Change of Heart: The Bodhisattva Peace Training of Chagdud Tulku
Chagdud Tulku, a beloved Tibetan Rinpoche ("precious one") who died in 2002, offers wisdom on becoming a bodhisattva, or spiritual warrior of compassion. His student, Lama Shenpen Drolma, has edited this collection from a variety of talks and training seminars Tulku gave during the last 14 years of his life. All individuals, Tulku believed, can benefit from Bodhisattva Peace Training, his system of teaching others to understand human interconnectedness and alleviate suffering. Tulku explores ways to develop equanimity, transform an angry heart, awaken compassion, understand the root causes of suffering, contemplate impermanence and purify oneself from within. Most of the book adopts a question-and-answer format, with dialogue taken from transcripts of Tulku's real training seminars. This give-and-take is an inherent part of the book's success in illuminating difficult teachings and placing them into some kind of practical context. In the anger chapter, for example, the students challenge Tulku to unpack his statements that "anger is never useful" or that "there is no such thing as the right to be angry." One student, an advocate for battered women, believes that abused persons can and should become angry about their circumstances, and that anger can be a catalyst to change. Tulku answers that anger is a fleeting response that cannot be depended upon to change unjust situations, and in fact usually compounds them. There is some repetition of ideas throughout the book, but considering its origin in Tulku's unedited talks, it coheres very well as a seamless whole.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.