Lama Lhakpa Yeshe’s Ten Tales from Tibet is a beautiful collection of traditional tales about the value and necessity of compassion and how to cultivate it. These stories make up part of the rich oral storytelling of Tibet, as a way of passing knowledge along generation after generation. Each of these wisdom stories may be short, but they are deep and thought-provoking.

At the beginning is a brief section about Lama Lhakpa Yeshe himself. The story he shares about the time he decided to skip meditation as a young Lama in training was amusing! It serves as a good preface for the wisdom tales themselves, which stress the importance of daily practise to cultivate and refine compassion. My favourite of these stories were ‘Black and White Pebbles’, ‘Medicine for the Mind’, ‘Many Paths to Enlightenment’, and ‘The Wounded Dog’. All of the stories offer advice that can be immediately implemented in your own life to foster the growth of compassion, and this collection is one worthy of being read again and again. I read them to my cubs, who also enjoyed them, and prompted many questions and learning/teaching opportunities, so there is great value here not just for adults, but children as well.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.