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Book Club

Join the Lhagsam Book Club! We are a relaxed and easy-going group, we love to read and discuss.

The book club membership is open to anyone who is interested to meet and discuss the books we read. Please see below for the dates and the book for each gathering. We selected these books collectively for 2022 and the first half of 2023. The list includes a wide array of genres mainly in Buddhism, spirituality and mind science.

The meeting place is currently online, conducted via zoom.  When our physical centre is reopened, the meeting will be of a hybrid format.  The Zürcher locals can meet at the centre, while international members can join via a zoom session. You are welcome to join as many times as you like or also just once. Register here by selecting one or more multiple meetings.  We will send you the zoom link before the meeting.

*Although we try to keep those dates, dates might change after you submit your registration. In the event of date changes, we will update the individual event page and communicate it by emails. 

DateBookShort Summery
March 25th, 2022 19:00 (CET) 'Cave in the Snow'
by Vicki Mackenzie		This is the incredible story of Tenzin Palmo, a remarkable woman who spent 12 years alone in a cave in the Himalayas. At the age of 20, Diane Perry, looking to fill a void in her life, entered a monastery in India, the only woman amongst hundreds of monks. Thirteen years later, she secluded herself in a remote cave in the Himalayas, where she stayed for twelve years. In her mountain retreat, she faced unimaginable hardships. Tenzin emerged from the cave with a determination to build a nunnery in northern India to revive the Togdenma lineage, a long-forgotten female spiritual elite. Read more
May 27th, 2022 19:00 (CET) 'The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World'
by Dalai Lama XIV, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Carlton Abrams 		The occasion of a big birthday inspired two close friends to get together in Dharamsala for a talk about something very important to them. The friends were His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The subject was joy. Both winners of the Nobel Prize, both great spiritual masters and moral leaders of our time. Read more
July 22nd, 2022 19:00 (CET) 'The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying'
by Sogyal Rinpoche 		The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, written 1992, is a presentation of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead or Bardo Thodol. The book explores the messages of impermanence, evolution, karma and rebirth, the nature of the mind, and the spiritual practices for the moment of death. Read more
September 23rd, 2022 19:00 (CET)'Step Away from Paradise: The True Story of a Tibetan Lama’s Journey to a Land of
Immortality'
by Thomas K. Shor		A Step Away From Paradise tells the story of Lama Tulshuk Lingpa’s life and his unlikely expedition to a land beyond cares while reflecting on what this means for the rest of us. It draws on both research and extensive interviews with the surviving members of this extraordinary expedition. The book also delves into the tradition within Tibetan Buddhism of Shambhala and the hidden valleys, thus showing that the quest for the hidden land is a universal urge of humanity. Read more
November 26th, 2022 19:00 (CET)'Enlightened Vagabond: The Life and Teachings of Patrul Rinpoche'
by Matthieu Ricard		Colorful stories about and profound teachings of Patrul Rinpoche, one of the most impactful teachers and thinkers in the Tibetan tradition from the nineteenth century. Patrul's life story reveals the nature of a highly realized being as he transmits the Dharma in everything he does, teaching both simple nomads and great lamas in ways that are often unconventional and even humorous, but always with uncompromising authenticity. Read more
January 27th, 2023 19:00 (CET)'Becoming Bodhisattvas: A Guidebook for Compassionate Action'
by Pema Chödrön 		Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön presents a friendly and encouraging guide to spiritual practice for all those who want to take up the path of the bodhisattva, one who aspires to live life with courage, generosity, patience, fearlessness, and compassion. Pema Chödrön here invites you to journey more deeply into this liberating way of life, presenting Shantideva’s text 'Bodhicaryavatara' verse-by-verse and offering both illuminating stories and practical exercises to enrich the text and bring its timeless teachings to life in our world today. Read more
March 24th, 2023 19:00 (CET) 'My Journey To Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in
Entering the Forbidden City'
by Alexandra David-Neel 		An exemplary travelogue of danger and achievement by the Frenchwoman Madame Alexandra David-Neel of her 1923 expedition to Tibet. 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. 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 travellers tales. Read more
May 26th, 2023 19:00 (CET)'As It Is, Vol.1: Essential Teachings from the Dzogchen Perspective'
By Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche		The teachings presented in this book are primarily selected from talks given by the Dzogchen master, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, in 1994 and 1995, during the last two years of his life. The unambiguous Buddhist perception of reality is transmitted in profound, simple language by one of the foremost masters in the Tibetan tradition. Dzogchen is to take the final result, the state of enlightenment itself, as path. This book offers the direct oral instructions of a master who inspired admiration, delight in practice, and deep trust and confidence in the Buddhist way. Read more