Illusion's Game: The Life and Teaching of Naropa

by Chögyam Trungpa

Book Overview

In what he calls a "200 percent potent" teaching, Ch gyam Trungpa reveals how the spiritual path is a raw and rugged "unlearning" process that draws us away from the comfort of conventional expectations and conceptual attitudes toward a naked encounter with reality. The tantric paradigm for this process is the story of the Indian master Naropa (1016-1100), who is among the enlightened teachers of the Kagyu lineage of the Tibetan Buddhism. Naropa was...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877738572
• ISBN13: 9780877738572
• Release Date: June 1994
• Publisher: Shambhala
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Dense with information

This book is densely packed with thought-provoking discussion. I have been studying it part-time for about two years and have not even finished it once. I keep re-starting to get a better grasp of what's being discussed. I plan to keep re-reading it over and over in order to to get a grasp of what they're talking about -- but that's a good thing. I highly recommend this book, but I believe you'll need to take it very seriously; this is not fluffy subject matter.

The most touching of Chogyam Trungpa's books

Naropa thought he knew everything about Buddhism, having studied at the best Buddhist school on Earth. But he allowed himself to begin following his intuition, which led him to the realization that scholarly learning is not the heart of buddhism. In following Tilopa in Tibet, he had many trials and much suffering, many losses, which helped him lose his self-importance, the main obstacle to buddha nature. This has meaning for us today. We always wish there was less suffering. More popular Buddhist books now seem to teach that suffering can be avoided. Naropa did not avoid, but embraced the meaning inherent in the suffering, practiced vulnerability rather than protection, and as a result, came to understand his true nature. Not only an excellent teaching, but a fascinating story, a real page-turner.