The Yoga of Ordinary Living

By: Robert Thurman

Narrated by: Robert Thurman

Spiritual disciplines often seem remote from the realities of our daily lives. Yet there is a Mahayana Scripture which presents a model of enlightened practice in the midst of urban living, the Vimalakirti Sutra. This teaches a non-dualistic wisdom and reconciliation of dichotomies. It challenges ordinariness and reveals systematic and effective ways of tapping higher potentials while upholding one's usual responsibilities and enriching long-term relationships.

Robert Thurman examines one of the most sacred texts of Mahayana Buddhism, The Vimalakirti-nirdesha Sutra. To any Buddhist practitioner, particularly those of Vajrayana Buddhism and Zen, this sutra is of the utmost importance. Unlike most sutras, its central figure is not a Buddha, but an ordinary man, who, in his mastery of the doctrine and religious practice, personifies the ideal lay believer, assuring commoners that they can reach levels of spiritual attainment comparable to those accessible to monks. The sutra teaches, among other subjects, the meaning of non-duality. Thurman discusses the background of the sutra, its place in the development of Buddhist thought, and the profundities of its principal doctrine: emptiness.

©2014 Robert Thurman (P)2014 BetterListen! LLC, all rights reserved.

Overall a great listen

Great listen and for some spontaneous laughs.
Sometimes the side noise is very disturbing.
The jumping from on topic to the next makes it sometimes hard to keep track of his line of thoughts, not very good for a car commute book

subject matter: A, delivery D

Professor Thurman has recorded a live lecture that unfortunately included live lunch and a number of gibberish questions that are seemingly more deflected than answered.

But the topic is rich and the the speaker delivers brilliance - elucidating a startling message: sometimes the worldliness of a householder gives deeper grounding to Buddha's teaching. This householder asks the pantheon of Buddhist leaders equal to the Christian apostles questions that catch them out in their "holiness" blind spots ** that part of the discourse is funny and insightful!
But the real takeaway message is that -when someone holds dhamma vision up to worldly life all is sacred, nothing accepted or excepted. Only YOU and the frame you hold - limit your understanding of the Buddha field, and only where your own limits project the current field of awareness.
How maddening! & How utterly liberating!!

A Wonderfully Rich & Delightful Teaching

Robert Thurman is simply wonderful weaving together both a dharma teaching and an exegetical treatment of this important work that he translated from the Tibetan. Enlightening and entertaining and joyful.

V.Good but should be reviewed again by the editor

Would you listen to The Yoga of Ordinary Living again? Why?

Yes, a great story and a great performance

Who was your favorite character and why?

Robert Thurman - the narrator :) - He even managed to make me laugh when listening to not easy and not a very popular sutra - thanks to his interpretation and his warm attitude towards the characters

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I don't think it would be possible :) From my point of view it was perfect

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Definitely Yes :)

Any additional comments?

I really liked the story and the performance very much but… Unfortunately there is one BIG „BUT”. The recording ended abruptly almost in the middle of the sentence. The story of Buddha meeting with Vimalakirty, just announced a few minutes before this ending, wasn’t there neither any more recording was. First I thought there had to be a mistake with my downloading but the audio ended after a bit more than 7 hrs and it is exactly according to the details on the Audible page that it lasts 7hrs. So there is something wrong with the recording itself and I was really disapponting

not the best audio book by robert thurman

I finished the book under the impression it deserved twice the time / space. Not the best experience with Robert Thurman, whom I truly and deeply appreciate.

not a book

it's a lecture on a book and I think this should be more clear to buyers

Yoga

It may just be me but I found his rambling style of conversation difficult to follow but if the sample audio works for you then go for it