Gedun Chöpel: Tibetan Arts of Love

Author: Gedun Chöpel

Introduced and Translated by: Jeffrey Hopkins, with Dorje Yudon Yuthok

Title: Tibetan Arts of Love

Publisher: Snow Lion, Shambhala Publications Inc (1992).

A friend of mine pointed to me that this was one of the books recommended by the author of another book that I was reading, and I managed to get a loan to this book. This edition is a translation of Gedun Chöpel's "Treatise on Passion" by Jeffrey Hopkins.

In this edition, Professor Jeffrey Hopkins gave an accessible introduction to the life of Gedun Chöpel. Gedun Chöpel was a former monk considered to be highly controversial. Gedun Chöpel had travelled to India, where he learned Sanskrit and studied the Kama Sutra.

Jeffrey Hopkins pointed and highlight in the introduction how Gedun Chöpel's "Treatise on Passion" shows sensitivity and concern towards the equality of women. "Treatise on Passion" also discussed on the theme of the sexual pleasure of women and how to achieve it. Other themes that were recurrently discussed in Gedun Chöpel's "Treatise on Passion" were the relationships between sexual pleasure and spiritual insights, the ethic of love, and others.

It was interesting and eye-opening as a female reader to read on this subject matter of love, sex, orgasm and spiritual healing from Gedun Chöpel's perspective. Gedun Chöpel who had once been a monk with vows of celibacy, had travelled and read in depth, exercised independent thinking on the subject matter. It helps to please read this book with the awareness that whatever was written was from a perspective of the writer, Gedun Chöpel, who had practised as a former Tibetan monk, and the socio-cultural background that he was living in. I have found it helpful to first read the introduction by Professor Jeffrey Hopkins to gain some understanding of the context of the worldview of Gedun Chöpel and the references that he has referred to.

Please exercise independent thinking with the awareness that the book was from the lenses of the author and his understanding of the references and texts that he had read, through the translation of another person who did his best to give as close a translation as possible.

Read: Stranger in a Strange Land

Title: Stranger in a Strange Land
Author: Robert A. Heinlein
Publisher: New English Library (1991)

This book is said to be a Science Fiction Classic. I learnt that the edition that I was reading is the original edition that was first conceived and put down on paper by the author, Robert Heinlein.

This science fiction book revolves around the protagonist, Valentine Michael Smith, who is essentially a man who has been brought up as a Martian. Somehow, science fiction book did not appeal to me enough for me to resonate with every page of the book. Nevertheless, I managed to browse through and read the book pretty quickly to get the gist of it.

Possibly, the book's message could be that potentially each of us is God, and that the gift of being human is the right to love?

What struck me was the author's attempt to illustrate how the cultures and worldview of Man and Martians could be so diverse, and to illustrate how the upbringing of a Man raised as a Martians somehow expands the idea of the capacity of what a Man could be.

Read: The Courage to Be Disliked

Title: The Courage To Be Disliked - How to free yourself, change your life and achieve real happiness
Authors: Ichiro Kishmi and Fumitake Koga
Publisher: Allen & Unwin

This book was a recommendation from a friend. It was said to be an enormous bestseller in Asia.

The book is based upon the theories of the Alfred Adler and addressed the notion set in the title of this book by discussing the following key aspects:
1) Deny trauma
2) All problems are interpersonal relationship problems
3) Discard other people's tasks
4) Where the centre of the world is
5) To live in earnest in the here and now

This book is written in a manner that revolves around a conversation between a philosopher and a young man. While I appreciate that this style of writing facilitated the accesibility of reading the book and allowed the subject of Alfred Adler's theories to weave like a conversational dialogue to a lay-person, I somehow found myself reading the entire book and not being able to pinpoint what I have learnt from it. Either I have not fully grasp the messages from this book or I had assimilated the teachings subconsciously.

This may not be the book I would readily pick up again, at least not in the near future.