The book
Being Guru Rinpoche
shows how to understand and engage with a traditional
Tibetan
tantric
meditation
practice (
sadhana
) and relate it to the lived complexity of our daily life. The ritual focuses on living within the mandala of
Padmasambhava
, also known as
Guru Rinpoche
, and becoming inseparable from the Guru in his
Eight Manifestations
. The root text is from the terma tradition of
Chhimed Rigdzin Lama
(
C. R. Lama
), one of the great
Nyingma
lamas
of the modern period. The text is given in Tibetan, with pronunciation (for reciting) and each verse is translated, with commentary. It can be used as a meditation practice text for those wishing to do so.
James Low's overall commentary is based on an edited transcript of various talks and is offered as a way for
western people
to engage with
practice. The text itself is from the
Nyingmapa
tradition of Tibetan
Buddhism
and is a treasure text (or
terma
) revealed by
Nuden Dorje
, a 19
th
century
terton
of whom C. R. Lama was a recognised incarnation. James Low first translated it with C. R. Lama in the 1970's and it became the most frequently practised larger text amongst his students.
This ritual text is very important and powerful because of the depth of its content and the shortness of its
lineage
, in other words, its closeness to Padmasambhava, the root of all the Nyingma lineages.
For those in any tradition of
Tibetan Buddhism
the commentary illuminates how symbolism is used as a method of
transforming samsara into nirvana
. Transformation is the distinctive method of
tantra
. For the general reader the text provides a way of revisioning personal identity and purpose.