In 2003, Tibetan lama Phakyab Rinpoche was admitted to the emergency clinic of the Program for Survivors of Torture at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital. After a dramatic escape from imprisonment in China, at the hands of authorities bent on uprooting Tibet's traditional religion and culture, his ordeal had left him with life-threatening injuries, including gangrene of the right ankle. American doctors gave Rinpoche a shocking choice: accept leg amputation or risk a slow, painful death. An inner voice, however, prompted him to try an unconventional cure: meditation. He began an intensive spiritual routine that included thousands of hours of meditation over three years in a small Brooklyn studio. Against all scientific logic, his injuries gradually healed. In this vivid, passionate account, Sofia Stril-Rever relates the extraordinary experiences of Phakyab Rinpoche, who reveals the secret of the great healing powers that lie dormant within each of us. The story of a miraculous healing, told by a Tibetan lama and survivor of torture
"[Phakyab Rinpoche] will teach the world how to heal."
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama
"Phakyab Rinpoche's Meditation Saved My Life is a beautifully written, heart-gripping, and inspiring narrative of the courageous struggle of a wise and compassionate Tibetan lama who became a great teacher and healer, risking it all and winning over disfigurement and even death. Read this book and rekindle your faith in the human determination to choose compassion and courage, mind over matter; and ignite your own life."
- Robert Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and translator of The Tibetan Book of the Dead
"Phakyab Rinpoche's amazing odyssey, beautifully depicted in this extraordinary book, inspires so much spiritual courage, strength, and wisdom. Our deepest aspirations and unimaginable possibilities are illuminated by the radiance of this precious jewel."
- Krishna Das, kirtan wallah and devotee of Neem Karoli Baba
"Phakyab Rinpoche shares with us the compelling narrative of how he healed the injuries he sustained in Chinese-occupied Tibet. Importantly, his story powerfully demonstrates what we now know from science: compassion awakens within us our own power to heal both the mind and the body."
- James R. Doty, MD, founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University and New York Times–bestselling author of Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart
"Meditation Saved My Life tells us that we can overcome hatred with compassion and let go into healing. Phakyab Rinpoche opens heart and mind with the core spiritual teachings of Tibetan Buddhism in clear, inspiring language. He reminds me that bodhisattvas are here with us and that we can aspire to emulate them to reach our own realization."
- George Pitagorsky, author of The Zen Approach to Project Management, Managing Conflict in Projects, and Managing Expectations, teacher at New York Insight Meditation Center, and division CIO at New York City Department of Education
"Phakyab Rinpoche is a gem, a spiritual teacher whose infectious, joyful radiance fills every space he enters and whose loving, childlike delight lifts every heart he encounters. His very presence is the essence of healing. This wonderful book is a true spiritual masterpiece, a story of profound healing shared with humility and grace by a master of consciousness."
- Ramananda John E. Welshons, author of Awakening from Grief and One Soul, One Love, One Heart
Phakyab Rinpoche, abbot of Ashi Monastery in Tibet, was recognized as a Reincarnate Lama by the Dalai Lama in 1994. A member of the Gelugpa order of Tibetan Buddhism, Rinpoche teaches spiritual healing throughout the United States, France, and the world.
Sofia Stril-Rever is a spiritual te
