This monograph is a study of the Rgyal ba'i dben gnas rwa sgreng gi bshad pa nyi ma'i 'od zer (Rays of the Sun: A Statement about Rwa sgreng Monastery, Hermitage of the Victor), which is a newly discovered hand-written manuscript from the Fifth Dalai Lama's private library at 'Bras spungs monastery, Lhasa. It is the first known work devoted solely to Rwa sgreng monastery, the mother monastery of the Bka' gdams school founded by 'Brom ston Rgyal ba'i 'byung gnas (1005-1064) in 1057 after the death of his master Atisa (982-1054). The Bka' gdams school no longer exists, but it has greatly influenced major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, such as Dge lugs, Bka' brgyud, and Sa skya school. Rwa sgreng monastery itself has shifted to the Dge lugs school, but it still has a strong presence as a monastery related to Bka' gdams school. Since this work was written at approximately the end of the thirteenth century, it is a relatively early text in the history of the Bka' gdams school, and it provides valuable historical, political, and sociological data on Rwa sgreng monastery. This study aids understanding of the history of Rwa sgreng monastery and the early Bka' gdams school-and more broadly illuminates important aspects of Tibetan history.

The Gateway to Knowledge is a condensation
of the Tripitaka and its accompanying commentaries. Consolidating the intent of
Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings into a unified body of textbooks, it is the philosophical backbone of the living tradition
of Tibetan Buddhism. This rich source book embodies the basics of Prajnaparamita
and Madhyamika as well as Abhidharma from both the Mahayana
and Hinayana perspectives. Every volume in this series includes the Tibetan text and the English translation on facing pages.
"The Tibetan master, Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche (1846-1912) is an exceptional
treasure of wisdom, compassion and scholarship. His accomplishments in practice,
learning, composition and teaching are immense.
The student of The Gateway to Knowledge can begin to comprehend the meaning
of the major works on Buddhist philosophy and of the traditional sciences. When
you want to extract their meaning you need an "expert system," a key. The Gateway to Knowledge is like that key, a magical key - it opens up the treasury of precious gemstones in the expansive collection of Buddhist scriptures. "
-- Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche

The Gateway to Knowledge is a condensation
of the Tripitaka and its accompanying commentaries. Consolidating the intent of
Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings into a unified body of textbooks, it is the philosophical backbone of the living tradition
of Tibetan Buddhism. This rich source book embodies the basics of Prajnaparamita
and Madhyamika as well as Abhidharma from both the Mahayana
and Hinayana perspectives. Every volume in this series includes the Tibetan text and the English translation on facing pages.
"The Tibetan master, Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche (1846-1912) is an exceptional
treasure of wisdom, compassion and scholarship. His accomplishments in practice,
learning, composition and teaching are immense.
Volume III contains explanations on the five skandhas, the Hinayana and Mahayana, Buddha Nature and the conditioned and unconditioned.

The Gateway to Knowledge is a condensation
of the Tripitaka and its accompanying commentaries. Consolidating the intent of
Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings into a unified body of textbooks, it is the philosophical backbone of the living tradition
of Tibetan Buddhism. This rich source book embodies the basics of Prajnaparamita
and Madhyamika as well as Abhidharma from both the Mahayana
and Hinayana perspectives. Every volume in this series includes the Tibetan text and the English translation on facing pages.
"The Tibetan master, Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche (1846-1912) is an exceptional
treasure of wisdom, compassion and scholarship. His accomplishments in practice,
learning, composition and teaching are immense.
Volume II elucidates the Four Noble Truths.

A Clear Mirror is the autobiographical account of a saint, a genius, a virtuoso who has granted readers what is most rare in personal accounts: full access to his incredible inner life. Dudjom Lingpa was a 19th century Tibetan visionary and Great Perfection master whose legacy of meditation teachings has swept across the world since his lifetime, due in part to the international presence of his re-incarnate successor, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche. Although the genre of biography is quite common in Tibetan Buddhism, this is unlike to anything yet translated into English.
This is exactly what Dudjom Lingpa does in his trilogy of auto-biographies. Although he was brilliantly successful in his multi-faceted career as a teacher to incalculable remarkable disciples, a prolific writer with at least twenty-one extant volumes of composition that are still studied around the world, and a Treasure revealer in the teaching system unique to tantric Buddhism, his stories offer us something else. In this book we are shown the very thing that high lamas regard as most sacred and intimate: spiritual evolution via the lens of inner-most visionary life, cinematic in scope, filled with fascinating beings, both divine and demonic. Dudjom Lingpa grants readers access to his enlightenment process--from learning how to meditate up to the highest tantric practices--as only he could have experienced it. This book, filled with vivid and fascinating visions and dreamscapes, is replete with adventure as well as everyday meditation advice. Anyone interested in a revolutionary outlook on personal transformation will enjoy and benefit from these stories.

For practitioners on the paths of Dzogchen and Mahamudra, one of the greatest joys is to personally receive oral instructions from a realized teacher. The excitement of being able to train based on that advice is further enhanced by the stimulation and support that guidance manuals provide. All of the selections presented in Perfect Clarity offer incredible teachings that are inspiring and vital. Pith instructions are so simple and direct that we can easily apply them without fear of mistakes.
These days, the most effective style of teaching is not lengthy scholarly explanations but rather direct guidance manuals The Dzogchen tantras themselves were written in a style that shrouds and conceals the meaning so that only a master who is extremely well-versed in oral instructions and treatises is able to clarify the meaning. On the other hand, based upon oral instructions a guidance manual is a short, comprehensive teaching written in a clear and simple manner. Such summaries of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen teachings contain all the teachings that a worthy practitioner requires to reach the state of primordial enlightenment in this very life.
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
The amazing collection in Perfect Clarity is rounded out by an introduction by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, a preface by Marcia Dechen Wangmo, biographical data of the authors, a glossary, line drawings and photos and Tibetan source material references.

How often do you hear the story of a man who was immaculately born from within a lotus flower with a thousand petals, in the middle of a lake, having been sent as a meteor from the heart of the Boudha of Boundless light? Lotus-Born is the fabulous story of the mystic, master scholar, and outrageous yogi, Padmasambhava, the Lotus-Born, who grew up an adopted prince, was banished, burned at the stake in a neighboring kingdom, and continued miraculously unscathed, wandering through cemeteries, dancing on corpses, and proceeded to live more than five hundred years. He is regarded by the most sane Tibetans as a real, historical figure, the founder of Buddhism in Tibet where he subjugated demons and taught the Buddha's teachings.
The complete story of how Buddhism was planted in Tibet is available in English for the first time with the publication of this book. Lotus-Born is a translation of a biography of the great master recorded in the ninth century by his foremost Tibetan disciple, the princess Yeshe Tsogyal. Many of these biographies were concealed as terma treasures to protect them against the changes of time.

Compiled from numerous Tibetan and Bhutanese sources, including Longchenpa's autobiography and stories of his previous lives and subsequent rebirths, 'The Life of Longchenpa' weaves an inspiring and captivating tale of wonder and magic, of extraordinary visions and spiritual insight, set in the kingdoms of 14th-century Tibet and Bhutan.

Determined to hang prayer flags at Mt. Everest Base Camp, Olivia trekked through Tibet while under the scrutiny of Communist China. She survived earthquakes, landslides, and a middle-of-the-night hijacking while enroute to a remote village in Nepal. Confronted with her own sense of meaning, she went toe-to-toe with the suffering, challenges, and decisions that all beings face, which included the capacity to love and let go.

Himalayan Hermitess is a vivid account of the life and times of a Buddhist nun living on the borderlands of Tibetan culture. Orgyan Chokyi (1675-1729) spent her life in Dolpo, the highest inhabited region of the Nepal Himalayas. Illiterate and expressly forbidden by her master to write her own life story, Orgyan Chokyi received divine inspiration, defied tradition, and composed one of the most engaging autobiographies of the Tibetan literary tradition.
The Life of Orgyan Chokyi is the oldest known autobiography authored by a Tibetan woman, and thus holds a critical place in both Tibetan and Buddhist literature. In it she tells of the sufferings of her youth, the struggle to escape menial labor and become a hermitess, her dreams and visionary experiences, her relationships with other nuns, the painstaking work of contemplative practice, and her hard-won social autonomy and high-mountain solitude. In process it develops a compelling vision of the relation between gender, the body, and suffering from a female Buddhist practitioner's perspective.
Part One of Himalayan Hermitess presents a religious history of Orgyan Chokyi's Himalayan world, the Life of Orgyan Chokyi as a work of literature, its portrayal of sorrow and joy, its perspectives on suffering and gender, as well as the diverse religious practices found throughout the work. Part Two offers a full translation of the Life of Orgyan Chokyi. Based almost entirely upon Tibetan documents never before translated, Himalayan Hermitess is an accessible introduction to Buddhism in the premodern Himalayas.

"The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa" brings together in eight volumes the writings of one of the first and most influential and inspirational Tibetan teachers to present Buddhism in the West. Organized by theme, the collection includes full-length books as well as articles, seminar transcripts, poems, plays, and interviews, many of which have never before been available in book form. From memoirs of his escape from Chinese-occupied Tibet to insightful discussions of psychology, mind, and meditation; from original verse and calligraphy to the esoteric lore of tantric Buddhism--the impressive range of Trungpa's vision, talents, and teachings is showcased in this landmark series. Volume Seven features the work of Chogyam Trungpa as a poet, playwright, and visual artist and his teachings on art and the creative process, which are among the most innovative and provocative aspects of his activities in the West. While it includes material in which Trungpa Rinpoche shares his knowledge of the symbolism and iconography of traditional Buddhist arts (in "Visual Dharma)," this richly varied volume primarily focuses on his own, often radical creative expressions. "The Art of Calligraphy" is a wonderful showcase for his calligraphy, and "Dharma Art" brings together his ideas on art, the artistic process, and aesthetics. Tibetan poetics, filmmaking, theater, and art and education are among the topics of the selected writings.

This narrative of subsistence on the Tibetan plateau describes the life-worlds of people in a region traditionally known as Kham who move with their yaks from pasture to pasture, depending on the milk production of their herd for sustenance. Gillian Tan's story, based on her own experience of living through seasonal cycles with the people of Dora Karmo between 2006 and 2013, examines the community's powerful relationship with a Buddhist lama and their interactions with external agents of change. In showing how they perceive their environment and dwell in their world, Tan conveys a spare beauty that honors the stillness and rhythms of nomadic life.

This title provides down-to-earth, practical meditation instructions and advice, presented in a conversational style. It will appeal to Buddhist practitioners and to readers specifically interested in female manifestations of the divine.

Santideva's eighth-century work, the Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Bodhicaryavatara), is known for its eminently practical instructions and its psychologically vivid articulations of the Mahayana path. It is a powerful, succinct poem into which are woven diverse Buddhist traditions of moral transformation, meditative cultivation, and philosophical insight. Since its composition, it has seen continuous use as a ritual, contemplative, and philosophical manual, making it one of the crucial texts of the Buddhist ethical and philosophical tradition. This book serves as a companion to this Indian Buddhist classic. The fifteen essays contained here illuminate the Guide's many philosophical, literary, ritual, and ethical dimensions. Distinguished scholars discuss the historical significance of the text as an innovative piece of Indian literature, illuminate the important roles it played in shaping Buddhism in Tibet, and bring to light its contemporary significance for philosophy and psychology. Whether experienced or first-time students of Buddhist literature, readers will find compelling new approaches to this resonant masterpiece.

If any anthropologist living today can illuminate our dim understanding of death's enigma, it is Robert Desjarlais. With Subject to Death, Desjarlais provides an intimate, philosophical account of death and mourning practices among Hyolmo Buddhists, an ethnically Tibetan Buddhist people from Nepal. He studies the death preparations of the Hyolmo, their specific rituals of grieving, and the practices they use to heal the psychological trauma of loss. Desjarlais's research marks a major advance in the ethnographic study of death, dying, and grief, one with broad implications. Ethnologically nuanced, beautifully written, and twenty-five years in the making, Subject to Death is an insightful study of how fundamental aspects of human existence--identity, memory, agency, longing, bodiliness--are enacted and eventually dissolved through social and communicative practices.

In this society, with its hurly-burly pace demanding of our time, it is ever so easy to let life slip by. Looking back after ten, twenty, thirty, years--we wonder what we have really accomplished. The process of simply existing is not necessarily meaningful. And yet there is an unlimited potential for meaning and value in this human existence. The Seven-Point Mind Training is one eminently practical way of tapping into that meaning. At the heart of the Seven-Point Mind Training lies the transformation of the circumstances that life brings us, however hard as the raw material from which we create our own spiritual path. The central theme of the Seven-Point Mind Training is to make the liberating passage from the constricting solitude of self-centeredness to the warm kinship with others which occurs with the cultivation of cherishing others. This Mind Training is especially well-suited for an active life. It helps us to reexamine our relationships--to family, friends, enemies, and strangers--and gradually transform our responses to whatever life throws our way.

An important manifesto on how we can change our world for the better from the unique mind of the Dalai Lama, penned by the internationally bestselling author of Emotional Intelligence 'It is not enough merely to espouse a noble vision, the Dalai Lama tells us - we need to move toward it. The Dalai Lama's vision beckons us all. Every one of us can be a force for good' The Dalai Lama has for decades travelled the world, meeting people from all backgrounds and sharing with them his wisdom and compassion. In his encounters with everyone, from heads to state to inhabitants of shanty towns, he has come across similar problems: values that help the wealthy to advance beyond the poor, an environmental disregard that could lead to global catastrophe and governments in paralysis, bereft of any positive, progressive policies. The Dalai Lama offers here his unique vision for a global economic system, one that applies principals of fairness and which values fulfilment, focusing on what is truly urgent and why. It is a manifesto that has the potential to reshape humanity as we know it and bring hope to millions.

In "The Heart of the Buddha," the Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa presents the basic teachings of Buddhism as they relate to everyday life. The book is divided into three parts. In "Personal Journey," the author discusses the open, inquisitive, and good-humored qualities of the "heart of the Buddha," an "enlightened gene" that everyone possesses. In "Stages on the Path," he presents the three vehicles--Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana--that carry the Buddhist practitioner toward enlightenment. In "Working with Others," he describes the direct application of Buddhist teachings to topics as varied as relationships, drinking, children, and money. "The Heart of the Buddha "reflects Trungpa's great appreciation for Western culture and deep understanding of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, which enabled him to teach Westerners in an effective, contemporary way.

This book is a translation of the first part of Jigme Lingpa's Treasury of Precious Qualities, which in a slender volume of elegant verses sets out briefly but comprehensively the Buddhist path according to the Nyingma school. The concision of the root text and its use of elaborate poetic language, rich in metaphor, require extensive explanation, amply supplied here by the commentary of Kangyur Rinpoche.
The present volume lays out the teachings of the sutras in gradual stages according to the traditional three levels, or scopes, of spiritual endeavor. It begins with essential teachings on impermanence, karma, and ethics. Then, from the Hinayana standpoint, it describes the essential Buddhist teachings of the four noble truths and the twelve links of dependent arising. Moving on, finally, to the Mahayana perspective, it expounds fully the teachings on bodhichitta and the path of the six paramitas, and gives an unusually detailed exposition of Buddhist vows.
The paperback edition includes Jigme Lingpa's root text in verse, which was not included in the hardcover edition.

The Gateway to Knowledge is a condensation of the Tripitaka and its accompanying commentaries. Consolidating the intent of Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings into a unified body of textbooks, it is the philosophical backbone of the living tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Volume IV of this rich source book elucidates, The Four Seals of the Dharma, which are that all conditioned things are impermanent, everything defiling is suffering, nirvana is peace, and all phenomena are empty and devoid of self-entity. It also includes the four right discriminations, which are meaning, Dharma, definitive words, and ready speech as well as the four reasonings that have been taught in the sutras: 1) the principle of efficacy, 2) the principle of dependence, 3) the principle of reality, and 4) the principle of valid proof and the four reliances. Every volume in this series includes the Tibetan text and the English translation on facing pages. The Tibetan master, Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche (1846-1912) is an exceptional treasure of wisdom, compassion and scholarship. His accomplishments in practice, learning, composition and teaching are immense. The student of the Gateway to knowledge can begin to comprehend the meaning of the major works on Buddhist philosophy and of the traditional sciences. When you want to extract their meaning you need and " expert system," a key. The gateway to Knowledge is like that key, a magical key - it opens up the treasury of precious gemstones in the expansive collection of Buddhist scriptures.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991) was one of the most respected and influential Tibetan Buddhist teachers of our age. There was something remarkable about his presence that impressed everyone who met him - a quality of mind that comes across even in photographs. Here is his memoir of a remarkable life of study, teaching, and solitary retreat, told with a wealth of anecdotes and stories. It will be an inspiration to the readers of his numerous books - as well as to all Buddhist practitioners, who will welcome this rare opportunity to hear the experiences of a highly realized being in his own words. The book also provides an authentic view of Tibetan culture and of the hardships endured by the Tibetans after the Chinese takeover. The second half of the book is a treasury of recollections about Khyentse Rinpoche by his wife; his grandson and heir, Sechen Rabjam Rinpoche; and, other lamas and friends who knew him well.

The Training Anthology-or TSiksa-samuccaya-is a collection of quotations from Buddhist sutras with illuminating and insightful commentary by the eighth-century North Indian master Santideva. Best known for his philosophical poem, the Bodhicaryavatara, Santideva has been a vital source of spiritual guidance and literary inspiration to Tibetan teachers and students throughout the history of Tibetan Buddhism. Charles Goodman offers a translation of this major work of religious literature, in which Santideva has extracted, from the vast ocean of the Buddha's teachings, a large number of passages of exceptional value, either for their practical relevance, philosophical illumination, or aesthetic beauty. The Training Anthology provides a comprehensive overview of the Mahayana path to Awakening and gives scholars an invaluable window into the religious doctrines, ethical commitments, and everyday life of Buddhist monks in India during the first millennium CE. This translation includes a detailed analysis of the philosophy of the Training Anthology, an introduction to Santideva's cultural and religious contexts, and informative footnotes. The translation conveys the teachings of this timeless classic in clear and accessible English, highlighting for the modern reader the intellectual sophistication, beauty, and spiritual grandeur of the original text.