A Hermit In The Himalayas

'The introductory account of Mr. Brunton's pony-back journey up the mountainside has real charm. One of his most interesting chapters gives a practical-minded consideration to the probable future of Tibet.' New York Times Paul Brunton was one of a very small number of his generation to travel in India and Tibet so extensively at a time when very few were doing so with such insight and discernment. His journalistic skills produced magnificent descriptions of the snowy peaks and high-desert landscapes of the Himalayan region, but it was the lessons he learned from the holy men he met on his journey that transformed him into one of the great interpreters of the East. In this magnificent spirituality classic, he explains that we all need 'oases of calm in a world of storm', no matter what era we are living in, and that to retreat from our everyday lives for a while is not weakness but strength. By taking the trouble to discover the deep silence within us we will find the benefits of being linked to an 'infinite power, an infinite wisdom, an infinite goodness'. A Hermit In The Himalayas is a fascinating blend of travel writing and profound spiritual experience. As we accompany the author on his journey through the vast Himalayas ranges towards Mount Kailas in Tibet, he also shows us an even more remarkable - and timeless - inner path which will help us cope with the ups and downs of our contemporary world.

Tapovan Maharaj, Swami Chinmayananda's Guru a realized sage and spiritual luminary was a rare one who brought glory to the very Himalayas. His biography inspires and elevates, teaches and transforms. It makes us question the very fundamentals of life.

When John Crock of Bristol University began research in the Zangskar valley of Ladakh in 1977 his prime intention was to investigate the social anthropology of the area through studies of village life. In 1986 Crook returned to Ladakh with into the social organisation, history, meditational practices and philosophy of the yogins who still lived and practiced in the remote parts of the area. This book is a record of the author's adventurous journeys to meet some remarkable men. The yogins were often generous, providing accounts of their training, one of them allowing Crook to photograph a Mahamudra by the eminent Tipun Padma of this difficult work together with that of a biography of the great women yogin Machig Labdron provides the basis for extensive and original discussions of the meaning of Tibetan Buddhism and it's significance in our time.

Orgyan Chokyi (1675-1729) spent her life in Dolpo, the highest inhabited region of the Nepal Himalayas. Illiterate and expressly forbidden by her master to write her own life story, Orgyan Chokyi received divine inspiration to compose one of the most forthright and engaging spiritual autobiographies of the Tibetan literary tradition. Her life story is the oldest of only four Tibetan autobiographies authored by women. It is also a rare example of writing by a pre-modern Buddhist woman, and thus holds a unique place in Buddhist literature as a whole. Translator Kurtis Schaeffer prefaces the text with an illuminating study of the life and times of Orgyan Chokyi and an extended analysis of the hermitess's view of the relation between gender, suffering, and liberation. Based almost entirely on primary Tibetan documents never before translated, this fascinating book will be of interest to those studying Buddhism, gender and religion, and the culture of the Tibetan world.