair of the religion department at Rice University. She is also a lama in the Nyingma tradition and a founding director and resident teacher of Dawn Mountain, a center for contemplative study and practice in Houston. Her publications include Path to the Middle, Unbounded Wholeness (coauthored with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche), Knowledge and Liberation, Strand of Jewels, and Being Human and a Buddha Too (Wisdom, 2023).

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