- Paperback: 454 pages
- Publisher: State University of New York Press (Aug 1 1986)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0887061605
- ISBN-13: 978-0887061608
- Product Dimensions: 2.3 x 1.5 x 0.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 612 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #470,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
All the mahasiddhas in one volume!,
By Anders Nygaard (Denmark) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Masters of Mahamudra: Songs and Histories of the Eightyour Buddhist Siddhas (Paperback)
Dowman's book is a translation, or, as Dowman himself calls it, adaption, of a Tibetan text "Legends of the Eighty-four mahasiddhas" and is as such central among the translations of Vajrayana Buddhist texts available in English. All the biographies are given here in one volume along with a good introduction to Buddhist tantra. Along with every biography is given a short verse from another Tibetan work; the verse describes in a condensed form the nature of the given siddha's realisation. Also, after the particular biography, Dowman describes the particular practice (sadhana) of each mahasiddha, and finally, in a historiography section at the end of each legend, discusses certain factors, particulars not given in the biographies themselves, as trying to locate in time and space where the stories take place. The commentaries are what really make the book worth reading, because the legends themselves are difficult to understand. Dowman shows that these old stories are not just fairy tales about magicians. They tell something significant about how to progress spiritually, sometimes from the unlikeliest of circumstances.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 36 of 36 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
All the mahasiddhas in one volume!,
By Anders Nygaard - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Masters of Mahamudra: Songs and Histories of the Eightyour Buddhist Siddhas (Paperback)
Dowman's book is a translation, or, as Dowman himself calls it, adaption, of a Tibetan text "Legends of the Eighty-four mahasiddhas" and is as such central among the translations of Vajrayana Buddhist texts available in English. All the biographies are given here in one volume along with a good introduction to Buddhist tantra. Along with every biography is given a short verse from another Tibetan work; the verse describes in a condensed form the nature of the given siddha's realisation. Also, after the particular biography, Dowman describes the particular practice (sadhana) of each mahasiddha, and finally, in a historiography section at the end of each legend, discusses certain factors, particulars not given in the biographies themselves, as trying to locate in time and space where the stories take place. The commentaries are what really make the book worth reading, because the legends themselves are difficult to understand. Dowman shows that these old stories are not just fairy tales about magicians. They tell something significant about how to progress spiritually, sometimes from the unlikeliest of circumstances.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great,
By Sam - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Masters of Mahamudra: Songs and Histories of the Eightyour Buddhist Siddhas (Paperback)
It seems surprising that there are not more reviews of this book. I can't say anymore whether or not high-level stuff like this will be understood by anyone who is not familiar with Mahamudra or Dzogchen, but for anyone who is and somehow hasn't heard of this book, it's worth reading. At first it might seem a bit uninteresting, but there are some gems that really stick out. I think it was around story 34 and through story 44 that I really caught myself going "oh, that's great!" quite often. We are so conditioned, so used to thinking of things in a dualistic way that it is weirdly hard to penetrate that kind of thinking even after we may have already done so before. These legends have songs and advice from various gurus that illustrate 84 different people with different afflictions who attained liberation. So, out of the 84 ways, there's bound to be something that resonates with you. The one that sticks out for me was something like: "there is a space between knowing and not knowing from which all dualism arises." I should really edit this later with an exact quote (and I will), but basically, that right there clarified something for me that's always been murky. As a student, you always want to know what it is you're supposed to understand exactly and, when you're discussing nonduality, it is very hard to really pinpoint exactly what that is. This explains the problem with that situation rather concisely. Knowing and not knowing are part of duality and this explains in a nutshell why all experiences whatsoever are considered illusory and that we should hold no special importance to any of it, good or bad. Rather, we should focus on that understanding of how things exist in our experience.
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