By Glenn H. Mullin (Author) Publisher: Quest Books -- ISBN: 0835607003 -- Condition: New -- Format: Paperback -- Publication Year: 1994

"For me the Second Dalai Lama was the greatest of all the early Dalai Lamas. He possesed exceptional qualities and during his life became both a great scholar and an accomplished practitioner. He himself admitted that he had achieved a profound realization of shunyata, or emptiness, the ultimate level of reality...The Second Dalai Lama typically signed most of his writings "the Mad Beggar Gendun Gyatso." Sometimes he also used the name Melodious Laughing Vajra, and sometimes "the Yogi of Space." When he calls himself "Mad Beggar", he is referring not to his having no possessions, but to his not being attached to anything. When you have no attachment, you are freed of all worldly concerns. This is an important theme in tantric teachings according to which a practitioner uses sensual objects without becoming attached to them. The implication of "Mad" here is that when a person gains experience of emptiness his perception is as different from that of ordinary people as a madman`s. Due to his realization of emptiness a practitioner completely transcends the conventional way of viewing the world." The Dalai Lama.

About the Author: Glenn lived in the Indian Himalayas between 1972 and 1984, where he studied philosophy, literature, meditation, yoga, and the enlightenment culture under thirty-five of the great living masters from the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He is presently based in Mongolia, but offers a regular U.S. lecture tour, during the winter months.