Inside Tibetan Buddhism: Rituals and Symbols Revealed

by Robert A.F. Thurman

A photographic tour of the Tibetan Buddhist faith examines the role of ceremonial rites and provides insight into its philosophies

Genres: Buddhism, Spirituality

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1995

About the author

Tenzin Robert Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, holding the first endowed chair of Buddhist Studies in the United States. He is the author of the bestseller Inner Revolution, as well as Anger, Infinite Life, and other popular books. He is also a translator of Tibetan texts. He serves as co-founder and president of Tibet House US, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the endangered culture of Tibet.

Reviews

[Mckinley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moving toward positive and away from negative, humans have freedom in movement and can move to liberation from this pattern. Rituals reinforce this process of liberation.
This book explains many of the rituals and accompanying symbols. Very helpful.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve had this for years and it’s not the best Buddhist primer, but it provided a good refresher for some of the murky (in my mind) terms used in Dharma Bums.

[David Wu · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Religion is defined appropriately as a system of beliefs and practices that bind our lives in patterns of meaningfulness, especially taking care of the difficulties that threaten the pattern; the sense of chaos and the realities of injustice, suffering, death. Thus religion is a "re-binding" (re-ligare), a reinforced "holding" of human lives into a prescribed and beneficial pattern. Theistic religions of the West and East focus around the belief in a "Creator God" or "Power" that controls life, is responsible for order, and saves us from suffering and death. This belief is usually presented as non rational, even contradictory to reason or common sense, but based on the authority of scripture or tradition. Buddhism is religious in a slightly different way than other religions.
Buddha rejected the reality of such creator. He taught that human reason and practical common sense were a higher authority than any scripture or tradition. buddhist salvation is a liberation achieved by a person through direct knowledge of his or her fully reality and the true nature of the world. Thus buddhism is a system of education, a process of discovery that leads out of the habitual world of ignorance, unconsciousness, and suffering. It is a critique of all belief systems rather than a pattern of beliefs.
For many ordinary people in Asia, Buddhism does serve as a religion. They believe that there are gods with limited but considerable powers, and that the Buddha and various Bodhisattvas are a type of "saviour" whose blessing alleviates suffering for the time being, and whose teaching methods can eventually free them from suffering altogether. They tend to feel that they will have the opportunity to learn those methods only in their future lives."

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful primer on Tibetan Buddhism. Simple, profound and with wonderful photographs. I think it may be out of print so if you can find a used copy, scoop it up!

[Marsha Altman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of interesting pictures but the text is very esoteric for a so-called beginner's text. Read some other introduction to Tibetan Buddhism first and pair it with this one.