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My Life In Tibet
The author travelled across China from Shanghai, where he was a journalist, to the hidden temple, where he meets his Tibetan spiritual master. This title talks about his life in Tibet.
204 pages, Paperback
First published August 30, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 11, 2016
This book is all about trusting and taking up a good cause , spreading the work for the benefit of mankind. What a greater purpose of life than impacting the world and people residing in it in a positive way. High regards for great soul like Edwin John dingle for devoting his entire life in teaching wisdom,light,spiritual practices which is learnt by him in serene valley of Tibet . He spread his teachings in west calling it as Mentalphysics. The same work in India which is expansion of his work is known as Bramhavidya( spiritual breathing and meditation).
April 9, 2023
Is everyone overlooking how extremely racist this book is? I could not get past the author claiming that the great intellectual discoveries around the world were due to pure blood Aryans spreading out across the globe. I’m putting my copy in the recycling bin. No one should read this.
November 14, 2020
This is an implausible memoir of an English journalist’s nine-month visit to Tibet in 1910, which establishes his credentials for the instruction of Tibetan yoga to an American audience (he later founded an institute in California devoted to his teachings). His journey seems to me entirely fraudulent, for reasons I will specify, but as a work of fiction some readers may draw from it a sense of adventure and inspiration, assuming they read past the flagrant racism in the prologue. Certainly those who have visited the beautiful campus of the Institute of MentalPhysics in Joshua Tree, California may have special interest in hearing the fable of its founder.
Dingle begins his tale by establishing his identity as a reincarnated Tibetan lama who had felt since childhood a burning desire to travel to Tibet. He apprenticed in the family business of journalism and was eventually assigned to a post in Singapore, where he met a sage who taught him breathwork and demonstrated his ability to walk over burning coals wearing red-hot iron sandals. Later, while traveling on assignment in Burma, this same sage appeared to him at night to send Dingle on a mysterious pilgrimage to Tibet before disappearing back into the jungle. Thus began Dingle’s quest. He organized a caravan and set out at once. His journey was fraught with peril: malaria, single-rope bridges, tigers, sunstroke, cold, etc.; but as he neared his destination, a sense of familiarity grew within him: he was coming home. When he reached an unnamed temple, he was welcomed as an expected guest. After sleeping through a dream reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno for four days, he awakens to find his unnamed master at his bedside asking him if he’s glad to be back.
On one topic, that of breathing, the wisdom of Dingle’s master seemed fresh and compelling to me:
“Every breath we breathe is a mystery, and every word we speak is magic.”
Perhaps, despite all the fiction, Dingle did indeed receive some authentic breathwork instruction in the course of his travels. If you compare his teachings with Yantra Yoga and Trul Khor, two other forms of Tibetan Yoga to arrive in the West, there are definite similarities.
I must encourage all readers: listen to the author, Edwin Dingle aka “Ding Le Mei” describe his breathwork practice in the Youtube video titled “Mentalphysics 8 Key Breaths with Ding Le Mei.” His oratory is truly stirring: sonorous, rhythmic, melodious, and intrepid. It is the heart of his teachings, around which he built a system of spiritual practice and eventually gathered a large enough audience that he founded The Institute of Mental Physics in 1928. There his practices are still taught, weekly or biweekly, although they have dwindled to become only a very small portion of the Institute’s offerings. I have attended a few sessions, and I must confess I felt amazing after each class.
Dingle begins his tale by establishing his identity as a reincarnated Tibetan lama who had felt since childhood a burning desire to travel to Tibet. He apprenticed in the family business of journalism and was eventually assigned to a post in Singapore, where he met a sage who taught him breathwork and demonstrated his ability to walk over burning coals wearing red-hot iron sandals. Later, while traveling on assignment in Burma, this same sage appeared to him at night to send Dingle on a mysterious pilgrimage to Tibet before disappearing back into the jungle. Thus began Dingle’s quest. He organized a caravan and set out at once. His journey was fraught with peril: malaria, single-rope bridges, tigers, sunstroke, cold, etc.; but as he neared his destination, a sense of familiarity grew within him: he was coming home. When he reached an unnamed temple, he was welcomed as an expected guest. After sleeping through a dream reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno for four days, he awakens to find his unnamed master at his bedside asking him if he’s glad to be back.
On one topic, that of breathing, the wisdom of Dingle’s master seemed fresh and compelling to me:
“Every breath we breathe is a mystery, and every word we speak is magic.”
Perhaps, despite all the fiction, Dingle did indeed receive some authentic breathwork instruction in the course of his travels. If you compare his teachings with Yantra Yoga and Trul Khor, two other forms of Tibetan Yoga to arrive in the West, there are definite similarities.
I must encourage all readers: listen to the author, Edwin Dingle aka “Ding Le Mei” describe his breathwork practice in the Youtube video titled “Mentalphysics 8 Key Breaths with Ding Le Mei.” His oratory is truly stirring: sonorous, rhythmic, melodious, and intrepid. It is the heart of his teachings, around which he built a system of spiritual practice and eventually gathered a large enough audience that he founded The Institute of Mental Physics in 1928. There his practices are still taught, weekly or biweekly, although they have dwindled to become only a very small portion of the Institute’s offerings. I have attended a few sessions, and I must confess I felt amazing after each class.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews