Entering the Diamond Way: Tibetan Buddhism Meets the West
- Book Review,
by Ole Nydahl
Book Description
Lama Ole Nydahl has now set up over 350 Karma Kagyu Buddhist Centers throughout the world, which are under the spiritual guidance of the 17th Karmapa Thaye Dorje. Entering the Diamond Way is about his entrance into Buddhism about 35 years ago now. This is the genuinely compelling story, and spiritual odyssey, of Ole and Hannah Nydahl, who in 1968 became the first Western students of the great Tibetan master, His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. Their exciting travels on the worn path between the green lowlands of Europe to the peaks of the Himalayas, led them to experience the skillful teachings of numerous Tibetan lamas who helped transform their lives into "limiteless clarity and joy." From their first contact with Tibetan Buddhism in Kathmandu in the form of a lama with extraordinary psychic powers, Ole and Hannah encountered the full spectrum of the Buddhist "view." Their real aim in writing this book is "to form a bridge between two worlds, and especially to share with all who are looking for their true being ... an introduction to a time-proven way to Enlightenment." After being recognized and trained by some of the greatest lamas of the Kagyu lineage, Ole now transmits the blessings of the lineage and travels as authorized lama and Buddhist meditation master, teaching and establishing centers of Tibetan Buddhism, while Hannah is a much sought-after translator. Their countless friends everywhere work hard to assure that the prophecy of Padmasambhava is fulfilled: "When the fire ox drives on wheels and the iron bird flies everywhere, my teachings will come to the land of the white man."
About the Author
Ole Nydahl originally was from Denmark and studied with the Karmapa as well as many other lamas. He has become a lama himself, traveling throughout the world. He has now set up over 180 Buddhist centers in the Western World.
Excerpted from Entering the Diamond Way: My Path Among the Lamas by Ole Nydahl. Copyright © 1990. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Our Honeymoon Journey Choosing Nepal for our honeymoon in the summer of 1968 was no bad idea. It was the very time in history when the early and still idealistic Hippie scene of Europe and the old schools of Tibetan Buddhism could meet, giving direction to the former and a chance for the latter not to end up in museums but survive as a living practice. Years of traveling the worn paths between the green lowlands of Northern Europe and the icy peaks of the Himalayas would follow, bringing forth lay and yogic Diamond Way Buddhism as it thrives today. For the first time in history, the meeting of Western idealism and intelligent Asian materialism now combine vast and formerly untried aspects of mind's potential. As my lovely wife Hannah, myself, and later so many fine friends discovered, what appeared was a tool to master life. The Diamond Way expertly transforms disturbed states of consciousness into most enjoyable clarity and bliss. In a completely practical way, it makes every aspect of life useful towards liberation and enlightenment. In the exciting company of co-smugglers and other adventurous friends during those years, it was possible to spend real time with the highest Tibetan and Bhutanese lamas. Their examples and exceedingly skillful teachings inspired us, and after a careful examination they chose us as partners in bringing their powerful transmissions and meditations into the West. The main aim of this book is to recount what happened when the best of two so different but valuable cultures met. Its continuation, Riding the Tiger, will describe the following maturation of the work. It may have been the only case in history when experienced people from two advanced civilizations so consciously tried to learn the best from each other. With the tragic losses of the last years, during which several of the old lamas holding a full inner and secret transmission have died, it feels good to reprint a book that shares the atmosphere of that first encounter. Hannah was twenty-two and I twenty-seven when we first met living Diamond Way Buddhism. Our parents were teachers at colleges in the residential areas north of Copenhagen. They were precious people, and we grew up in a world full of confidence in the fundamental goodness of man. Though we were raised in a completely humanistic setting from earliest childhood, I had recurrent, exciting dreams of war in mountain areas which I had never seen. In them, I beat back round-faced soldiers and protected what I could then only understand as men in red, ladies' clothes. Not until 25 years later, when I saw the first Tibetan monks in Nepal, did I understand what they were, and only 45 years later, on a secret tour through Chinese-occupied eastern Tibet, did I see the mountains and villages which I had fought to protect. Also in this life, I automatically fought anything bigger - be it people or systems - that would limit my freedom. Hannah was just as independent but worked with things inwardly instead of bashing the outer world....
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