Magic Dance: The Display of the Self-Nature of the Five Wisdom Dakinis - Softcover

This is a unique and powerful presentation of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism on the five elements: earth, water, air, fire, and space. In their gross and subtle forms, these elements combine to make up the infinite illusory display of phenomenal existence. Through teachings, stories, and his distinctive use of language, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche relates how the energies of the elements manifest within our everyday world, in individual behavior and group traditions, relationships and solitude, medicine and art. He explains their links to the five Buddha families and their respective Wisdom Dakinis, and shows how each element relates to our senses, temperament, passions, habits, and karmic potentials. This magic dance of the elements, he concludes, can be transformed through meditation practice and cultivating the calm, vast, and playful state of consciousness that he calls "playmind."

Thinley Norbu Rinpoche (1931–2011) was a preeminent teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. The eldest son of His Holiness Düdjom Rinpoche, he was a primary holder of the Düdjom Tersar lineage and considered to be an emanation of Longchenpa, the great fourteenth-century Nyingma master.