This week we’re giving away the eBook edition of The Yogi’s Joy by Sangharakshita.
Sangharakshita was particularly drawn to Milarepa and his hundred thousand songs of liberation. Milarepa was a fascinating character who lived in Tibet in the 11th century CE. Bitter and vengeful as a young man, he underwent a gruelling and humbling discipleship under his teacher, Marpa. Later, he went on to become a solitary yogi who travelled and practised in remote caves under extreme conditions. His body is said to have turned green from living on nettles. Milarepa exemplifies the figure of the liberated ascetic, full of love and connection with the landscape and spirits around him. The Yogi’s Joy is compiled from three of the eleven seminars Sangharakshita gave on Milarepa.
We’re offering The Yogi’s Joy to support the online summer retreat ‘The Fire of Joy’. If you find this book helpful, you could also read the text that came from the rest of Sangharakshita’s Milarepa seminars, published across two volumes of his Complete Works under the title Milarepa and the Art of Discipleship. You can find the first volume here and the second volume here. We’ve created a discount code fireofjoy that you can use at checkout to get a 10% discount on paperback, hardback or eBook of either or both volumes. It is valid for one purchase per user and expires on the 31st of August.
Milarepa exemplifies the Dharma life lived as a yogi. Sangharakshita knew that the conditions and desire for living in this way are hard to come by these days. But he insisted that the spirit of Milarepa can still be brought into our lives as we live them – through intensity, commitment to wisdom and the bliss and happiness of practice. Sangharakshita’s work of translating the Dharma from traditional to contemporary life hinged on his belief that collective situations and commitments can be just as effective for overcoming delusion and ‘ego’ through spiritual friendship and through taking responsibility for your mental states. So, in the August sale we’ve included four books that have come from that belief. They seek to bring the intensity and wholeheartedness of Milarepa’s practice into diverse elements of life.
A Path for Parents: What Buddhism Can Offer by Sara Burns (Karunagita) has been reduced from £11.99 to £8.99. Karunagita is part of a team offering online classes for parents every second Sunday.
Thicker than Blood: Friendship on the Buddhist Path by Maitreyabandhu is a personal reflection on friendship as a path of practice. We’re offering it for £7.50 this month.
The next sale book is a colouring book for times when you could use some mindfulness support. The drawings are by Āloka, who has been creating an aesthetic of the transcendent and inspiring that takes traditional images and re-imagines them into contemporary drawings and paintings that serve a practice community. The Windhorse Colouring Book is on sale for £7.50 this month.
Sangharakshita put the Sangha at the centre of his vision of a contemporary and intensive Dharma path. He envisaged intensive situations for relationship and practice in friendship, ordination, and collective living and working situations. He called this the practice of spiritual community. The Triratna Story: Behind the Scenes of a New Buddhist Movement by Vajragupta gives an account of the ups and downs of that vision and its embodiment. It is available during August for £7.50.
