A Gentle Rain of Compassion

A Gentle Rain of Compassion

Finding a fascinating and gratifying medical practice in Kathmandu saved his medical career, but befriending a reincarnate Tibetan lama transformed his life. This compellingly written memoir is a grand adventure tale of travel in Nepal and Tibet, tense and highly emotional medical encounters, new romances, and ground-breaking medical research. But all these eventually take a back seat to what the author learns about Tibetan Buddhism and the ability to train in compassion. The author reveals the details of his personal tutoring in Buddhism and his gradual exposure to mysteries and hard-to-explain events that he personally witnesses. For all the readers who dream about what it might be like to travel to the Himalayas and achieve a genuine spiritual connection, this book is the story of how that dream can come true. I loved this book . Dr. Shlim's story is candid, wise, fascinating, funny, tragic, astonishing, hopeful, and wonderfully entertaining. It reminded me that compassion, if cultivated with purpose, can expand without limit in each of us, enriching not only our own lives, but the lives of everyone we encounter. - Jon Krakauer . Author of "Into the Wild" and "Into Thin Air". David Shlim has had a remarkable life, both in service of those in need in remote parts of the world and of spiritual discovery in the presence of some of the greatest Tibetan masters of our times. His lively and insightful memoirs are a delight to read. - Matthieu Ricard . Buddhist monk, scientist, philanthropist, and author. I really believe that David Shlim has written an important and wonderful book —this is not just the story of a young man in foreign parts (although it is that), or the story of his own, gradual enlightenment (although it is that too), but it is the story of how seemingly accidental the most important steps in our lives can seem. What is transcendent and original about this work in a sometimes tired and overcrowded memoir field is that the author somehow magically makes himself less important and the journey more important as we go along. How rare and lovely. The writing and anecdotes are wonderfully done - he manages glimpses of humor and self-awareness, even as the reader is drawn along by the sheer edge-of-the-seat, life-and-death material. The work is tight, boiled down to a narrative that's focused on this lovely, slow-opening of a realization - the work shifting from the adrenaline of trauma of medicine to the need for compassion in it. - Alexandra Fuller . Author of New York Times Best Selling memoirs, "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight", "Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness", and "Leaving Before the Rains Come". This is one of those rare books that makes you a captive from the first sentence. The exceptional aspect of this life story, however, is founded on Dr. Shlim's close contacts with Tibetan lamas and meditation teachers. The gripping chapters describe how Buddhist practice transformed the way he approached patients. His fascinating memoirs are touching - highly recommended for anyone with an open mind. - Professor Robert Steffen . Emeritus Professor at the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, Switzerland   I'm still reeling from the news that my memoir won the International Book Awards prize for best autobiography/memoir in 2022.  The award covers books from the last three years.  I'm happy that my story about my relationships with great Tibetan teachers and my adventures, medical and otherwise, in the Himalayas can finally be shared. The book is now available for purchase. I know that many of you are excited to read the book, but probably not as excited as I am to have you read it and tell me your reactions.  As strange as it may sound, I've been writing this book for seventeen years.  To have it emerge like this and get this immediate recognition is like a dream.  Thank you in advance for posting your reflections in a review here on Amazon; it is a helpful form of "word-of-mouth"!  Indeed, although the book is a nice end in itself, my purpose in trying to share this story is to point to the ways that I learned about training in compassion, and the value of compassion in the world.  You can learn more about this at my website: medicineandcompassion.com