Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Way Things Are A Living Approach to for Today's World by Recordings. Recordings of Diamond Way Buddhist meditations on CD are available in our Buddhist centers. Podcasts. Ole Nydahl has recorded some Buddhist teachings as podcasts, available for free. Topics include: The Three Levels of Buddha’s Teachings The Nature of Mind Meditation Differentiating Mind from Brain Karma – Cause and Effect What does a Buddha Teach? What is a Buddha? Introduction to Buddhism. Audiobooks. The Way Things Are – Audiobook A Living Approach to Buddhism for Today’s World 2009 Text read by Lindsay Brusova and Norris Bennett MP3 AUDIOBOOK CD. The Way Things Are: A Living Approach to Buddhism for Today's World by Ole Nydahl. The Way Things Are is more than a Buddhist textbook. It is a living transmission of Buddha's deep wisdom, given by a Western Buddhist Master. Trough the four meditations included, the reader is invited to experience the liberating and powerful methods of . Lama Ole Nydahl - Buddha and Love: Timeless Wisdom for Modern Relationships. Buddha & Love explores all aspects of love and partnership from a Buddhist perspective. Covering a broad spectrum of topics such as sexuality, infidelity, parenting, and divorce. Lama Ole Nydahl, a Buddhist Lama in the Karma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, explains how a Buddhist approach to relationships can help us to relax our minds, break bad habits, and use relationships to grow ourselves and benefit everyone around us. Unafraid of taboo topics, and free from sappy cliches and political correctness, Nydahl provides modern people with practical advice on how to love better. Lama Ole Nydahl - Fearless Death. For centuries Tibetan Buddhist masters have uncovered joy and meaning in the dying process. For them death is not a mystery. They know what will happen and see it as a great chance for spiritual development. Fearless Death makes their teachings accessible to the modern West. In Fearless Death Lama Ole Nydahl condenses the information he learned from years spent with great Buddhist masters in the East. Lama Ole Nydahl - The Great Seal. The Great Seal Limitless Space & Joy The View of Lama Ole Nydahl’s refreshing and modern commentary to this classic Buddhist text about the nature of mind makes these teachings accessible to many people. Lama Ole Nydahl - Entering the Diamond Way. A perfect book to introduce Westerners to Tibetan Buddhism. This is the genuinely compelling story, and spiritual odyssey, of Ole and , who in 1968 became the first Western students of the great Tibetan master, His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa . Their exciting travels on the worn path between the green lowlands of to the peaks of the , led them to experience the skillful teachings of numerous Tibetan who helped transform their lives into "limitless clarity and joy." Lama Ole Nydahl - Riding the Tiger. Riding the Tiger is the inside story of the establishment of Diamond Way . In his refreshingly unsentimental style, Lama Ole shares all aspects of the work, highlighting both healthy and unhealthy tendencies. Shining through the whole story is the Buddha’s ultimate aim, and the goal of Lama Ole’s life: to fully develop beings, to bring them to a state of such complete joy, fearlessness, and love that their every action blesses the world. The Way Things Are: A Living Approach to Buddhism. The world’s #1 eTextbook reader for students. VitalSource is the leading provider of online textbooks and course materials. More than 15 million users have used our Bookshelf platform over the past year to improve their learning experience and outcomes. With anytime, anywhere access and built-in tools like highlighters, flashcards, and study groups, it’s easy to see why so many students are going digital with Bookshelf. titles available from more than 1,000 publishers. customer reviews with an average rating of 9.5. digital pages viewed over the past 12 months. institutions using Bookshelf across 241 countries. The Way Things Are: A Living Approach to Buddhism by Lama Ole Nydahl and Publisher John Hunt Publishing. Save up to 80% by choosing the eTextbook option for ISBN: 9781780998459, 1780998457. The print version of this textbook is ISBN: 9781846940422, 1846940427. The Way Things Are: A Living Approach to Buddhism by Lama Ole Nydahl and Publisher John Hunt Publishing. Save up to 80% by choosing the eTextbook option for ISBN: 9781780998459, 1780998457. The print version of this textbook is ISBN: 9781846940422, 1846940427. Way Things Are, The. It is my wish that through this book, the seed of is planted in the reader's mind. By putting the teachings presented here into practice, may they accomplish the ultimate goal of Enlightenment for the benefit of all. Trinlay Thaye Dorje, the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Years of travel and search for adventure matured in 1968 when Hannah and Ole Nydahl met the great Tibetan lamas in . Having fled south into during the Communist Chinese occupation of their country and facing the loss of their timeless wisdom, these masters of meditation readily imparted to the eager Danes the view of the Great Seal Mahamudra and the methods of Diamond Way Buddhism. Trained in the Himalayas until the autumn of 1972, the Nydahls were first directed by the great Lopon Tsechu and then adopted by 's first incarnate lama, the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, who asked them to work in the West. Since then they have traveled around the world twice a year, with Lama Ole teaching nearly every night. They have written half a dozen books, translated into over twenty languages. To date they have founded, with the help of their countless students and friends, over 560 meditation centers for the lay Diamond Way Buddhist . Until her death in 2007, Hannah also organized study courses of traditional learning and Tibetan translations under the spiritual guidance of the 17th Karmapa and Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche. Lama Ole, one of the few qualified western lamas of the Karma Kagyu tradition, provides a fresh, exciting summary of Buddha’s timeless wisdom. This seminal work offers the liberating and powerful methods of Diamond Way () Buddhism for readers seeking to incorporate Buddhist practice into their daily lives. Lama Ole Nydahl began teaching at the request of H. H. the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. He has established over 450 Diamond Way Buddhist centres in the Western world. Reader Reviews. Click on the circles below to see more reviews. The Way Things Are: A Living Approach to Buddhism for Today's World by Lama Ole Nydahl introduces us to the Buddha's teachings and how to apply them in our daily lives. This book is broken up into three parts. In the first part, "Buddha's Life and Teachings" we are given a brief introduction to the Buddha's life. We are also taught The , The Great Way, and The Diamond Way, among other things. In part two, "TakIng the Buddhist Path" we are taught how to apply these teachings to our lives. My favorite part is the third part, "Meditations" in which we are given meditations to do which can enrich our lives and help us gain insight. Each of the meditations also corresponds to a level of the Buddha's teachings. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to those who wish to gain insight into Buddhism in today's world and also the Buddha's teachings. The Way Things Are is informative, well written and will be of interest to students of Buddhism and to all seekers of enlightenment irrespective of their particular faiths. David Anstey, New Vision. This book, which clarifies the Buddha's teachings in an accessible and contemporary format, has proved a popular and useful resource for students of Buddhism since its first publication. This revised and expanded edition will doubtlesslyl be even more influential in acquainting people with the path to liberation and Enlightenment. Lama Ole Nydahl is one of the closest disciples of my predecessor and a qualified teacher who transmits the flawless teachings of the Karma Kagyu lineage. Through his activity over the last three decades, he has benefited many by presenting the profound methods of the Buddha, and the Diamond Way is one of the many methods relevant to people in the West. It is my wish that through this book, the seed of Buddhahood is planted in the reader's mind. By putting the teachings presented here into practice, may they accomplish the ultimate goal of Enlightenment for the benefit of all. Trinlay Thaye Dorje, the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Head of the Karma Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. The concepts of Buddhist belief are often quite difficult for the average western mind. The right teacher truly makes all the difference. The Way Things Are is written by Lama Ole Nydahl. This man truly has a gift. He takes the basic concepts of Buddhism and relates them to his readers in such a natural way. Moreover, he connects these notions to living in 21st century America. If you are looking for a basic understanding of Buddhism, The Way Things Are is a very good choice. You get a very good overview that you can actually understand. The author also provides some invaluable hints on how to find a good master. Ole Nydahl. Lama Ole Nydahl (born March 19, 1941) is a Danish Lama in the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Since the early 1970s, Nydahl has toured the world giving lectures and meditation courses. With his wife, Hannah Nydahl, he founded Diamond Way Buddhism, a worldwide Karma Kagyu Buddhist organization of lay practitioners. Nydahl is the author of nine books in English, including The Way Things Are, Entering the Diamond Way, and Riding the Tiger. Early life and education. Ole Nydahl was born in and grew up in . In the early 1960s, he served briefly in the Danish Army, then studied philosophy, English, and German at the University of Copenhagen, where he completed the examen philosophicum with the best possible grade. He began but did not finish a doctoral thesis on Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception. As a young man, Nydahl was involved in boxing, race car driving and also travelled overland from Denmark to Nepal several times. As described in his book "Entering the Diamond Way", his travels were financed through smuggling, for which he was once arrested and detained in Denmark. Involvement with Buddhism. Buddhist Education. In 1968, Nydahl and his wife Hannah travelled to Nepal on their honeymoon. Ole and Hannah Nydahl's first Buddhist teacher was the Drukpa Kagyu master Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche. In December 1969, the Nydahls met Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Karmapa. They were among the first Western students of the Karmapa and grew close to him. The Nydahls also became students of , the fourteenth . From the Karmapa, the Nydahls learned about Vajrayana Buddhism and mahamudra. From the Shamarpa, they took the vows and learned about Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation. They have received teachings and empowerments from various Tibetan lamas, including the . In 1972, Ole Nydahl was appointed a Buddhist teacher by the Karmapa and was sent back to Europe in order to promote Buddhism in the West. In 1983, the Shamarpa named Nydahl a Buddhist master. In 1995, Khenpo Chödrak Thenpel Rinpoche named Nydahl a lama on behalf of the Buddhist Institutes of the Gyalwa Karmapa. Nydahl has been criticised for never going on a three-year retreat, which is a prerequisite for use of the title 'lama' in some traditions of Buddhism. However, the use of the word Lama as a term of address (vs. as a title) is a more individual matter, like the term of address 'Rinpoche'. Many of the early Buddhist teachers in the Karma Kagyu tradition used the word 'Lama' as a term of address, including Marpa and , in their songs to their teachers, who had not gone on three year retreats. The Sixteenth Karmapa also stated that, "if someone has a greater wisdom and capacity for penetrating the teaching, then even without doing a three-year retreat, it is possible for one to experience definite understanding and realization." Nydahl was expressly confirmed as a lama by the Shamarpa in 2006. Teaching. Upon returning to Europe, Hannah and Ole Nydahl began to teach Buddhism and organize meditation centers, first in their native Denmark, then in and other countries. The centers belong to the Karma Kagyu lineage and operate under Ole Nydahl's practical guidance. In the early 90s, Diamond Way Buddhism was founded as a way to protect established centers during the Karmapa controversy. As of February 2012, there were 629 Diamond Way centers throughout the world. Most are in Europe, , or the United States. Ole Nydahl regularly travels between them during the year giving lectures and meditation courses. His courses cover topics such as mahamudra and . He has traveled almost constantly for the last 40 years, teaching in a new city nearly every day. His teaching activity was described and commended by the Shamarpa in 2012. Together with his students, Nydahl has created Buddhist centers that provide access to Vajrayana meditation methods without requiring an understanding of Tibetan language or culture. In the Diamond Way centers, the meditations and names of the various Buddha forms have been translated into Western languages. Ole Nydahl believes it essential for people to understand and read the meditations in their own language in order for Buddhism to become truly rooted in the West. Diamond Way centers are run entirely by volunteers; the organization does not maintain any paid staff. The organizational structure is intended to be democratic and to function on the basis of idealism and friendship. According to Buddhism Today, the Diamond Way Buddhist magazine, "hierarchical systems will not sell with independent people in the West. Nobody wants a distant teacher on a pedestal or a big organization standing on their shoulders and telling them what to think." Students in Diamond Way Centers practice the ngöndro given by Wangchuk Dorje, 9th Karmapa Lama, which are a set of four foundational practices that are intended to prepare the mind for enlightenment, a meditation on the Buddha Loving Eyes (Avalokiteśvara in , Chenrezig in Tibetan) and several forms of guru yoga or meditation on the lama (as given by the 16th Karmapa). In a newsletter dated July 9, 2010, Nydahl responded to questions about the types of practices taught in Diamond Way Centers by stating "I never taught anything I was not asked to pass on by the great Sixteenth Karmapa and that its basis was always the Guru Yogas of the . Nothing else is practiced in our now 650 Diamond Way centers world-wide where my students meditate side by side."[20] Jørn Borup, a professor of religion at Aarhus University, says that Ole Nydahl is "the most lasting influence on the Buddhist practice scene in Denmark" and "has in many ways been the icon of living Buddhism in Denmark". The total number of Nydahl's adherents is unknown, but can be estimated conservatively to include 15,000 to 70,000 students and casual sympathizers world wide. In Germany alone, the German Buddhist Union, (Deutsche Buddhistische Union) estimates that about 20,000 persons regularly visit the Diamond Way centers and groups. Role in the Karmapa controversy. When a great Tibetan lama dies, it is tradition in Tibetan Buddhism to find the next to continue the work. When the Sixteenth Karmapa died in 1981, two potential successors were found, Trinley Thaye Dorje and , causing a major split in the Karma Kagyu. Nydahl, along with the Fourteenth Shamarpa, who was one of only four lineage-holders appointed to recognize the incarnation of the Karmapa at that time, supported Trinley Thaye Dorje. It was largely because of the work of Hannah and Ole Nydahl that most European Karma Kagyu centers chose to support Trinley Thaye Dorje. As a result, 629 of the centers supporting Trinley Thaye Dorje are affiliated with Diamond Way Buddhism. The other candidate, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, was recognized by Tenzin Gyatso, . The Dalai Lama confirmed Ogyen Trinley Dorje as the Karmapa after he had been requested to do so by two of the other lineage-holders, Tai Situ Rinpoche and Gyaltsap Rinpoche, but the supporters of Trinley Thaye Dorje say that the Dalai Lama is not entitled to do so, and has never done so before. The argument that Ogyen Trinley Dorje is the Karmapa is based in part on a letter presented by Pema Tönyö Nyinje, 12th . The supporters of Ogyen Trinley claim it was written by the Sixteenth Karmapa in order to predict the identity of his future . Nydahl, the Shamarpa, and Topgala requested that the letter's authenticity be tested. They believe that the letter was written not by the Sixteenth Karmapa but by the Situpa himself. They have requested that the letter be verified by independent experts including forensic document examiners. Tai Situ has thus far refused to allow this claiming it would be a violation of a sacred object. Due to his role in the Karmapa controversy, Nydahl has been heavily criticized by the supporters of Ogyen Trinley Dorje, such as the authors Mick Brown and Lea Terhune, a student of Tai Situpa. In connection to this, some blame Nydahl for causing the 1992 split of the Karma Kagyu, although there is no evidence of this, and accuse him of breaking the samayas to his teachers, which is deprecated in (Vajrayana)]. Dispute with German Buddhist Union. There is a greater concentration of Diamond Way centers in Germany compared to elsewhere in Europe. Between late 1999 and April 2000 there was a public dispute between the German Buddhist Union and the German branch of Diamond Way, which is a member organisation of the Union. Due to of Nydahl's attitude towards , his political statements, his manner of expressing and presenting himself, and his relationships with women, there were calls for the expulsion of Nydahl's organisation from the Union. The dispute was resolved at a meeting between the two organizations on 4 October 2000; although differences were clear, they agreed to learn from the past and cooperate in the future. The conversation was described as "a first step" that "should eliminate misunderstandings, and lead to clarity and cooperation." The German branch of Diamond Way (Buddhistischer Dachverband Diamantweg) remains a member of the German Buddhist Union. Academic reception. Burkhard Scherer, a pupil of both Nydahl and Thaye Dorje, takes a historical-critical approach of Tibetan . He writes that: Lay practitioners, both patrons and tantric adepts, played a decisive role in the process of assimilation that formed Tibetan Buddhism(s). In the same way, lay people are now playing a key role during the westernization of Tibetan Buddhism(s). The Mahāsiddha / crazy yogi heritage and the medieval Tibetan doctrinal debate about teaching the Great Seal outside of the prove to be highly relevant historical precedents in the interpretation of unconventional modern/contemporary yogic/lay teachers such as the late Chogyam Trungpa and Ole Nydahl. He regrets that Nydahl continues to be ignored by Tibet scholars and argues that prevailing negative criticism from a position of suspicion by sociologists and students of New Religious Movements should be counterbalanced by positive criticism from a position of trust by Tibet scholars. . the little recent academic attention Nydahl has drawn so far come, interestingly, from European sociologists of religions who specialize in New Religious Movements and Contemporary Religions/Buddhism(s).The neglect of Modern Tibetan Buddhist movements by classically trained Tibetologists is deplorable; the historical-critical methodology of Tibetan Studies can complement sociology and anthropology and add greatly to the discourses about authenticity and legitimization of movements such as Nydahl's Diamond Way. Martin Baumann, a professor of religion at the University of Lucerne, remarked in a newspaper interview "when I listen to his [Nydahl's] alarmingly superficial formulations in his talks I can understand his critics who say that he is presenting a watered-down 'instant Buddhism', a sort of 'Buddhism light' for the West." Political Views. Nydahl is a strong proponent of human rights, and of women's rights in particular. He also has a critical view of Islam. He has called Allah a "terrible god", and has characterized Muslim beliefs as antithetical to freedom of speech and women's rights: I seriously hope, you know, that we're not losing the freedom of expression right now, that we're not losing the ability to say what we think even if we step on the toes of some gentlemen from the Near East … who like to beat their wives or stone them or whatever else they do, right? Nydahl says that he does not make political comments in his capacity as a lama, but as a "responsible, thinking human being", and that no one can make such statements from a Buddhist perspective because Buddha Shakyamuni did not comment on religious ideas founded centuries after his death. He also distinguishes the "mainstream Muslims" that he disapproves of from Sufis and Bahá'ís. An online interview with Nydahl also featured the following statement: " and Christianity are fine. Islam, I warn against. I know the Koran, I know the life story of Mohammad and I think we cannot use that in our society today." Personal life. Nydahl is not a monk and so has not taken vows of celibacy. Jørn Borup, Associate Professor of Religion at Aarhus University, notes that Nydahl "certainly isn't afraid to say that he likes the ladies, primarily his wife, who is now deceased, but also other women. This brings him into conflict with not just Islam but also, sometimes, with old-fashioned Buddhism. " Yet several well-known Vajrayana Buddhist lamas were married: Marpa the translator is said to have had nine wives; others had romantic relationships, including the 6th Dalai Lama, and the teacher who brought Buddhism to Tibet, , who had five Tantric consorts who were also his students. When asked about it, Nydahl has said: "There’s no teacher-student relationship involved in that, [. ] They’re Diamond Way Buddhists, but they’re not my students in that moment. They’re equal partners." Bibliography. Ole Nydahl has written several books in English, German and Danish, which have been translated into several other European languages.