Alexandra David-Neel

An exemplary travelogue of danger and achievement by the Frenchwoman Madame Alexandra David–Neel of her 1923 expedition to Tibet, the fifth in her series of Asian travels, and her personal recounting of her journey to Lhasa, Tibet's forbidden city. In order to penetrate Tibet and reach Lhasa, she used her fluency of Tibetan dialects and culture, disguised herself as a beggar with yak hair extensions and inked skin and tackled some of the roughest terrain and climate in the World. With the help of her young companion, Yongden, she willingly suffered the primitive travel conditions, frequent outbreaks of disease, the ever–present danger of border control and the military to reach her goal. The determination and sheer physical fortitude it took for this woman, delicately reared in Paris and Brussels, is inspiration for men and women alike. David–Neel is famous for being the first Western woman to have been received by any Dalai Lama and as a passionate scholar and explorer of Asia, hers is one of the most remarkable of all travellersߴales.

The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City

My Journey to Lhasa

The author describes her experiences during a fourteen-year stay in Tibet, as she studied and participated in the occult philosophies of mystics and magicians

Magic and Mystery in Tibet

die abenteuerlichen Reisen einer ungewöhnlichen und mutigen Frau

Mein Indien

Noted authority discusses mystic rites and doctrines, methods of psychic training, various kinds of initiations and their aims, spiritual exercises, "gymnastics" of respiration, many other topics. Invaluable insights into Tibetan Buddhism. 27 black-and-white illustrations.

Initiations and Initiates in Tibet

Michael Lally

Albert Arthur Yongden

This is an account of the Madhyamika (Middle Way) school of Buddhism, a method of mediation and enlightenment that was developed by the great Indian teacher Nagarjuna. In a collaboration between the Frenchwoman Alexandra David-Neel and her friend, the Tibetan lama Aphur Yongden, these teaching are presented clearly and elegantly, intended for the layman who seeks a way to practice and experience the realization of oneness with all existence. Alexandra David-Neel was born in 1868 in Paris. In her youth she wrote an incendiary anarchist treatise and was an acclaimed opera singer; then she decided to devote her life to exploration and the study of world religions, including Buddhist philosophy. She traveled extensively to in Central Asia and the Far East, where she learned a number of Asian languages, including Tibetan. In 1914, she met Lama Yongden, who became her adopted son, teacher, and companion. In 1923, at the age of fifty-five, she disguised herself as a pilgrim and journeyed to Tibet, where she was the first European woman to enter Lhasa, which was closed to foreigners at the time. In her late seventies, she settled in the south of France, where she lived until her death at 101 in 1969.

The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects

Buddhism, Its Doctrines and Its Methods

Au pays des brigands gentilshommes

The first Western woman to be received by any Dalai Lama recounts her 1924 journey through unknown territory to the forbidden city of Lhasa, encountering bands of robbers, corrupt military agents, bouts of starvation, and wild animals.

The Personal Story of the Only White Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City

A long time favorite of those interested in psychic phenomena and human potential. The author spent 14 years living in Tibet, one of the most beautiful and mysterious places on Earth. At the time, few westerners could penetrate into this strange and magical land. Alexandra David-Neel was a linguist, practicing Buddhist, and religious historian. She won the trust of Tibets most powerful lamas and magicians, and takes us on a personal odyssey of psychic discovery. Through the author, we are initiated into powerful meditations, breathing exercises, the control of body heat, visions, shamanic magic, and past life recollection. There are also tulpas, or disembodied thought forms, that can be created in human form using the power of the mindsomething David-Neel was able to perform. There is more to life than what is seen on the surface, and this important book is proof of that claim.

This exotic mystery involving the pursuit of a murderer across Tibet and into China is written by a Tibetan monk and a nineteenth-century adventuress

The Power of Nothingness

Noted authority discusses mystic rites and doctrines, methods of psychic training, various kinds of initiations and their aims, spiritual exercises, "gymnastics" of respiration, many other topics. Invaluable insights into Tibetan Buddhism. 27 black-and-white illus.

First published in France in 1929, Magic and Mystery in Tibet tells the story of the author's experiences in Tibet, among lamas and magicians. Alexandra David-Neel's memoir offers an objective account of the supernatural events she witnessed during the 1920s among the mystics and hermits of Tibet--including levitation, telepathy, and the ability to walk on water! She tells of great sages and sorcerers that she met; of the system of monastic education; the great teachers and their disciples; Tibetan folklore about these spiritual athletes; reincarnation and memory from previous lives; elaborate magical rites to obtain enlightenment; the horrible necromantic magic of the pre-Buddhist Bonpa shamas; mental visualization exercises to create disembodied thought forms (tulpas); visions; phenomena of physical yoga, control of the body heat mechanism; breathing exercises; sending "messages on the wind"; and much similar material. An unusual aspect of her book is that she herself experienced many of the phenomena she describes, yet she describes them with precision and in a matter-of-fact manner, permitting the reader to draw his own conclusions about validity, interpretation in terms of psychology, and value. Particularly interesting for the modern experiencer are her detailed instructions for tumo (the yoga of heat control) and creation of thought projections. This deluxe edition has all of the original photographs plus additional photos and maps, as well several introductions. Chapters include: Tibet and the Lamas; A Guest of the Lamas; A Famous Tibetan Monastery; Dealing with Ghosts and Demons, Disciples of Yore and their Contemporary Emulators; Psychic Sports; Mystic Theories and Spiritual Training; Psychic Phenomena in Tibet--How Tibetans Explain Them; more.

Deluxe Edition

2014 Reprint of 1932 New York Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Alexandra David-Neel was a Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist and writer, most known for her visit to Lhasa, Tibet, in 1924, when it was still forbidden to foreigners. David-Neel wrote over 30 books about Eastern religion, philosophy, and her travels. Her teachings influenced beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, philosopher Alan Watts, and esotericist Benjamin Creme. Seeker, adventurer, pilgrim, and scholar, David-Neel (1868-1969) was the first European woman to explore the once-forbidden city of Lhasa. This memoir offers an objective account of the supernatural events she witnessed during the 1920s among the mystics and hermits of Tibet - including levitation, telepathy, and the ability to walk on water. Includes all the photographs from the original edition.

Famed traveler and mystic Alexandra David-Neel, the first Western woman to see the forbidden city of Lhasa, Tibet, examines Eastern concepts of the afterlife in this classic study. The question of what occurs to the individual personality after death is fundamental to the human experience. In Immortality and Reincarnation Alexandra David-Neel, the first Western woman to see the forbidden city of Lhasa, Tibet, examines Taoist, Tibetan, and Hindu concepts concerning life after death. Contrary to Western belief, which sees the human being as composed of a mortal body and an immortal soul, many Easterners believe in the immortality of both the body and the soul. Alexandra David-Neel gained firsthand knowledge of these beliefs and the practices they engendered in the course of her travels at the beginning of this century. In Immortality and Reincarnation she ties them together for a unique look at reincarnation and eternal life in a region untouched by the modern world.

Wisdom from the Forbidden Journey

Immortality and Reincarnation

King Gesar, renowned throughout Tibet and Central Asia, represents the ideal warrior—the principle of all-victorious confidence. As the central force of sanity, he conquers all his enemies, the evil forces of the four directions, who turn people's minds away from the true teachings of Buddhism. These enemies graphically represent the different manifestations of cowardly mind. As Chögyam Trungpa explains in the Foreword: "When we talk here about conquering our enemy, it is important to understand that we are not talking about aggression. The genuine warrior does not become resentful or arrogant . . . It is absolutely necessary for the warrior to subjugate his own ambition to conquer at the same time that he is subjugating his other more obvious enemies. Thus the idea of warriorship altogether is that by facing all our enemies fearlessly, with gentleness and intelligence, we can develop ourselves thereby attaining self-realization." The legends of Gesar usually take weeks for a bard to recount. Filled with magic, adventure, and the triumphs of this great warrior-king, the stories will delight all—young and old alike.

Alexandra David-Neel

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