My Spiritual Autobiography

Mon autobiographie spirituelle (My Spiritual Autobiography) is a book published in 2009, compiled by Sofia Stril-Rever [fr] from speeches and interviews of the 14th Dalai Lama.^[1]

Description

The book is a compilation of unpublished texts of the Dalai Lama, which is accompanied by comments from the translator and collaborator of the Dalai Lama, Sofia Stril-Rever. Initially, the book was published in French, and in 2010 it became available translated and published in English and Russian.^[2] As of 2024, it has been translated into some twenty languages.^[3]

The title "My spiritual autobiography" may be a little misleading, for in some ways the book does not resemble an autobiography.^[4] The book identifies three characteristics – his compassionate motivation, lack of self-importance and flexibility of mind – while showing the internal coherence of the Dalai Lama's views in their temporal development, and the continuity of these points of view.^[4]

The book is composed of three parts.^[2] The first considers universal questions; in the second, the Dalai Lama – as a Buddhist monk – expressed his hopes for the spiritual transformation of the world through the transformation of each person's mind, and the third provides a history of the Dalai Lama, spiritual master of the Tibetan people, and 14th Dalai Lama's life in exile.

The book ends with a poem, "Never Give Up", written by the American writer Ron Whitehead in 1994, inspired by the Dalai Lama.^[2][5]

See also

• Tibetan Buddhism