Author:Dalai Lama
In Stages of Meditation, His Holiness offers his highly practical views on the subject of meditation: how to meditate, the various different procedures and approaches we can take, what we and others may gain from it. He explains how we can develop a spiritual path in a proper sequence rather than in a scattered, piecemeal fashion. He also shows the importance of building up both method and wisdom, as well as cultivating compassion and 'special insight' as we train our minds.
This impressive and stimulating book will not only bring the Dalai Lama - one of the world's most popular and pragmatic spiritual leaders - to a huge new audience but, because so many people round the globe are now practising meditation, from a basis of religious faith or none, this is a work which will doubtless be in print for many years to come.
a source of guidance and direction, as well as encouragement and inspiration for anyone
—— Here's HealthGray has consistently anticipated the shape of things to come ... he teaches us that true humanism is to be found in uncertainty and doubt
—— Will SelfThe closest thing we have to a window-smashing French intellectual
—— Andrew MarrA visionary ... one of the most reliably provocative and heterodox voices in British intellectual life today
—— New StatesmanGray is a philosophical maverick, a pricker of bubbles, a deflater of balloons, a true iconoclast for whom our chief competing accounts of existence - the religious and the humanist - are both fatally flawed
—— Globe and MailDeeply thoughtful, brilliantly narrated
—— Raymond Tallis , Literary ReviewA romp of a read ... John Gray is a connoisseur of human idiocy
—— John Banville , GuardianOur sharpest critic of utopian fantasies skewers the crazed but enduring dream of cheating age, time and death
—— Boyd Tonkin , IndependentJohn Gray, the counter-prophet who scorns all claims that humans can transcend the human condition ... You don't have to agree with Gray to enjoy the fireworks
—— Marek Kohn , IndependentElegant ... He is on to something important regarding the delusion that science consists of indefinite progress
—— Sunday TelegraphGray is an engaging writer, an entertaining historian and a controversialist whose opinions can never be taken for granted
—— New StatesmanYou will come across...a fresh eye, and a clear perspective, in Sadakat Kadri's new book, Heaven on Earth. Learned, level-headed, engaging, Kadri's "journey through Shari'a law" deserves praise on every front
—— IndependentThis is an extremely valuable book...Knowing this stuff is important, and Kadri takes us through it wonderfully well. He has a great grasp of the facts and – this is my favourite thing – a good, dry sense of humour
—— Nick Lezzard , GuardianSuperb… So much discussion of sharia is marred by misinformation and paranoia: this level-headed book provides a timely corrective
—— David Evans , Independent on SundayHe describes both landscapes and humans in sharp poetic detail and provides a deceptively simple account of both the inner and outer journey.
—— The WeekIn an elegiac mood and powerful prose. Thubron considers the significance of his journey, the poetry and politics of the region, and the bleak landscapes that reflect solitude
—— SagaAn utterly absorbing read... An elegiac meditation on life, death, family and mortality. Beautiful
—— WanderlustThubron is an impressive prose stylist..he writes with great elegiac precision
—— Times Literary SupplementIt's a pleasure to follow Colin Thubron's hesitant pilgrimage ... the last of the great post-war British travel writers
—— Waterstone's Books QuarterlyAmid the desolation there is a beauty that comes not only from the things that Thubron chooses to describe but from the way in which he describes them
—— TabletWhat Thubron provides in his inimitable way is an account of both fellow pilgrimsand himself
—— GeographicalWonderfully poetic tale
—— CompassColin Thurbron's ode to a mystical mountain in Tibet... Not to be missed
—— Daily TelegraphThis latest travelogue confirms Colin Thubron as one of the greatest contemporary travel writers
—— Time OutI am haunted by its spare simplicity and beauty
—— Simon Winchester , Daily Telegraph, summer readingHis measures prose matches the region's stark beauty. Refreshing
—— Financial Timeshaunting and profound
—— Sunday Express MagazineThis pure artist of the voyage looks back backwards and within, to his late mother and his childhood, as well as up to the Himalayan peaks and peoples that he sumptuously evokes
—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent, Books of the Year[An] elegiac account of high-altitude piety...he's still one of the best in the business
—— Helen Davies , Sunday Times, Books of the YearAn absolutely terrific book. Thubron has perfect pitch. He uses the minimum of words to maximum effect. His descriptions are fresh and acute and he can convey atmosphere and emotion on the head of a pin. The journey to Mount Kailash is enthralling and he keeps the reader right beside him every inch of the way
—— Michael Palin , Observer, Books of the YearPunchy, evocative... It is a dangerous journey up to 18,000ft, where Thubron, who is mourning his mother, is hit by altitude sickness
—— Tom Chesshyre , The TimesAbook which beautifully describes one man's experience of loss and familial love
—— Joanna Kavenna , Guardian[Thubron] skilfully balances his poetic descriptions of the land and its subtle, shifting colours with human stuff - observations of his fellow travellers, encounters and personal anecdotes, snippets of history and rather interesting accounts of Tantric Buddhism, with its swirling pantheon of blue-faced demons, bodhisattvas, gods and goddesses... Thubron has recently buried his last living relative and his grieving gives depth and weight to his meditations on Tibetan Buddhism
—— Angus Clarke , The TimesThis is a superb book from a writer who over his lifetime has shown himself to be our finest modern chronicler of Asia
—— TelegraphThe keenest-eyed, least self-absorbed, of literary travellers, Colin Thubron writes with a pin-point elegance and economy that directs your gaze to a place and its people, rather than to the author's foibles... His tales of seekers, refugees and mystics richly sketch the background of Tibetan history and Buddhist belief. Above all, his lean and supple prose draws meaning and moment from every encounter. "To the pilgrims, there are no mute stones" - and not to their ultra-observant companion
—— Boyd Tonkin , IndependentHis book is interspersed with poignant passages about his late parents and sister, who died in an avalanche when he was 23. Thubron also reveals some cultural surprises.
—— Simon Shaw , Daily MailMaking a lyrical hymn out of travel writing, Thubron's evocative pilgrimage is typically poised yet, triggered by the death of his mother, also unusually personal
—— Sunday TelegraphThubron's writing is as spectacular as his surroundings so he therefore makes you feel as though you are treading the path with him
—— Charlotte Vowden , Daily Express[Thubron] doesn't just walk into the higher reaches of the Himalyas but explores his own reaches of eternity as well as the more outer regions of Buddhism and Hinduism
—— The Irish TimesDeploying a poetic blend of travel and memoir, Thubron uses Buddhism to inform reflections on the cycles of life and the meaning of suffering... it is an elegy for everything that makes us human
—— Sara Wheeler , GuardianReflections of the wheel of life are sensitively handled and the writing is as beautiful as ever
—— Anthony Sattin , Sunday TimesA new Travel Thubron is always to be savoured, but there was something valedictory and elegiac about this
—— Gavin Francis , Scotland on Sunday, Books of the Year