Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines: Seven Books of Wisdom of the Great Path, According to the Late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English Rendering 3rd Edition

Where else are you going to find such detailed instructions in Tibetan yoga techniques? I have located an English translation of one of the manuscripts that make up this work, but I haven't found the same for the other manuscripts. It's one reason Wentz's book is still in print. If you go to the organizations that sell newer texts on Tibetan yoga, only the basics are available. More advanced techniques are restricted and you must have permission to purchase based on your history of study under relevant teachers.This book isn't for beginners. I purchased it back in 2005 and it sat on my shelf for years. It helps to already have an established practice of yoga and meditation. Tibetan yoga requires a lot of visualization and the ability to feel subtle energy in the body. You could get by with strong concentration and visualization skills and, through working with the exercises, eventually feel the channels. If you really want to dive into Tibetan yoga as a beginner, maybe "Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep" is a better choice. It still requires the same skills, but the book's layout is more approachable. Wentz's book is very dense and filled with footnotes. Another reason it is not for beginners is that advanced techniques could unleash energies or impulses in the body or psyche that a student isn't prepared for. Learning hatha yoga asana or yantra yoga ahead of time would be wise.Yes, Wentz was a theosophist. But don't be scared off by that. This seemed to have no influence on the translations themselves--only on his expository writings. The person who wrote the new forward points out there are some translation mistakes, but these were honest mistakes, not distortions from looking through Theosophist lens. Another reviewer said the foreward led him to believe Wentz didn't know what he was doing. Trust me, the vast majority of instructions in this book are very straightforward and none of them have a Theosophist/universalist haze cast over them. Sit like this, tuck the tongue upward, visualiize this symbol or syllable at this energy center, etc. Compare that to instructions in some of the historical Indian yoga texts and you will appreciate how crystal clear this all is. It is amazing source material and Wentz's translator did a fine job.

It is one of the most wonderful reading I had.

This was my first introduction to this disapline many years ago and I was very glad to find it in this format so it could be referenced as I place my years and travels along side these teachings.

good

I would recommend this book to any serious "practician" of yoga. It is Filled with phenomenal information; a must read.

Love it!!!

good

I read the Foreword and discovered that Evans-Wentz didn't really know what he was doing. That author states the books are "fraught with problems: errors in translation, inaccurate dates, misattributions of authorship, mistatements of fact, unjustified flights of interpretation." Also, it would seem that Evans-Wentz was a theosophist and "translated" everything through that lens. So a large part of the book, the author's introductions to the various books, really needed to be ignored. The seven books themselves were interesting enough, but they really needed some sort of scholarly interpretation to make them stand out. In short, just not what I was looking for.