Glimpses of Abhidharma

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View books by Trungpa Tulku Chogyam Trungpa.

A guided tour of your mind. - Rated
In this book, Trungpa Rinpoche gives a detailed overview of the Abhidharma which deals with the five skandhas (form, feeling, perception, intellect and consciousness),how these relate to our individual psychological states of mind and how to free ourselves from them.

In a nutshell, the book is a guided tour of the mind and the ways in which we choose to remain in deluded ignorance and suffering. The structure of the text is around short presentations made by Trungpa followed by speculation and questioning by the audience.

A number of detailed and interesting topics come up during this extended conversation (emptiness, LSD, Zen, tantra, boredom, agression, desire and ego to name a few.) Trungpa often uses the notion of space to playfully alert us to the possibilities inherent in any situation and the clumsy, painful ways we usually choose to work with ourselves, others and our environment.

"We end up being haunted by our own desire and perceptions because we put so much onto them. Finally, our own creation becomes destructive to us"

Yet at the same time, Trungpa points out that these Buddhist teachings are not "self-help" instructions but simply hints or pointers in the right direction. Everything is up to you.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is studying Buddhism and/or Psychology. It is not an introductory text and I would suggest reading "Cutting through Spiritual Materialism" and/or "The Myth of Freedom" before reading this. However, it's definitely worth having a look at and I found it very helpful and illuminating as part of my Buddhist studies.