Luminous Mind : The Way of the Buddha by Kalu Rinpoche

Foreword by HH The 14th Dalai Lama. :

Thinking of the forefathers of the Kagyu tradition, we remember Marpa Lotsawa for the hardships he underwent in obtaining Buddhist teachings from India and his scholarship in translating them into Tibetan. We remember Gampopa for consolidating the tradition and launching the monastic order. But the great yogi Milarepa is renowned and admired above all for his sincere dedication to spiritual practice and his saintly way of life. He remains a vital example to us all, yet there have been few like him before or since.

In our own time, Kalu Rinpoche had a similar simplicity in his determination to practice. Distinguished for the dozen years of his youth spent in meditative retreat, he devoted the rest of his life to guiding others and preserving the variety of Buddhist traditions. Following the tragedy which befell Tibet in the 1950s and the flight of many Tibetans to exile in India and elsewhere, he was a beacon of inspiration, not only for the Kagyu order, but for all traditions of Tibetan Buddhism then struggling to preserve their spiritual heritage.

In his later years, energy undiminished, he also accepted a number of requests to travel abroad and teach in Western countries. Consequently, he attracted many disciples and established Dharma centers--especially retreat centers where he supervised a number of three-year retreats.

This book, Luminous Mind, contains an anthology of instructions that Kalu Rinpoche gave from his own experience, covering the full range of Buddhist practice from the basic analysis of the nature of the mind up to its ultimate refinement in the teachings of Mahamudra. As the Buddhist saying goes, "Rely less on the person than on what he teaches." This book is an apt memorial to Kalu Rinpoche, who now is no longer among us. If readers follow the additional dictum, "Rely less on the words of the teaching than on the meaning they express," and actually put them into effect, his great-hearted purpose will have been fulfilled.