Integral Buddhism: Developing All Aspects of One's Personhood

by Traleg Kyabgon

Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX skillfully illustrates how to incorporate the whole human experience onto the Buddhist path. With mastery of Western concepts, the author explains how to integrate traditional Buddhist philosophies, psychology, and Tibetan medicine in the service of reducing suffering and developing all aspects of one’s personhood to overcome the confinement of a limited sense of self.

Genres: Buddhism

120 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2018

About the author

Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche (1955–2012) was the ninth incarnation of the Traleg tulku line, a line of high lamas in the Kagyu lineage of Vajrayana. He was a pioneer in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to Australia.

Traleg Rinpoche was born in 1955 in Kham (Eastern Tibet), and two years later was recognized by HH 16th Gyalwa Karmapa as the ninth incarnation of the Traleg Tulkus and enthroned as the Abbot of the Thrangu monastery. He was taken to safety in India during the 1959 Chinese Communists invasion of Tibet. There he was given a traditional tulku education, supplemented by five years of schooling at Sanskrit University in Varanasi, India. He lived and studied for several years at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, the main seat in exile of the Kagyu Lineage. He died on July 24, 2012 in Melbourne, Australia.

In 1980 Rinpoche transmitted the Dharma in Australia where he established Kagyu E-vam Buddhist Institute in Melbourne. He relinquished his monastic vows, became a lay teacher and married. He earned a Masters degree in Comparative Philosophy from La Trobe University. In 1989, he taught extensively at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, visiting the North American affiliates of HH Gyalwa Karmapa. In 2004 he established the Evam Institute in New York in Chatham, NY. He also taught extensively in the Karma Thegsum Choling network of the Karmapa's centers and at Shambhala Buddhist centers. His wife, Felicity Lodro, is also an active dharma teacher.

Reviews

[Eugene Pustoshkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a nice little book that can be read in one sitting. It gives a concise introduction into Buddhism based on Rinpoche’s lectures. Even though the book’s title refers to “Integral Buddhism,” the text itself offers only a general idea of integration of various areas and modes of Buddhism, but doesn’t go into all the details of what could be a contemporary Fourth Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. Despite that, Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche’s Integral Buddhism can be a good companion to Ken Wilber’s (also short) book Integral Buddhism and the Future of Spirituality (aka The Fourth Turning ebook). The latter itself is a brief version of a much bigger volume titled The Religion of Tomorrow—Wilber’s most recent masterpiece. Ken Wilber and Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche were friends and colleagues (see, e.g., the DVD film Spirituality in the Modern World: A dialogue with Ken Wilber and Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche).

[fj baggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good review of Buddhist principles and practices.

[paiger · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful balance of traditional philosophy and actually walking the path