The Magical Adventures of the Sixth Dalai Lama: His Life and Loves

＂Annie Bien and Robert Thurman invite us into the secret heart of the Sixth Dalai Lama, where poetry and politics dance as one.＂ Deepak Chopra, author and spiritual teacher

Annie Bien and Robert Thurman lead you through The Magical Adventures of The Sixth Dalai Lama: His Life and Loves, a historical novel on the life and world of the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (1683-1706). Based on period sources and official biographies, his life unfolds in the form of a third level Tibetan biography, a secret liberation story that reveals the meditative state and actions of a siddha, an accomplished master or saint. His poetry sings the narrative thread of his life, revealing his magical activist deeds to shape the complex relationships entangling Tibet and to benefit the surrounding countries of Mongolia, China, and India, while offering a vision of future benefit to the whole planet, including the West. This story explores the possibility that the Sixth Dalai Lama renounced his monk’s vows to channel his holy messiah’s love of living beings into the life of a layperson, to descend from iconic isolation in his monastic Potala palace to be nearer to the lives of his people, protect his Tibetan nation and its lay and monastic communities, pacify the war-torn Central Asian geopolitics of Mongol and Manchu conquerors and their Chinese subjects, and promote the sophisticated spiritual sciences, freedom-loving culture, and mystical language of his beloved Tibet. The Sixth Dalai Lama’s love poems are filled with humor and longing, joy and dismay, with expressions that touch the profound and evoke the essence of being human.

Annie Bien has published two poetry collections, Plateau Migration, and Under Shadows of Stars, won a LISP flash fiction prize, and an A3 Press Pamphlet prize for Messages from Under a Pillow, which includes her own illustrations. She is an English translator from Tibetan into English at 84000. She teaches Tibetan Buddhist meditation and Qigong at Tibet House US.

Robert Thurman is Professor Emeritus of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and President of Tibet House US, City Center and Menla Healing Retreat, in service of HH Dalai Lama, his close friend and teacher for over 60 years. He is a worldwide teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, passionate activist in service of the Tibetan people, skilled translator of Buddhist texts, and writer of popular Buddhist books. His most recent books include the 300-page graphic novel Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet, and his summa, Wisdom is Bliss: Four Friendly Fun Facts that Can Change Your Life. In partnership with Nena Thurman and dedicated contributors, he focuses on making Tibet House US and its Menla Retreat & Spa a global center for the promotion, study, and practice of Tibetan Buddhist healing arts and sciences of body, mind, and spirit, dedicated as a complement to the vast life work of its founding patron, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Website: www.thus.org and www.menla.org.