The Warrior Song of King Gesar by Douglas J Penick

The Warrior Song of King Gesar by Douglas J Penick

The Gesar epic encompasses a vast range of ancient Central Asian cultural and spiritual traditions. At its center, Gesar, King of Ling battles tirelessly in a world riven by greed, confusion, fear, and religious ambition to open pathways to an enlightened society. The Warrior Song of King Gesar follows the unbroken heritage of that warrior tradition and presents the saga of Gesar's life, from the hardships of his youth through his great battles against the demonic enemies of the four directions. This ever evolving epic tradition continues to inspire people in diverse societies by showing that, despite failures, an unsparing spiritual journey is integral to a secular life and that, despite defeats, such a quest is inseparable from working towards true social harmony. The Venerable Tulku Thondup's introduction is uniquely valuable for its profound scholarship and contains the only account in English of King Gesar's mind teachings. * I hope that the wisdom, imagination, and humor with which Douglas Penick has conveyed both Gesar's story and the energy of his being will rouse unconditional confidence throughout the world. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, head of Shambhala International, author of Making the Mind into an Ally, and Ruling Your World. The Warrior Song of King Gesar maintains traditional Asian epic genres and conventions while simultaneously transforming them into a completely contemporary vehicle of expression. The book captures in a remarkable way the nomadic warrior traditions from which Gesar's inner life emerged while uncovering the personal reality hidden within them. This work then is not a 're-telling' of the Gesar saga, but an authentic continuation of that tradition which thus becomes available to modern audiences in new and provocative ways. Kidder Smith- former Professor of Chinese History at Bowdoin College, author of articles on the East Asian classics, lead translator in the Denma Translation Group's Sun Tzu's Art of War.

Douglas Penick graduated from Princeton University, was a research associate at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, and a chef at Gordon Matta Clark's Food. He studied and practiced Tibetan Buddhism for more than 35 years, and has written and taught on Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian religion, history and culture. He wrote the National Film Board of Canada's prize winning two part series on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Leonard Cohen, narrator) and the libretti for two operas: King Gesar (Sony CD w/ Ma, Serkin, Ax et. al.) and Ashoka's Dream (Santa Fe Opera) with composer, Peter Lieberson. His short fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in Bombay Gin, The Shambhala Sun, Parabola, Porte Des Singes, Cahiers de L'Herne, Publishers Weekly, Agni. BODY, Corvus, Danse Macabre Hyperallergic, Descant, Regnum Sacrum and elsewhere.He is the author of two other books deriving from the epic cycle on the life of King Gesar of Ling, and his novel about the 3rd Ming Emperor, JOURNEY OF THE NORTH STAR was brought out by Publerati in 2012. DREAMERS AND THEIR SHADOWS, a tale of a mythical teacher and those he influenced across time will be published this year.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780974597461
ISBN 10	0974597465
Title	The Warrior Song of King Gesar
Author	Douglas J Penick
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Mountain Treasury Press
Year published	2013-07-26
Number of pages	172
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.