Annie Bien

“Annie Bien and Robert Thurman invite us into the secret heart of the Sixth Dalai Lama, where poetry and politics dance as one.” Deepak Chopra, author and spiritual teacher Annie Bien and Robert Thurman lead you through The Magical Adventures of The Sixth Dalai Lama: His Life and Loves, a historical novel on the life and world of the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (1683–1706). Based on period sources and official biographies, his life unfolds in the form of a third level Tibetan biography, a secret liberation story that reveals the meditative state and actions of a siddha, an accomplished master or saint. His poetry sings the narrative thread of his life, revealing his magical activist deeds to shape the complex relationships entangling Tibet and to benefit the surrounding countries of Mongolia, China, and India, while offering a vision of future benefit to the whole planet, including the West. This story explores the possibility that the Sixth Dalai Lama renounced his monk’s vows to channel his holy messiah’s love of living beings into the life of a layperson, to descend from iconic isolation in his monastic Potala palace to be nearer to the lives of his people, protect his Tibetan nation and its lay and monastic communities, pacify the war-torn Central Asian geopolitics of Mongol and Manchu conquerors and their Chinese subjects, and promote the sophisticated spiritual sciences, freedom-loving culture, and mystical language of his beloved Tibet. The Sixth Dalai Lama’s love poems are filled with humor and longing, joy and dismay, with expressions that touch the profound and evoke the essence of being human.

In these poems, Annie Bien does what so few poets are able to do-to tell stories while never being prosaic. There is warmth here, and a simplicity that is never simple. You want to read these poems quickly, almost as one would a novel, but when you slow down each line strikes you for its muscularity, its strength of lyricism, its wonder. Kei Miller, poet and author, Augustown These poems-stylistically very varied-share a rich and compassionate observation of personal and larger history. The poems brim with humour and tenderness for the particulars of life and lives, cherished and sometimes mourned. Illuminating the whole collection is a Buddhist philosophy that is never crudely imposed but permits a wide and gentle view. Elizabeth Cook, poet and author, Achilles Annie Bien's poems are evocative and deeply personal, touching upon themes common to the human condition, of love, loss, family, childhood, and place. Her study of Buddhist philosophy, in particular the concept of emptiness and the illusion-like nature of ultimate reality, have influenced Annie both explicitly (citing and using lines from the famous Samadhiraja Sutra) and implicitly, enabling her to reframe and read afresh life experiences in the context of the agency and freedom such a vast view affords. This is very inspiring. I highly recommend this book of poems. Geshe Dorji Damdul, Tibet House New Delhi