The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling

The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling – Alexandra David-Neel, Lama Yongden

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 sacred teachings that point the way to ultimate self-realization. These enemies of the four directions represent most graphically the different manifestations of cowardly mind than the ideal warrior subjugates through the power of his unconquerable confidence.

As Chogyam Trungpa explains in the Foreword:

When we talk here about conquering the enemy, it is important to understand that we are not talking about aggression. The genuine warrior does not become resentful or arrogant. Such ambition or arrogance would be simply another aspect of cowardly mind, another enemy of warriorship in itself. So 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 and thereby attain self-realization. With this understanding of warriorship we can go back and look at the history of Gesar of Ling . . . We can regard the entire story as a display of how the warrior’s mind works.

Filled with magic, adventure, and the triumphs of a great warrior-king, the legends recounted here will inspire and entertain young and old readers alike.

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