BOOK BRIEFS

Without tsewa, is there any other source of happiness?” This is the question posed by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche in TRAINING IN TENDERNESS (Shambhala 2018). Always circling back to this Tibetan word meaning love, tenderness, or warmth, Kongtrul pushes us to honestly examine what fulfills us and what doesn’t. Is physical comfort enough? What about the ideal job? Financial stability? The American Dream? Only when accompanied by tsewa, Kongtrul argues, can any of these bring lasting fulfillment. Toward that end, he outlines numerous Buddhist reflective techniques aimed at bringing tsewa into our self-perception, our relationships, and even our experience of dying.

(Chicago 2017) tells the remarkable story of an eighth-century Korean monk who