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Your Mind Is Your Teacher: Self-Awakening through Contemplative Meditation
This concise handbook of Tibetan Buddhist teachings, designed for Western students, is centered on a sitting practice called Contemplative Meditation. This practice can be used as a way to change troublesome habits, even by someone with little knowledge of Buddhism. Although the teachings are based it on a nineteenth-century text by Lama Mipham, they are presented in a non-scholarly way, with examples drawn from modern life and everyday experience. In particular, the author addresses the unique attitudes and questions of twenty-first-century Westerners who are exploring Buddhism.
The practice taught in the book consists of a reflection on four subjects, known as the Four Seals of the Buddha's multiplicity, impermanence, suffering, and emptiness. Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche explains how to investigate each of these topics in a way that helps you recognize your innate wisdom mind, which is your ultimate teacher. Once you learn how to examine your own mind and your life with this method, you will start to look at everything differently. By helping to dissolve negative thoughts and habits, the practice can increase your focus, confidence, self-esteem, and happiness.
Along with exercises and questions, short readings, a glossary, and checklists for study, this book provides a complete handbook, with simple instructions for additional
• the Ninefold Exhalation, a breathing method for expelling stale air before meditation
• visualization of buddhas and great teachers to inspire practice
• the practice of bodhichitta, or generating love and compassion for all beings
• the seven-branch offering, seven devotional thoughts to strengthen efforts
• dedication of merit—the positive energy from the meditation--for the benefit of all beings
Finally, the appendix gives translations of two short The Wheel of Analytical Meditation by Lama Mipham, which is the source of this book's teaching, and the Heart Sutra, a famous brief teaching on emptiness, along with a traditional commentary.
The practice taught in the book consists of a reflection on four subjects, known as the Four Seals of the Buddha's multiplicity, impermanence, suffering, and emptiness. Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche explains how to investigate each of these topics in a way that helps you recognize your innate wisdom mind, which is your ultimate teacher. Once you learn how to examine your own mind and your life with this method, you will start to look at everything differently. By helping to dissolve negative thoughts and habits, the practice can increase your focus, confidence, self-esteem, and happiness.
Along with exercises and questions, short readings, a glossary, and checklists for study, this book provides a complete handbook, with simple instructions for additional
• the Ninefold Exhalation, a breathing method for expelling stale air before meditation
• visualization of buddhas and great teachers to inspire practice
• the practice of bodhichitta, or generating love and compassion for all beings
• the seven-branch offering, seven devotional thoughts to strengthen efforts
• dedication of merit—the positive energy from the meditation--for the benefit of all beings
Finally, the appendix gives translations of two short The Wheel of Analytical Meditation by Lama Mipham, which is the source of this book's teaching, and the Heart Sutra, a famous brief teaching on emptiness, along with a traditional commentary.
- GenresBuddhismSpirituality
240 pages, Paperback
First published May 14, 2013
14 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Khenpo Gawang
12 books2 followersKhenpo Gawang Rinpoche is the founder and spiritual director of Pema Karpo Meditation Center in Memphis, Tennessee. With twenty-seven years as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, twelve years of teaching experience, and nine years of study at the Buddhist University of Namdroling Monastery in South India, he holds a Khenpo degree, the Buddhist equivalent of a PhD, granted in April 2006 by H.H. Penor Rinpoche. Gawang Rinpoche came to the United States in 2004 at the invitation of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and Shambhala International. He became an American citizen in 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 9, 2017
Excellent classic, concise and deep insight over Contemplative Meditation over the 4 Seals, including lovely approach over the teachings of emptiness-compassion (with the insights and cultivation from Atisha, Shantideva and 4 limitless ones), multiplicity, impermanence and suffering. Together with it, the attitude for the practice of appreciation, gratitude, openness and presence.
Finally, great translation of Heart Sutra Mantra and The wheel of Analytical Meditation from Jamgon Miphan Rinpoche.
All together a great job by an amazing embodiment of humble, simplicity, brightness, wisdom and sense of humor: Khempo Gawang Rinpoche that actually tough us the book and its contents in three weeks of lovely teachings with several questions and answer at Gampo Abbey's Yarne Retreat 2017.
Thank you
Finally, great translation of Heart Sutra Mantra and The wheel of Analytical Meditation from Jamgon Miphan Rinpoche.
All together a great job by an amazing embodiment of humble, simplicity, brightness, wisdom and sense of humor: Khempo Gawang Rinpoche that actually tough us the book and its contents in three weeks of lovely teachings with several questions and answer at Gampo Abbey's Yarne Retreat 2017.
Thank you
October 13, 2017
Amazingly written.
April 12, 2018
There's so many concepts in this book to get your head around, and for the most part they are explained in an accessible way.
October 1, 2013
For those who have approached Buddhist analytical concepts with a yearning to understand reality, Your Mind is Your Teacher, by Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche, will be an unparalleled guide toward clarity.
Many students, myself included, have struggled with the essential concept of the Four Seals of the Dharma, particularly emptiness. From previous books, even when a glimpse of emptiness is gained through a useful analogy or pointing out, many have found it difficult to assimilate this glimpse with the lists of skandhas - and their sub-lists of mental formations (virtuous and non-virtuous), kleshas, and consiousnesses - found to be apparently self-explanatory in predecessors's treatment of the same topic.
Not so with Your Mind is Your Teacher. Khenpo Gawang does include the details of the components of the Four Seals. But what is fresh and new in this book is how he presents them: he interweaves the components and illustrates their relatedness - and distinctions - in a manner that makes them accessible for even beginning students. Moreover, two of the book's greatest strengths are its organizational structure and its summary checklists. For Western students used to a presentation of materials in a step-wise fashion, this approach closes the gap between Eastern and Western educational styles, making concepts seem more accessible and easier to grasp.
Elements that will be welcomed by beginning students are the step-by-step approach to preparing for and executing contemplative meditation, including instructions for the contemplations themselves, and the examples of experiencing emptiness from Khenpo's own life, which are at once authentic teachings and show students how to relate their similar experiences to the dharma. Whether Khenpo is recalling his childhood in Tibet, a springtime walk around Memphis, a discussion with an emotionally-ravaged neighbor, or a traumatic natural disaster, his teaching in this book engages because it is highly illustrative of and appropriate to the topic he is treating.
For more advanced students, other elements of the work will be especially helpful. First, the readings and commentary in the back matter, particularly the Heart Sutra, have given me the clearest understanding I have yet achieved on the matter of prajnaparamita, especially how it relates to the Four Seals. Moreover, the commentary hints at next readings, such as the Ketaka Jewel, as a bridge to more in-depth study.
Finally, Khenpo Gawang discusses, throughout the book, how a continued, diligent effort at contemplating the Four Seals is necessary for sustained and clear understanding; one must make the experience very personal and one must repeat the (contemplative) experience regularly. For me, I suspect, this means that I will immediately re-read Your Mind is Your Teacher from cover to cover.
Many students, myself included, have struggled with the essential concept of the Four Seals of the Dharma, particularly emptiness. From previous books, even when a glimpse of emptiness is gained through a useful analogy or pointing out, many have found it difficult to assimilate this glimpse with the lists of skandhas - and their sub-lists of mental formations (virtuous and non-virtuous), kleshas, and consiousnesses - found to be apparently self-explanatory in predecessors's treatment of the same topic.
Not so with Your Mind is Your Teacher. Khenpo Gawang does include the details of the components of the Four Seals. But what is fresh and new in this book is how he presents them: he interweaves the components and illustrates their relatedness - and distinctions - in a manner that makes them accessible for even beginning students. Moreover, two of the book's greatest strengths are its organizational structure and its summary checklists. For Western students used to a presentation of materials in a step-wise fashion, this approach closes the gap between Eastern and Western educational styles, making concepts seem more accessible and easier to grasp.
Elements that will be welcomed by beginning students are the step-by-step approach to preparing for and executing contemplative meditation, including instructions for the contemplations themselves, and the examples of experiencing emptiness from Khenpo's own life, which are at once authentic teachings and show students how to relate their similar experiences to the dharma. Whether Khenpo is recalling his childhood in Tibet, a springtime walk around Memphis, a discussion with an emotionally-ravaged neighbor, or a traumatic natural disaster, his teaching in this book engages because it is highly illustrative of and appropriate to the topic he is treating.
For more advanced students, other elements of the work will be especially helpful. First, the readings and commentary in the back matter, particularly the Heart Sutra, have given me the clearest understanding I have yet achieved on the matter of prajnaparamita, especially how it relates to the Four Seals. Moreover, the commentary hints at next readings, such as the Ketaka Jewel, as a bridge to more in-depth study.
Finally, Khenpo Gawang discusses, throughout the book, how a continued, diligent effort at contemplating the Four Seals is necessary for sustained and clear understanding; one must make the experience very personal and one must repeat the (contemplative) experience regularly. For me, I suspect, this means that I will immediately re-read Your Mind is Your Teacher from cover to cover.
July 3, 2013
BOOK REVIEW: “Your Mind is Your Teacher” by Khenpo Gawang
In Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche’s book, “Your Mind is Your Teacher,” he answers the question of how one brings the Buddhist teachings into one’s life directly and straightforwardly.
He has taken the traditional Abidharma teachings on Buddhist psychology and the practice manual “The Analytical Wheel of Meditation,” by Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, and mixed them with his own experience and commentary to make a compelling and easy to understand instruction manual of Contemplative Meditation. He has also included a commentary on the central Buddhist sutra, “The Heart of Transcendent Knowledge,” an important text on understanding the nature of reality.
One can recognize throughout Khenpo Gawang’s enthusiasm and commitment to helping others realize their own inherent awakened state and happiness.
I appreciate what Khenpo Gawang has done in “Your Mind is Your Teacher,” and aspire to follow his instructions properly in my own practice. It’s a truly uplifting book that I would highly recommend. I have already bought copies for friends!
In Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche’s book, “Your Mind is Your Teacher,” he answers the question of how one brings the Buddhist teachings into one’s life directly and straightforwardly.
He has taken the traditional Abidharma teachings on Buddhist psychology and the practice manual “The Analytical Wheel of Meditation,” by Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, and mixed them with his own experience and commentary to make a compelling and easy to understand instruction manual of Contemplative Meditation. He has also included a commentary on the central Buddhist sutra, “The Heart of Transcendent Knowledge,” an important text on understanding the nature of reality.
One can recognize throughout Khenpo Gawang’s enthusiasm and commitment to helping others realize their own inherent awakened state and happiness.
I appreciate what Khenpo Gawang has done in “Your Mind is Your Teacher,” and aspire to follow his instructions properly in my own practice. It’s a truly uplifting book that I would highly recommend. I have already bought copies for friends!
September 7, 2015
A solid introduction to more in-depth Buddhist concepts and practice. The last part of the book has a nice introduction to the Heart Sutra.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews