Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche - The True Source of Healing: How the Ancient Tibetan Practice of Soul Retrieval Can Transform and Enrich Your Life

Praise for
The True Source of Healing

In a time when we have lost our collective and
personal souls, Tenzin Wangyal offers us an unfailing
compass to our original, unbroken self. Read this book,
and find your way back to health and wholeness!

Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D., author of
Shaman, Healer, Sage and Mending the Past
and Healing the Future with Soul Retrieval

Tenzin Wangyal is a generous teacher, an insightful master,
and a brilliant translator of timeless wisdom. In The True
Source of Healing, he demystifies the ancient practice of soul
retrieval in a profound, clear, and accessible way that gently
leads us to the core of our very being. This journey with
Tenzin is a joy, and the results are transformational.

davidji, best-selling author of Secrets of Meditation

Tenzin Rinpoche offers an ancient, lineage-based approach
to the concept of soul retrieval, and in so doing brings
brilliant Tibetan Bn wisdom to the heart of this practice.

Charlie Morley, author of Dreams of Awakening

What a treasure! Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche skillfully
guides us in ancient practices to retrieve our basic goodness
and intelligence. These practices, which we can apply
immediately to our fast-paced and stress-filled lives, will
revitalize us at the deepest level of our being. The True Source
of Healing invites us to stillness, silence, and spaciousness,
and to joyfully allow the qualities of our basic nature
unbounded awareness and a warm heart
to emerge so that we may be healed.

Matteo Pistono, author of Fearless in Tibet and
In the Shadow of the Buddha

Also by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

Awakening the Luminous Mind

Awakening the Sacred Body

Healing with Form, Energy, and Light

Tibetan Sound Healing

Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech, and Mind

The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep

Unbounded Wholeness (with Anne Carolyn Klein)

Wonders of the Natural Mind

Available from Hay House

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Copyright 2015 by Tenzin Wangyal

Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: info@hayhouse.co.za Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast Books: www.raincoast.com Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Cover design: Angela Moody | amoodycover.com
Cover illustration: Selver Serdar | freeimages.com
Interior design: Bryn Starr Best

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress

Tradepaper ISBN: 978-1-4019-4449-0

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1st edition, July 2015

Printed in the United States of America

For my teacher,
Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche

I believe there is no better moment than now to introduce these practices of soul retrieval, which have so much power to help you connect with the natural environment, with others, and with your soul. Done daily, these practices have the potential to transform your life. They can help you come home to your inherent joy, reenergize your relationships, feel more connected and productive at work, and find healing for physical maladies, as well as bring happiness and well-being to others.

The wisdom in this book is very old. It has its source in Tibetan Bn Buddhism, the indigenous spiritual tradition of Tibet and one of the worlds richest and most ancient unbroken spiritual traditions. The Bn soul-retrieval practices and rituals remain as alive and relevant today as they were well before Buddhism arrived in Tibet in the 7th century. However, since most Western students dont have time in their busy lives to learn complex rituals, in this book I am omitting explanations of the traditional ceremonies and rituals of soul retrieval and focusing instead on the most essential elements of the core teachings.

While presenting the practices and their explanations in as simple and accessible a way as possible, I remain true to the ancient texts. My intention is to offer a clear path to solid experiences that can shift your energy and understanding toward healing and renewal, help you clear the negative thoughts and emotions that obstruct your happiness and well-being, and assist you in retrieving the enthusiasm and vitality you may have lost in life. Ultimately, the teachings presented here are about reconnecting deeply and completely with your soul, with your genuine nature, so that you can live a more authentic, balanced, and fulfilled life.

My own upbringing and training were very traditional. My father was a Buddhist lama and my mother a Bn practitioner. I was born in India soon after they escaped from Tibet during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. After my father passed away, my mother married a Bn lama. At age ten I entered Menri Monastery near Dolanji, India, now one of the two main Bn monasteries outside of Tibet. At the Dialectic School of Menri I spent 11 years as a monk engaged in a traditional, rigorous course of study toward a geshe degree. My studies included epistemology, cosmology, sutra, tantra, and dzogchen. I received my degree in 1986, and since then I have been living and teaching in the West. I currently live with my wife and son in Northern California.

From as early as I can remember, the drums, bells, and conch-shell horns of the traditional Bn rituals were part of my life, as familiar to me as video games are to children today. As a child, I was particularly impressed with the soul-retrieval ritual. In Tibet, soul-retrieval rituals are commonly recommended for patients who feel energetically drained but have been unable to obtain a clear diagnosis from a physician. My mother was seldom well, and after she had undergone many treatments, it was determined that her healing could be advanced only if elaborate ceremonies and soul-retrieval rituals were performed on her behalf. A traditional Tibetan view is that illness can be linked to soul loss and that one of the many causes of losing your soul is that the spirits are provoked because you have harmed their world. So the rituals for my mother involved creating harmony with the spirits, offering them what they needed to pacify them, and requesting that they stop damaging my mothers vitality and return what they had stolen from her. After one ceremony, my mother even changed her name as a way of releasing her identity as a sick person and taking on a new, healthier identity.