The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling

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 Chouml;gyam 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 (1868–1969), born in Paris to a socially prominent family, was an acclaimed operatic soprano, political anarchist, religious reformer, intrepid explorer who traveled in Tibet for fourteen years, scholar of Buddhism, and author of more than forty books.