Dear Lama Zopa: Radical Solutions for Transforming Problems into Happiness - Softcover

Zopa Rinpoche, Lama Thubten

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0861712897 ISBN 13: 9780861712892

Publisher: Wisdom Publications, 2007

Synopsis

Unconventional wisdom, affirmation, and advice from one of Tibetan Buddhism's most influential living teachers.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a master at explaining Buddhism's radical but effective methods for transforming suffering into happiness, which have been practiced and taught by Tibetans for a thousand years. It's a challenging way to think - how can it be that the things that cause us pain are actually blessings?

In Dear Lama Zopa, Rinpoche applies that challenge to our everyday, real-life problems - from the littlest to the biggest. Every year he receives thousands of letters from people around the world asking for advice - on coping with everything from addiction, grief, and depression, to war, terrorism, and death.

In his detailed and deeply caring responses to these letters, reproduced here, Rinpoche shows again and again that the best method for solving our problems is to radically change the way we perceive them; that by emphasizing their inner causes we can even change the resulting outer circumstances.

Even people familiar with notions like karma and reincarnation, which imply that we are the creators of our own experiences, may find the advice difficult. Yet uncountable thousands of people of all backgrounds have put Rinpoche's loving guidance into practice - and have seen real and positive change in their lives. Now, with Dear Lama Zopa, you can see for yourself...

About this title

About the Author:

Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche is the Spiritual Director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a worldwide network of Buddhist centers, monasteries, and affiliated projects, including Wisdom Publications. Rinpoche was born in 1946 in the village of Thami in the Solo Khumbu region of Nepal near Mount Everest. His books include Transforming Problems into Happiness, How to Be Happy, and Ultimate Healing. He lives in Aptos, California.

Ordained since the late 1970s, Ven. Robina has worked full time since then for Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche's FPMT. Over the years she has served as editorial director of Wisdom Publications, editor of Mandala Magazine, executive director of Liberation Prison Project, and as a touring teacher of Buddhism. Her life and work with prisoners have been featured in the documentary films Chasing Buddha and Key to Freedom.

Review:

"An absolute jewel of a book, packed with unbelievably precious advice." Source: Mandala

"A wise and inspiring teacher." Source: Utne Reader

"Dear Lama Zopa presents this teacher's intriguing and often helpful correspondence with students who have asked for guidance on topics ranging from addiction to war. Lama Zopa Rinpoche consistently responds with frankness and compassion and repeatedly stresses that the conditions in which we find ourselves are the results of our own karma, and, as a corollary, that we have the ability to improve our own existence. Moreover, he drives home the message that our personal circumstances are meaningful only in so far as they are opportunities to develop and practice compassion for self and other." Source: Buddhadharma

About this edition

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0861712897
• ISBN 13: 9780861712892
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Courtin Robina, Finnegan Diana, Bernard Michelle