Groundless Paths

The Abhisamayalamkara summarizes all the topics in the vast body of the prajñaparamita sutras. Resembling a zip-file, it comes to life only through its Indian and Tibetan commentaries. Together, these texts not only discuss the "hidden meaning" of the prajñaparamita sutras—the paths and bhumis of sravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas—but also serve as contemplative manuals for the explicit topic of these sutras—emptiness—and how it is to be understood on the progressive levels of realization of bodhisattvas. Thus these texts describe what happens in the mind of a bodhisattva who meditates on emptiness, making it a living experience from the beginner's stage up through buddhahood. Groundless Paths contains the first in-depth study of the Abhisamayalamkara (the text studied most extensively in higher Tibetan Buddhist education) and its commentaries from the perspective of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. This study consists mainly of translations of Maitreya's famous text and two commentaries on it by Patrul Rinpoche. These are supplemented by three short texts on the paths and bhumis by the same author, as well as extensive excerpts from commentaries by six other Nyingma masters, including Mipham Rinpoche. Thus this book helps close a long-standing gap in the modern scholarship on the prajñaparamita sutras and the literature on paths and bhumis in mahayana Buddhism. Arya Maitreya's Ornament of Clear Realization, with its Indian and Tibetan commentaries, presents the complex dynamics of the path to liberation as a succession of realizations of the empty nature of all phenomena. This presentation is a powerful antidote to whatever two-dimensional views we might hold about spiritual experience and the journey to enlightenment.

A guide to the famous Heart Sūtra that reveals the tenderness and compassion underlying the striking rhetoric of this popular Buddhist text The radical message of the Heart Sūtra, one of Buddhism’s most famous texts, is a sweeping attack on everything we hold most dear: our troubles, the world as we know it, even the teachings of the Buddha himself. Several of the Buddha’s followers are said to have suffered heart attacks and died when they first heard its assertion of the basic groundlessness of our existence—hence the title of this book. Overcoming fear, the Buddha teaches, is not to be accomplished by shutting down or building walls around oneself, but instead by opening up to understand the illusory nature of everything we fear—including ourselves. In this book of teachings, Karl Brunnhölzl guides practitioners through this ‘crazy’ sutra to the wisdom and compassion that lie at its core.

"Courageous Compassion, the sixth volume of the Library of Wisdom and Compassion, continues the Dalai Lama's teachings on the path to awakening. While volume 5, In Praise of Great Compassion, focused on opening our hearts to others and generating the compassion, joy, and fortitude to make our lives meaningful by benefiting them, this volume ventures further to describe buddhahood, the path of no more learning-the premise being that all sentient beings will become fully awakened buddhas. We learn about the ten perfections as well as how śrāvakas, solitary realizers, and bodhisattvas progress along the paths of their respective vehicles to ultimate bodhicitta. A sophisticated schema of the five paths (of accumulation, preparation, seeing, meditation, and no more learning) and of the eight and ten grounds of the Fundamental Vehicle and the Bodhisattva Vehicle, respectively, serves as a concise framework for studying a grounds-and-path text in depth. Finally, His Holiness describes the buddha bodies, what buddhas perceive, and the awakening activities of buddas. Throughout, we see how the Dharma is taught in Tibetan Buddhism, in the Pāli tradition, and in Chinese Buddhism"--

One of the most important sadhana cycles in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, the Rigdzin Düpa, or Gathering of the Vidyadharas, is practiced by tens of thousands of practitioners around the world. This inner guru practice focuses on Padmasambhava as the central figure and is one of the three root sadhanas of the Longchen Nyingtik treasure cycle revealed by the great Jigme Lingpa. This book will help readers mature their practice with invaluable instructions and commentary from some of the greatest Tibetan masters to have ever lived, including Patrul Rinpoche, Jamgön Kongtrul Lödro Tayé, and more. This book is for those who have received the reading transmission for the Rigdzin Düpa. Until such time as you receive the transmission, you can keep it on your shrine.

Not a mere compilation, Blessed Longing traces the development of Goethe's lyric poetry as an organic-dynamic unity, through numerous representative samples of both well known and more intimate occasional poems. The translations are in verse and reflect as accurately as possible the rich diversity of Goethe's own meter, while dispensing with the restrictive artifice of rhyme to avoid the occasional "stuffiness" of traditional translations. The goal was not only to make Goethe's individual achievements accessible to English speakers, but to present to them a full and varied picture of Goethe the man and the poet.

A modern and accessible reader of Classical Tibetan Buddhist texts based on the traditional monastic educational system, designed for both classroom use and independent study Designed for both classroom use and independent study, Learning Classical Tibetan is a modern and accessible reader for studying traditional Buddhist texts. Unlike other readers of Classical Tibetan, this is a comprehensive manual for navigating Tibetan Buddhist literature drawing on a monastic curriculum. Utilizing the most up-to-date teaching methods and tools for Tibetan language training, students learn to navigate the grammar, vocabulary, syntax, and style of Classical Tibetan while also engaging the content of Buddhist philosophical works. Chapters consist of a contextual introduction to each reading, a Tibetan text marked with references to annotations that provide progressive explanations of grammar, cultural notes on vocabulary, translation hints, notes on the Sanskrit origins of Tibetan expressions and grammatical structures, as well as a literal translation of the text. The reader also includes study plans for classroom use, discussion of dictionaries and other helpful resources, a glossary of English grammatical and linguistic terms, and much more. This reader can be used in conjunction with Paul Hackett’s expanded edition of his well-known Tibetan Verb Lexicon. Using a clear and approachable style, Hackett provides a practical and complete manual that will surely benefit all students of Classical Tibetan.

These works, transmitted from Arya Maitreya - the fifth and future Buddha of this fortunate age - to Arya Asanga some time in the third century, comprise one of the major foundations of Mahayana Buddhism, the unbroken transmission and practice of which continues today. The focus of this text is the Prajnaparamita teachings. There are two main ways of approaching the meaning of the Prajnaparamita, the direct and indirect approach, with both approaches revealing the meaning of emptiness. Many students these days are familiar with the direct approach to understanding emptiness as shown in texts such as those by Nagarjuna. However, the indirect approach is perhaps less familiar and is what Maitreya is focussing on in this text. The indirect approach to emptiness reveals the hidden meaning of the Prajnaparamita sutras by examining the five paths and spiritual levels. Through this approach one understands how emptiness is realized, how this wisdom is developed and what is removed by this wisdom. Maitreya received the full transmission and meaning of these teachings directly from the Buddha and is therefore able to convey the meaning clearly and directly for us. This was his main motivation for composing this particular work and also that by understanding the Prajnaparamita teachings beings would be able to accomplish Buddhahood.