Buddhist Book for Christmas

[ananda]

What are your suggestions for a Buddhist book for Christmas ?
And out of the following two choices which one book would you pick ?

Which of these two ?: The Dhammapada,or The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh

[Josef]

It depends on who it is for but I would recommend Mind in Comfort and Ease by HHDL.
It gently covers the entire path from the basic to the extraordinary.

[Pero]

It depends on who it is for but I would recommend Mind in Comfort and Ease by HHDL.
It gently covers the entire path from the basic to the extraordinary.

I'm just waiting for this book to arrive, ordered it about a week ago but mostly because of the translation of Longchenpa's root text. Glad to see you recommend it anyway.

[Josef]

It depends on who it is for but I would recommend Mind in Comfort and Ease by HHDL.
It gently covers the entire path from the basic to the extraordinary.

I'm just waiting for this book to arrive, ordered it about a week ago but mostly because of the translation of Longchenpa's root text. Glad to see you recommend it anyway.

Its a bit deceptive in the content of Dzogchen.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great book but its more of a general introduction than a detailed Dzogchen book.
The book is great but it is poorly titled, subtitled, and covered.

[Pero]

It depends on who it is for but I would recommend Mind in Comfort and Ease by HHDL.
It gently covers the entire path from the basic to the extraordinary.

I'm just waiting for this book to arrive, ordered it about a week ago but mostly because of the translation of Longchenpa's root text. Glad to see you recommend it anyway.

Its a bit deceptive in the content of Dzogchen.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great book but its more of a general introduction than a detailed Dzogchen book.
The book is great but it is poorly titled, subtitled, and covered.

I see hehe... I am curious though, why you think that?
How is the translation of the text? Because like I said, I got it mostly because of that. Since as far as I know the only other one available is by Guenther...

[Josef]

I see hehe... I am curious though, why you think that?
How is the translation of the text? Because like I said, I got it mostly because of that. Since as far as I know the only other one available is by Guenther...

The translation is much better than Guenther's in my opinion.
When I first read this book a few years ago I was like, "this is great but when is he going to start talking about Dzogchen".
This book is probably my favorite book by HHDL and it should be the go-to book by him if you ask me but barely anyone has read it because it has a very specific title and subtitle combination.
It's really a shame.

[Pero]

I see hehe... I am curious though, why you think that?
How is the translation of the text? Because like I said, I got it mostly because of that. Since as far as I know the only other one available is by Guenther...

The translation is much better than Guenther's in my opinion.
...

Phew, good. I was getting a bit worried hehe. If there's no other "problem" than it not being detailed on Dzogchen I should still be happy with it. Perhaps even better that it isn't, sometimes a bit of change is good.

[Thug4lyfe]

The Da Vinci Code

[Madeliaette]

Mind in Comfort and Ease by HHDL

is one of three books I am reading currently myself!!! As for my reccommendatuion - um.... well...there are so many different types of people and I think honestly that if i were to select a book for each person I know I would have trouble picking less than a dozen - so to not know who it is for at all.... sorry - not much help!

[Lhug-Pa]

Keith Dowman did a translation of Longchenpa's said text too, called Maya Yoga.

Is Herbert Guenther's translation his trilogy called Kindly Bent to Ease Us ?

I'm planning on studying the Dalai Lama's commentary soon as well (not that I've studied the other translations yet).

[Pero]

Keith Dowman did a translation of Longchenpa's said text too, called Maya Yoga.

This is not the same text. Maya yoga is the 3rd volume while this is the 2nd (finding comfort and ease in meditation).

Is Herbert Guenther's translation his trilogy called Kindly Bent to Ease Us ?

Yeah, he translated the whole thing.

[Lhug-Pa]

Ah I see (I think).

So Herbert Guenther translated all three volumes, Keith Dowman's is Volume Three only, and the Dalai Lama's is Volume Two only?

Did anyone else translate Volume One?

[Pero]

Ah I see (I think).

So Herbert Guenther translated all three volumes, Keith Dowman's is Volume Three only, and the Dalai Lama's is Volume Two only?

Yup.

Did anyone else translate Volume One?

Ives Waldo translated the commentary on it (but Tibetan commentaries seem to include the root text anyway). Used to be freely available on the net. Its downside is that it has no contents index.

[Lhug-Pa]

Well it should still be worth working our way through Herbert Guenther's Volume One, to then study Keith Dowman's Volume 3 and the Dalai Lama's Volume Two, instead of Guenther's 2nd and 3rd Volumes.

I do appreciate Herbert Guenther's contributions, it's just that it's difficult to have to try to figure out what words like "facticity" and "absence" are referring to. Having Tibetan and Sanskrit terminologies in the main text with a English glossary at the end is much better than trying to figure out a bunch of English translated terms that don't really tell us much, despite Herbert Guenther's intentions of precision.

Keith Dowman is actually the one who uses "absence"; and I'm not quite sure if that basically means "Emptiness" in general, or something more specific....

Edit: At least Herbert Guenther's translations do include Tibetan Dzogchen terminologies in the notes in the back of the book.