Books recommended by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
I also have a list of Recommended Books on Buddhism and a more general (and personal) book recommendation page.
If you happen to know of recommendations made by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, either of books, songs or movies, please collaborate and send me the appropriate references to padma.dorje@gmail.com.
All the links go the US amazon store, with any purchase you are helping this website. If you are in Brazil, please use the amazon.com.br links at the portuguese version of this page.
Fiction
Haruki Murakami
Norwegian Wood
Haruki Murakami
1q84 (book 1)
Soseki Natsume
Kokoro
Yasunari Kawabata
Snow Country
Mian Mian
Candy1“What an Amazing book. Every Buddhist teacher (specially Chinese Mahayana/Zen teachers) who wishes to propagate the dharma in the current time and environment should read this.” DJKR on Facebook.
Aldous Huxley
Brave New World
Isabel Allende
The House of Spirits (português brasileiro)
Gabriel García Márquez2The book was mentioned, but Rinpoche may not have finished it.
Cem Anos de Solidão (português brasileiro)
Emily Bronte3The book was mentioned, but Rinpoche may not have finished it.
O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes
Oscar Wilde
O Retrato de Dorian Gray (português brasileiro)
Religion
Anthony Storr
Feet of Clay - A study of gurus
Sam Harris
The End of Faith
Politics and economy
Ronald Colman
What Really Counts – The Case for a Sustainable and Equitable Economy
Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Joe Bageant
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War, Joe Bageant
Rajiv Malhotra
Being Different: An Different Challenge To Western Universalism
Tom Holland
Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
Philosophy
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy
Aknowledgement to Mariel Hespanhol, who has sent me further references of books and movies she got while listening to Rinpoche’s teachings. A book reference was sent by William de Santa. This page is not affiliated to Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and his organizations, for more information about this great teacher, check Siddharta's Intent.
1. ^ “What an Amazing book. Every Buddhist teacher (specially Chinese Mahayana/Zen teachers) who wishes to propagate the dharma in the current time and environment should read this.” DJKR on Facebook.
2. ^ The book was mentioned, but Rinpoche may not have finished it.
3. ^ The book was mentioned, but Rinpoche may not have finished it.
Pure, Clear, and Vibrant
Visualization practice sometimes involves traditional symbolism that Westerners have trouble relating to, says Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. "As the twentieth-century Tibetan scholar-monk Gendun Chöpel pointed out, Vajrayana practitioners must get used to believing in the unbelievable. Tantric methods of visualization might involve creating a raging inferno in your mind's eye, in the midst of which sits a deity on a fragile lotus flower and a cool moon seat, embracing a very passionate consort, and surrounded by an unruly mob of angry deities wielding deadly implements. Yet the heat and the flames do no harm whatsoever and no one gets hurt. A rational analysis of such a situation can only result in disbelief, since everything about this scene is contradictory and nothing in it could possibly exist in our ordinary reality. But the point is that tantric practitioners have to get used to believing in the unbelievable. Our aim is to unite and dissolve subject and object so that they are one. We unite desire and anger, dissolving them into one, just as we do heat and cold, clean and dirty, body and mind. This is known as "the union of jnanas and kayas," and is the ultimate kind of union. // Gendun Chöpel also said that the reason we cannot grab hold of inexpressible notions like that of dharmadhatu is not because we strongly believe in what exists. On the contrary, it is because we strongly disbelieve in what does not exist. But it will take quite some time to insert this new knowledge of nonduality into our very stubborn system of duality."
Forest of Faded Wisdom
“If at the time of Gendun Chopel, the Tibetan people and the Tibetan government had lent even half an ear to him and acted accordingly, I have no doubt that Tibet and the Tibetan people would be in a different position than they are today. A better one. It is quite amazing that out of Tibet, which is usually considered a primitive, orthodox, forbidden land, someone like Gendun Chopel emerged. His remarkable poetry is a fitting legacy of this unique figure in modern Tibetan history.” ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
A Review of Hema Hema
The movie by Khyentse Norbu in the words of your favorite webkeeper Padma Dorje.
Vajrayana Buddhism in the West: The Challenges and Misunderstandings of our Times
In March 2018, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche gave teachings to the Rigpa Sangha in Berlin, London and Paris. These teachings are wonderful in any context, explain the Vajrayana practice of guru yoga in depth, and deal directly with the subject at hand.