I am sometimes asked by some readers to explain the meaning behind the title of my third Dalai Lama’s Cat book, The Power of Meow. Just as the second title, The Art of Purring is a play on The Art of Happiness – a book closely associated with His Holiness – this third title is a similarly...
Earlier this month, Robert Gajdos and the team at Synergie Publishing hosted the launch of my novel The Magician of Lhasa in Prague, Czech Republic. Launch activities included a signing at Neoluxor Books – a very large bookshop in Wenceslas Square – and a separate media launch. Two Czech TV and theatre stars, Ivana Jiresova...
Prologue I am ashamed to have to begin this book with a confession. A revelation so embarrassing I’d much rather not be making it. Living with the Dalai Lama, surrounded by monks at Namgyal Monastery, and constantly encountering the most revered meditation masters in Tibetan Buddhism, one would assume that among my many admirable qualities...
In my book, The Power of Meow, the Dalai Lama’s Cat begins with an embarrassing confession: “Living with the Dalai Lama, surrounded by monks at Namgyal Monastery, and constantly encountering the most revered meditation masters in Tibetan Buddhism, one would assume that among my many admirable qualities I am an accomplished meditator. Alas, dear reader, I...
Buddhism is well-known as a tradition of inner transformation. But great practitioners down the ages have also emphasised that freeing ourselves from suffering depends on others. Progress in our inner development goes hand and hand with our outward behaviour. It is no coincidence that of the six perfections taught by Buddha, we practise the first...
I have always been a big fan of Clive James’s work (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_James) and was saddened to hear some time ago that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. True to form, Clive has not allowed this diagnoses to stop his ongoing and amusing flow of insights, and in yesterday’s Sunday Times (UK) there was a...
Feel like a quick taster of The Dalai Lama’s Cat and The Power of Meow? Please click below for my 4 minute reading of the Prologue. If you’d like to make sure you’re among the first to get your paws on the book, I highly recommend that you pre-order from your local bookstore, or...
My office desk overlooks a street on which people in the neighbourhood walk their dogs every day. In the past ten years I’ve noticed a trend that saddens me. Instead of taking their dogs for a walk as they used to, these days many people are more likely to be hunched over their phones while...
The first book I wrote about Buddhism was called Buddhism for Busy People. That was back in 2004, when there weren’t many books providing an introduction to the key concepts in Tibetan Buddhism. Buddhism for Busy People is also a very personal account, relating my own encounter with Buddha’s teachings (the Dharma), why they resonated...
I am often struck by what I think is one of life’s greatest paradoxes: even though our entire experience of reality depends on our mind, most people have no idea what mind actually is. Everything we perceive, think and feel arises only with mind’s participation. That being the case, wouldn’t it be useful to have...
