A Gentle Rain of Compassion

by David R Shlim

Overview

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.

During his time in Nepal, Dr. Shlim served ten years as the Medical Director of the Himalayan Rescue Association and was given an award by the Prime Minister of Nepal for his lifetime contribution to rescue in Nepal.  For 20 years he wrote the “Health and Safety” chapter in Trekking in the Nepal Himalaya, published by Lonely Planet.  He was working in Kathmandu in 1996 when the disaster that was memorialized in the book, Into Thin Air, took place, treating the victims that were evacuated from the mountain. 

For those yearning to explore the Himalayas or seeking a genuine spiritual connection, "A Gentle Rain of Compassion" is an invitation to witness the fusion of adventure, medicine, and the transformative power of compassion. Dr. Shlim's story unfolds against a backdrop of awards, rescue missions, and contributions to the health and safety of those trekking in the Nepal Himalaya. This memoir not only invites readers to dream but reveals how dreams can manifest into a reality that transcends the ordinary and touches the very soul of existence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781955690331
Publisher:	Di Angelo Publications
Publication date:	09/01/2022
Pages:	390
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

David R Shlim M.D. was born in Portland, Oregon in 1949.  He earned a B.A. in English literature at Pomona College and his M.D. degree from Rush Medical College.  After completing one year of internship and working briefly in family practice and emergency medicine, he travelled to Nepal to volunteer at a high-altitude rescue post near the base of Mt. Everest and returned for two more three-month stints over the next three years.  In 1983, he joined a clinic in Kathmandu that specialized in the care of foreigners in Nepal.  He became the director of the clinic and worked in Nepal for the next fifteen years.

Dr. Shlim was married to his wife, Jane, in 1990 and they have two children.  In 1998, the family moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where they currently reside.  When he moved back to the U.S., he organized two Medicine and Compassion conferences with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and later transcribed and edited the teachings into the book, Medicine and Compassion, which has been continuously in print since 2004, and has sold over 13,000 copies in North America.  A 10th anniversary edition was brought out in 2014.  The book has also been published in six other languages. 

Dr. Shlim currently practices travel medicine in Jackson Hole.  He has taught an ongoing weekly course in Tibetan Buddhism for the past twenty years.  He served as the head of the Teton District Board of Health for ten years, and currently serves as the President of Gomde California, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s main retreat center in North America.  He toured with The Rolling Stones for three years as the doctor for the band, traveling with them to Canada, the U.S., Japan, China, and Australia. 

Read an Excerpt

Due to a shortage of food in the region, I had to bring my own supplies to the aid post. However, I had no idea how to shop for supplies, so the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) secretary arranged for a Sherpa to go shopping with me. He spoke no English. The shops were low storefronts set behind ancient, carved wooden pillars where the shop owners sat cross-legged behind their few goods. He first took me to buy cloth. I didn’t need any cloth, as far as I could tell, so I wondered if the Sherpa was shopping for himself. He bought dozens of meters of a white cotton material about a meter wide. I thought, Okay, now let’s go buy some stuff for me.

Next. he took the material to a tailor, a man sitting behind a foot-powered sewing machine. What was this—clothing for his family? I grew impatient. The tailor cut and folded the cloth, and sewed it along two edges, and then I finally figured out what was happening. He was making bags. I abruptly realized that there were no bags at the shops; to carry supplies, we needed to bring our own and there did not seem to be shops that sold bags of any kind. I began to understand how much we take for granted in our privileged lives back home. This was twenty years before anyone thought to bring their own bags to a grocery store in the U.S.

Editorial Reviews

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

An extraordinary story about finding meaning and purpose. The book is profound and moving, infused with clarity and wisdom about life, death and everything in between.  A brilliant, life-changing read.

Jimmy Chin

"An extraordinary story about finding meaning and purpose. The book is profound and moving, infused with clarity and wisdom about life, death and everything in between. A brilliant, life-changing read."

—Jimmy Chin, Oscar-winning director, adventurer, and photographer

"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, Best Selling Author of Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven and Into the Wild

From the Publisher