![]() You can read the first chapters of all my books and find links to where to buy them here. Youll hear from me once or twice a month with blogs and other news designed to be stimulating and useful. Its a curious and quite delightful paradox: whoever Lobsang Rampa was and he was certainly no lama and whatever his motivations, his books helped awaken many to a spiritual path which has become inexpressibly precious to us. Sitting in subdued lighting in the evening, after another day of 7 hours on the cushion, someone asked the question, What got you interested in Tibetan Buddhism in the first place.īut a very interesting point of consistency was: Of course, I read some of those books by Lobsang Rampa which had made me curious. Who wants to read boring stuff about the importance of generosity, ethics and patience when you can go astral travelling instead.Īt a meditation retreat I went on earlier this year, a group of about half a dozen of us were having a Milo Party at the end of the day. Not only did he relate stories that were simply unbelievable.Īs important was what he missed out, with no reference to some of the main teachings of the Dharma, such as the cultivation of bodhichitta. It was immediately apparent to me that the author didnt embody the key teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Taking it from the shelf, I sat down to read it for a while my first encounter with the author since sitting at the feet of real Tibetan lamas. There was much that was magical and mystical, and in those pre-internet times, when hardly any Tibetan lamas had visited the West, it was a lot harder to find out if any of this stuff was actually true. This idea is laughable now, but I remember being intrigued at the time. I hadnt come across such mind-blowing ideas ever before All I remember of the book now is that opening the third eye, which Lobsang Rampa equated with achieving clairvoyance, involved a surgical procedure at the front of the skull. This was why the books kept being reprinted through the sixties and seventies. There were other accounts of life in Tibet from adventurers such as Heinrich Harrer, whose Seven Years in Tibet, published in 1952, has sold well over 3 million copies.īut Lobsang Rampas focus on personal spirituality, from a perspective that many Westerners had never come across, was absolutely riveting. He and his wife, San Raab, became Canadian citizens in 1973, along with Sheelagh Rouse (Buttercup) who was his secretary and regarded by Rampa as his adopted daughter. The name Tuesday relates to a claim in The Third Eye that Tibetans are named after the day of the week on which they were born.įaced with repeated accusations from the British press that he was a charlatan and a con artist, Rampa went to live in Canada in the 1960s. But for some of us, in the second half of our lives, his name is redolent with powerful associations positive and otherwise. ![]()
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