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Reviews
"Chan has an
amazing gift of observation and description. The book is as much an
intimate look at his own personal journey as it is a portrait of the
Dalai Lama.…In a beautiful turn of phrase that he
illuminates throughout the book, Chan says the Dalai Lama wears “his
soul on his face.” And he shares, as he has rarely done, his own
spiritual experiences….Although the book is filled with many intimate
experiences and conversations that bring this holy man into vivid view,
its most beautiful aspect is the relationship between Chan and the Dalai
Lama."
--Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Drawing
on Buddhist principles, this book loosely discusses His Holiness's ideas
on forgiveness, though Chan presents them gently through stories, not
didactically as a step-by-step how-to manual…Somehow, the book's
serious call to forgiveness becomes all the more engaging and possible
because of the Dalai Lama's own lighthearted spirit."
--Publishers
Weekly
"Chan spent weeks in the past five years hangin' with His Holiness. He was given unprecedented access to the Dalai Lama on tours and at in northern India, where Tibet's leader-in-exile has lived since 1959 when China invaded his country.
For Chan, it's all about trust. His Holiness let him into his life, and Chan takes readers behind the curtain, revealing details of the Dalai Lama's life that no one knew.
"I read chapters," His Holiness says, before turning to his trusted secretary, Tenzin Geyche Tethong, a small man in a sharp suit, to say something in Tibetan.
Tethong, who speaks just above a whisper, says to Chan: "His Holiness says he couldn't put it down."
--Palm Beach Post
"No writer--no outsider, in fact--has had a fraction of the time
Chan has spent with His Holiness since then. Chan has logged hundreds of
hours as part of the Dalai Lama's entourage, travelling worldwide to
conferences and Buddhist ceremonies, and conducting scores of daily
interviews at his residence in Dharamsala, India, observing and chatting
with the Nobel Laureate….The Wisdom of Forgiveness: Intimate
Conversations and Journeys is not a traditional book on Buddhism at all,
but instead an unprecedented look behind the scenes of the world's most
admired man. It is a book about philosophy in action, as the Dalai Lama
reflects on life, food, sickness, his own spiritual epiphanies and
failings, the famous personalities he meets, the value of compassion,
the dangers of western cynicism, the role of mental attitude in health,
modern physics, and the advantages of forgiveness over revenge….It is
clear from the book the two men are good friends. There are no secrets,
no taboo topics--and a lot of joking….The book is a powerful antidote
to 21st-century angst."
--Georgia
Straight Newspaper, Vancouver
Full Description
In 1972,
Victor Chan became the first ethnic Chinese to visit the Dalai Lama in
exile. The meeting had a profound effect on him, and he would eventually
found an organization devoted to building bridges between Chinese and
Tibetans.
Nearly 30 years
later, in 1999, Victor Chan was granted another audience with the Dalai
Lama. He asked the Dalai Lama if he would collaborate with him on a book
about his life and teachings, and the Dalai Lama agreed.
For the next
three years, Mr. Chan traveled extensively with the Dalai Lama on four
continents. His access was privileged and unprecedented—only the Dalai
Lama’s bodyguards and Panjor-la (his monk attendant) were ever closer
to him physically. He flew with him to Portugal, Hungary, Taiwan, the
Czech Republic, Germany, Norway and the Arctic Circle; in May 2001 alone
they went to nine U.S. cities in 21 days. Between the trips, Mr. Chan
and the Dalai Lama spent many hours in one-on-one interviews at his
Dharamsala residence.
THE TIBETAN MONK
AND THE CHINESE PILGRIM is a wise and gentle primer to finding joy and
contentment within. With magnificent simplicity, the Dalai Lama makes
the vast store of his wisdom available in this spiritual guide with a
difference. Highly anecdotal, it will also unfold events and
little-known incidents from the Dalai Lama’s life. It is TUESDAYS WITH
MORRIE with the world’s best-loved religious leader.
With the
tremendous recent successes of THE ART OF HAPPINESS (over 1 million
copies in print), AN OPEN HEART, and HOW TO PRACTICE, THE TIBETAN MONK
AND THE CHINESE PILGRIM is sure to be a major bestseller.
World
Rights: Contact Riverhead
Dramatic
Rights: Contact Lukeman
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