Awakening The Luminous Mind: Tibetan Meditation for Inner Peace and Joy

by Tenzin Wangyal

Awakening the Luminous Mind is the third book of guided meditation practices in a series by the acclaimed author and teacher, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Tenzin Rinpoche will guide you to bring these simple practices into your everyday life by turning inward and finding what he calls your “inner refuge.” By this he means boundless space, infinite awareness, and the qualities that arise that have the power to transform your life. As you follow the principles in this book and complimentary CD, you will discover greater creativity and intelligence, liberation from suffering, understanding and connectivity, and freedom from the ego that strives to control our life experiences.

Genres: Meditation, Spirituality, Buddhism, Nonfiction, Religion, Psychology, Personal Development

134 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (བསྟན་འཛིན་དབང་རྒྱལ་ bstan 'dzin dbang rgyal) is a teacher (lama) of the Bön Tibetan religious tradition. He is presently based in the United States of America, where he founded the Ligmincha Institute in 1992 as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, in order "to preserve the ancient teachings, transmissions and practices of the Bön Buddhist tradition."

The degree of "Geshe" is the highest academic achievement of traditional Tibetan culture, roughly equivalent to a Doctorate in Divinity; it's use in names is similar to that of the Western "Doctor." Similarly, "Rinpoche" is an honorific, meaning "Precious one," frequently bestowed on respected teachers.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid book about guided meditation and its usefulness in everyday life. I really appreciated Tenzin Rinpoche's emphasis on viewing the mind as a place of healing, comfort, and refuge, as opposed to an avenue for constant anxiety and distress. As I write in all of my reviews of meditation books, society urges us to bombard ourselves with substances, screens, and several time-consuming tasks just to keep ourselves busy. In contrast, Rinpoche encourages us to embrace silence, stillness, and spaciousness - three pillars that can help us cultivate peace within ourselves. While this book comes across as a little more abstract and thus a bit more difficult to follow than similar books like Tara Brach's Radical Acceptance , I still walked away from it feeling more loving and compassionate toward myself and the world. Recommended to those who want to give guided meditation a shot, as well as to those who can envision themselves getting into spirituality/Buddhism. While I did not have the corresponding CD with the guided meditation, one of my friends at college did, and he made really great use of it. I will end this brief review with a great quote about meditation from the concluding chapter of the book:

"Meditation is not just passively sitting and observing life flowing by. Rather it is an active process of engaging in transformation. Some may think you are wasting time by meditating. They would advise you to go to a movie or on a vacation rather than meditate, which looks like sitting and doing nothing. But no one else can know how much you are disconnecting from your unhealthy patterns and charging your battery by sitting and reconnecting with the source of being. Sitting down and being aware, you are changing your life. Stopping and reconnecting to the refuge of your inner being, even for a moment, you are changing your life. What you overlooked or thought was nothing becomes the deepest treasury imaginable."

[Brian Wilcox · Rating 5 out of 5]

My basic practice is shikantaza, "just sitting." Wangyal offers a viable complement. "Just sitting" can be more than just sitting - it always is.

This work, truly compassionate, humbly presented by a humble being - a gift of profundity offered to us in a simple manner, inviting the "outsiders" to the boundless inside that is everywhere.

The practical presentation can, at times, appear pedantic. Yet, repeat helps matters of truth get through our deluded, dull grey matter - well, I speak from my own experience. Possibly, your grey matter is clear and sharp, always. You would be the only one. If so, congratulations.

Thanks to everyone!

[Puciu Mihaela cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

O carte neașteptat elocventă, clară și concisă despre modul de funcționare al minții și strategiile de obținere a stărilor de claritate și vacuitate. Păcat că versiunea în limba română nu are CD-ul inclus cu partea practică aplicată a informației iar meditațiile ghidate sunt reprezentate doar de câteva instrucțiuni printre paginile cărții. Cu tot cu acest mare minus, rămâne o carte valoroasă, cu siguranță îi voi citi și celelalte două lucrări traduse ale autorului.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

2012. The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is that I found it hard to understand. The author describes human suffering as coming from our "pain body, pain speech, and pain mind." And he leads the reader in exercises of stillness, silence, and spaciousness as medicine to address this suffering.
I'm reading this book a second time, to see if I might understand it better.

[Paul Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well simplified practice of meditation from a well diciplined and incredibly intellegent Rinpoche. great for students at any level.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarity, vision, consciousness

[Antony Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant reading

It is like power wash to the mind. Clears calcified critters that restrain fulfillment of god given talents. Ordered the three part book.

[Matthew Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Random book my girlfriend got me from a pile of free books at her office and it turned out to be one of the best books I've read.

The book is pretty identical in a lot ways to "The Power of Now", just a bit shorter and a bit easier to understand how to bring these practices into your life. It was definitely a slower and more dense read than some of the other spiritual books I've read, but nothing too insane or difficult.

I'd recommend this to everyone. It's a series of three and this apparently is 3/3 so if you're into spirituality books I'd say maybe start with 1 and 2 and then go to this one.

[Laurens Bon · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a bone-crunching 2 years I finally finished the book.
Every letter is engraved into my DNA.
Highly recommended.

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Awakening the Luminous Mind, the author shares a teaching from a previous lama and walks readers through the meditation around that teaching. It's a profound book that lead you to deep changes as you embrace stillness and let go of your pain identity. The accompanying CD has some useful tracks you can use with your meditation, though I wish some of them had been longer. The quality of the teachings is superb and has a enhanced my stillness work immensely. If you are interested in Dzogchen or simply want to work with stillness, this is an excellent book to work with.

[Renee Legris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read quite a few books on Eastern spirituality over several decades, I have to say this one is stunning. Clear, simple, and powerful. If you have even a little background in Buddhism, your practice can reach another level with this book.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting book based on what I am learning in a buddhist meditation class