My Spiritual Journey - Hardcover

The world knows the public face of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

We have read about his near escape from Tibet after the Chinese invasion, his nobel Peace Prize, and his friendships with world leaders, Hollywood actors, and scientists around the world. But what are his inner, personal thoughts on his own spiritual life? For the first time and in his own words, the Dalai Lama charts his spiritual journey from his boyhood days in rural Tibet to his years as a monk in the capital city of Dharamsala, to his life in exile as a world leader and symbol of peace.

My Spiritual Journey provides a vivid and moving portrait of the Dalai Lama’s life journey that is personal in tone but universal in scope. He explores three phases or commitments of his spiritual life—as a human being, as a Buddhist monk, and as the Dalai Lama—each of which has made him more dedicated to exploring and teaching human values and inner happiness, promoting harmony among all religions, and advocating for the civil rights and well-being of the Tibetan people.

At the age of two, little Tenzin Gyatso was identified as the fourteenth reincarnation of the first Dalai Lama. From then on, his life has been on a trajectory few can imagine. Some see him as a living Buddha and moral authority, others identify him as a “god-king,” while still others see him in political terms as either ahero or a counterrevolutionary. In My Spiritual Journey, we see the personal struggles, the courage, the laughter, and the compassion that have defined the remarkable life of one of our world’s greatest living legends.

His Holiness the Fourteenth DALAI LAMA, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and of Tibetan Buddhism. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in 2007. He is the author of, among many other books, the international bestseller An Appeal to the World and the New York Times bestseller The Book of Joy, which he coauthored with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He lives in exile in Dharamsala, India.

Sofia Stril-Rever has coauthored four books with the Dalai Lama (including his My Spiritual  Autobiography, translated in some twenty languages). With lawyers of the Paris Bar, international climate experts and renowned scientists, she has initiated the Better We Better World training program (www.betterwebetterworld.org) to tackle environmental and societal challenges with the practices of compassion and universal responsibility, promoted by the Dalai Lama as keys to human survival in the
twenty-first century.