Lord of the Dance (The Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama)

TIBETAN CONVERSATIONS and even dharma discourses are filled with stories, stories to pass time, stories to illustrate points. The stories of Tibet that I told to my Western students fascinated them and they often urged me to write them down. After entreaties from many people, the writing of this book was catalyzed by Lisa Leghorn. I told my stories on tape, and Tsering Everest, my interpreter, rephrased my English, which is still not perfect. My wife Jane Tromge then reworked the transcriptions of the tapes so that the oral narrative became this book. She received encouragement and editorial assistance from Lisa, Mary Racine, Bob Tajima, Linda Baer and many other people in a process I thought would take a few months but in the end has taken almost four years.

Now I am preparing for another journey into Tibet, again uncertain about Chinese permissions and the conditions we will find. At home-for the United States is really my home and I am a citizen-I have numerous students, many well grounded in spiritual practice. Artworks are being created, texts are being published and an enormous prayer wheel in California spins the blessings of hundreds of millions of mantras in all directions. Though the play of impermanence will gather and disperse, may any virtue endure and benefit forever.

**Sample Pages**