In Luminous Emptiness, Yaroslav Komarovski offers an annotated translation of three seminal works on the nature and relationship of the Yogacara and Madhyamaka schools of Buddhist thought, by Serdok Penchen Shakya Chokden (1428-1507). There has never been consensus on the meaning of Madhyamaka and Yogacara, and for more than fifteen centuries the question of correct identification and interpretation of these systems has remained unsolved. Chokden proposes to accept Yogacara and Madhyamaka on their own terms as compatible systems, despite their considerable divergences and reciprocal critiques. His major objective is to bring Yogacara back from obscurity, present it in a positive light, and correct its misrepresentation by earlier thinkers. He thus serves as a major resource for scholarly research on the historical and philosophical development of Yogacara and Madhyamaka. Until recently, Shakya Chokden's works have been largely unavailable. Only in 1975 were his collected writings published in twenty-four volumes in Bhutan. Since then, his ingenious works on Buddhist history, philosophy, and logic have attracted increasing scholarly attention. Komarovski's research on Shakya Chokden's innovative writings-most of which are still available only in the original Tibetan-revises early misinterpretations by addressing some of the most complicated aspects of his thought. While focusing on his unique interpretation of Yogacara and Madhyamaka, the book also shows that his thought provides an invaluable base to challenge and expand our understanding of such topics as epistemology, contemplative practice, the relationship between intellectual study and meditative experience, and other key questions that occupy contemporary scholarship on Buddhism and religion in general.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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

Places the controversy initiated by the Tibetan Tsong kha pa - who elaborated on one of the eight difficult points in understanding Madhyamaka philosophy - in its Indian and Tibetan context.

The Way of the Bodhisattva, composed by the monk and scholar Santideva in eighth-century India, is a Buddhist treatise in verse that beautifully and succinctly lays out the theory and practice of the Mahayana path of a bodhisattva. Over one thousand years after Santideva's composition, Kunzang Soenam (1823-1905) produced the most extensive commentary on the Way of the Bodhisattva ever written. This book is the first English translation of Kunzang Soenam's overview of Santideva's notoriously difficult ninth chapter on wisdom. The ninth chapter of the Way of the Bodhisattva is philosophically very rich but forbiddingly technical, and can only be read well with a good commentary. Kunzang Soenam's commentary offers a unique and complete introduction to the view of Prasangika-Madhyamaka, the summit of Buddhist philosophy in Tibet, as articulated by Tsongkhapa. It brings Santideva's text, and Tsongkhapa's interpretation of Prasangika-Madhyamaka, into conversation with a vast Buddhist literature from India and Tibet. By articulating the integral relationship between emptiness and interdependence, this text formulates a sustained and powerful argument for emptiness as a metaphysical basis of bodhisattva ethics. This volume makes the ninth chapter accessible to English-speaking teachers and students of the Way of the Bodhisattva.

Pilgrimage on the Path of Love is the story of a woman on the spiritual path who travels alone to India. Arriving in New Delhi, expecting to be her publisher's guest, she finds herself instead in a Buddhist guest house with lamas from Ladakh. There she is introduced to Tibetan Buddhism and befriends a lama. Traveling to a Himalayan hill station to write, and living very simply, she meets people from all over the world who share their wisdom of life. While living in a Buddhist monastery, she experiences a deepening of faith in the eternal harmony of creation. Finally, she embarks on a momentous journey to Ladakh, The Last Shangri-La, to await the lama she loves. There, her faith is severely tested, but in the end, she emerges as a fuller human being with a more mature understanding of the true nature of life and love.

Based on newly discovered texts, this book explores the barely known but tremendously influential thought of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Mabja Jangchub Tsoendru (d. 1185).This Tibetan Buddhist master exercised significant influence on the interpretation of Madhyamaka thinking in Tibet during the formative phase of Tibetan Buddhism and plays a key role in the religious thought of his day and beyond. The book studies the framework of Mabja's philosophical project, holding it up against the works of both his own Madhyamaka teachers as well as those of central authors of the later "classical period". The emerging account of the evolution of Madhyamaka in Tibet reveals a striking pattern of transformative appropriations. This, in turn, affords us insights into the nature and function of tradition in Tibetan religious culture and Mahayana Buddhism at large. Innovation is demanded for both the advancement and consolidation of tradition. This ground-breaking book is an invaluable contribution to the study of Tibetan philosophy. It is of great interest to Buddhist practitioners, specialists in Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan Buddhism.

Treasures from Juniper Ridge combines meditation and pith practice
instructions in a way that is easy to apply and comprehend. It is a compilation
of discovered teachings, termas, by the greatest master of Vajrayana
Buddhism, Padmasambhava, hidden by his female disciple, Yeshe Tsogyal.
Treasures is replete with pieces that are direct, profound, fresh, and pertinent
to our times.
These various revelations are for all levels of practitioners. They provide indepth explanations of assorted aspects of practice, including: deity, death
and dying, non-conceptual meditation and recognizing mind nature. The
book outlines ways to apply these teachings for the modern student, while
remaining true to traditional principles.
"Padmasambhava's pith instructions are extremely important because he
is not just a legendary figure or an ancient myth. He is an actual person
who continuously carries out spontaneous activities, including manifesting
as treasure revealers, so that there is always a fresh, unimpaired teaching
that people can practice. This also ensures that Padmasambhava's spiritual
influence and blessings are unceasing.
The special quality of these terma teachings is that they provide a method
for accomplishment that is appropriate for each specific generation, period
of time, and individual person who meets them. The treasure teachings
he gave on the Juniper Ridge of Crystal Pearls contain the essential meaning
of hundreds of such instructions."
--Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

In a remote Himalayan village in 1721, the Jesuit priest Ippolito Desideri awaited permission from Rome to continue his mission to convert the Tibetan people to Christianity. In the meantime, he forged ahead with an ambitious project: a treatise, written in classical Tibetan, that would refute key Buddhist doctrines. If he could convince the Buddhist monks that these doctrines were false, thought Desideri, he would dispel the darkness of idolatry from Tibet. Offering a fascinating glimpse into the historical encounter between Christianity and Buddhism, Dispelling the Darkness brings Desideri's Tibetan writings to readers of English for the first time. This authoritative study provides extended excerpts from Inquiry concerning the Doctrines of Previous Lives and Emptiness, Desideri's unfinished masterpiece, as well as a full translation of Essence of the Christian Religion, a companion work that broadens his refutation of Buddhism. Desideri possessed an unusually sophisticated understanding of Buddhism and a masterful command of the classical Tibetan language. He believed that only careful argumentation could demolish the philosophical foundations of Buddhism, especially the doctrines of rebirth and emptiness that prevented belief in the existence of God. Donald Lopez and Thupten Jinpa's detailed commentary reveals how Desideri deftly used Tibetan literary conventions and passages from Buddhist scriptures to make his case. When the Vatican refused Desideri's petition, he returned to Rome, his manuscripts in tow, where they languished unread in archives. Dispelling the Darkness brings these vital texts to light after centuries of neglect.

The Dalai Lama has represented Buddhism as a religion of non-violence, compassion, and world peace, but this does not reflect how monks learn their vocation. This book shows how monasteries use harsh methods to make monks of men, and how this tradition is changing as modernist reformers - like the Dalai Lama - adopt liberal and democratic ideals, such as natural rights and individual autonomy. In the first in-depth account of disciplinary practices at a Tibetan monastery in India, Michael Lempert looks closely at everyday education rites - from debate to reprimand and corporal punishment. His analysis explores how the idioms of violence inscribed in these socialization rites help produce educated, moral persons but in ways that trouble Tibetans who aspire to modernity. Bringing the study of language and social interaction to our understanding of Buddhism for the first time, Lempert shows and why liberal ideals are being acted out by monks in India, offering a provocative alternative view of liberalism as a globalizing discourse.

In 1995, the People's Republic of China resurrected a Qing-era law mandating that the reincarnations of prominent Tibetan Buddhist monks be identified by drawing lots from a golden urn. The Chinese Communist Party hoped to limit the ability of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile to independently identify reincarnations. In so doing, they elevated a long-forgotten ceremony into a controversial symbol of Chinese sovereignty in Tibet. In Forging the Golden Urn, Max Oidtmann ventures into the polyglot world of the Qing empire in search of the origins of the golden urn tradition. He seeks to understand the relationship between the Qing state and its most powerful partner in Inner Asia-the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. Why did the Qianlong emperor invent the golden urn lottery in 1792? What ability did the Qing state have to alter Tibetan religious and political traditions? What did this law mean to Qing rulers, their advisors, and Tibetan Buddhists? Working with both the Manchu-language archives of the empire's colonial bureaucracy and the chronicles of Tibetan elites, Oidtmann traces how a Chinese bureaucratic technology-a lottery for assigning administrative posts-was exported to the Tibetan and Mongolian regions of the Qing empire and transformed into a ritual for identifying and authenticating reincarnations. Forging the Golden Urn sheds new light on how the empire's frontier officers grappled with matters of sovereignty, faith, and law and reveals the role that Tibetan elites played in the production of new religious traditions in the context of Qing rule.

Love Letters from Golok chronicles the courtship between two Buddhist tantric masters, Tare Lhamo (1938-2002) and Namtrul Rinpoche (1944-2011), and their passion for reinvigorating Buddhism in eastern Tibet during the post-Mao era. In fifty-six letters exchanged from 1978 to 1980, Tare Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche envisioned a shared destiny to "heal the damage" done to Buddhism during the years leading up to and including the Cultural Revolution. Holly Gayley retrieves the personal and prophetic dimensions of their courtship and its consummation in a twenty-year religious career that informs issues of gender and agency in Buddhism, cultural preservation among Tibetan communities, and alternative histories for minorities in China. The correspondence between Tare Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche is the first collection of "love letters" to come to light in Tibetan literature. Blending tantric imagery with poetic and folk song styles, their letters have a fresh vernacular tone comparable to the love songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama, but with an eastern Tibetan flavor. Gayley reads these letters against hagiographic writings about the couple, supplemented by field research, to illuminate representational strategies that serve to narrate cultural trauma in a redemptive key, quite unlike Chinese scar literature or the testimonials of exile Tibetans. With special attention to Tare Lhamo's role as a tantric heroine and her hagiographic fusion with Namtrul Rinpoche, Gayley vividly shows how Buddhist masters have adapted Tibetan literary genres to share private intimacies and address contemporary social concerns.

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE POWER OF LETTING GO 'Life-changing' - Sara Makin, Founder & CEO of Makin Wellness If you learn to let go, your life will take off. How is negative thinking affecting your success? Are you holding on to a story about your life? Are you allowing judgement and pain to weigh you down? Learn to let go and turn your dreams into reality with this beautifully illustrated, guided journal from the bestselling author of The Power of Letting Go. Learn how to stay present, let go of the thoughts that keep you stuck, and tune into something far more intelligent than your brain using the creative exercises, writing prompts and techniques in this journal - and start living a life of freedom and success.

The Social Life of Tibetan Biography explores the creation of Tibetan religious authority in Tibetan cultural areas throughout East, Inner, and South Asia through engaging with the relationship between textual biography and social community in the case of the Eastern Tibetan yogi Tokden Shakya Shri (1853 1919). It explores the different mechanisms used by Shakya Shri s community in the creation of his biographical portrait to develop his lineage, including the use of biographical tropes, details of interpersonal connections, educational and patronage networks, and representations of sacred site creation and maintenance. In doing so, this study decenters Tibetan and Himalayan religious history through recognizing that peripheries could act as alternative centers of authority for diverse Tibetan Buddhist communities."

This book analyses the transplantation, development and adaptation of the two largest Tibetan and Zen Buddhist organizations currently active on the British religious landscape: the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) and the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives (OBC). The key contributions of recent scholarship are evaluated and organised thematically to provide a framework for analysis, and the history and current landscape of contemporary Tibetan and Zen Buddhist practice in Britain are also mapped out. A number of patterns and processes identified elsewhere are exemplified, although certain assumptions made about the nature of 'British Buddhism' are subjected to critical scrutiny and challenged.

Based on newly discovered texts, this book explores the barely known but tremendously influential thought of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Mabja Jangchub Tsoendru (d. 1185).This Tibetan Buddhist master exercised significant influence on the interpretation of Madhyamaka thinking in Tibet during the formative phase of Tibetan Buddhism and plays a key role in the religious thought of his day and beyond. The book studies the framework of Mabja's philosophical project, holding it up against the works of both his own Madhyamaka teachers as well as those of central authors of the later "classical period". The emerging account of the evolution of Madhyamaka in Tibet reveals a striking pattern of transformative appropriations. This, in turn, affords us insights into the nature and function of tradition in Tibetan religious culture and Mahayana Buddhism at large. Innovation is demanded for both the advancement and consolidation of tradition. This ground-breaking book is an invaluable contribution to the study of Tibetan philosophy. It is of great interest to Buddhist practitioners, specialists in Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan Buddhism.

The Qing empire and the Dalai Lama-led Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism came into contact in the eighteenth century. Their interconnections would shape regional politics and the geopolitical history of Inner Asia for centuries to come. In Common Ground, Lan Wu analyzes how Tibetan Buddhists and the Qing imperial rulers interacted and negotiated as both sought strategies to expand their influence in eighteenth-century Inner Asia. In so doing, she recasts the Qing empire, seeing it not as a monolithic project of imperial administration but as a series of encounters among different communities. Wu examines a series of interconnected sites in the Qing empire where the influence of Tibetan Buddhism played a key role, tracing the movement of objects, flows of peoples, and circulation of ideas in the space between China and Tibet. She identifies a transregional Tibetan Buddhist knowledge network, which provided institutional, pragmatic, and intellectual common ground for both polities. Wu draws out the voices of lesser-known Tibetan Buddhists, whose writings and experiences evince an alternative Buddhist space beyond the state. She highlights interactions between Mongols and Tibetans within the Qing empire, exploring the creation of a Buddhist Inner Asia. Wu argues that Tibetan Buddhism occupied a central-but little understood-role in the Qing vision of empire. Revealing the interdependency of two expanding powers, Common Ground sheds new light on the entangled histories of political, social, and cultural ties between Tibet and China.

A huge international success, the Dalai Lama's books have sold millions of copies worldwide. Now, for the first time, this inspirational new book brings together the Dalai Lama's writings on all sides of life from work to meditation, in his highly appealing and unique voice that applies the principles of ancient Buddhist thought to contemporary issues. For all fans of the Dalai Lama's writings, and for anyone yet to be introduced to his thinking, this is the perfect collection.

Gendun Chopel is considered the most important Tibetan intellectual of the twentieth century. His life spanned the two defining moments in modern Tibetan history: the entry into Lhasa by British troops in 1904 and by Chinese troops in 1951. Recognized as an incarnate lama while he was a child, Gendun Chopel excelled in the traditional monastic curriculum and went on to become expert in fields as diverse as philosophy, history, linguistics, geography, and tantric Buddhism. Near the end of his life, before he was persecuted and imprisoned by the government of the young Dalai Lama, he would dictate the "Adornment for Nagarjuna's Thought," a work on Madhyamaka, or "Middle Way," philosophy. It sparked controversy immediately upon its publication and continues to do so today. "The Madman's Middle Way" presents the first English translation of this major Tibetan Buddhist work, accompanied by an essay on Gendun Chopel's life liberally interspersed with passages from his writings. Donald S. Lopez Jr. also provides a commentary that sheds light on the doctrinal context of the "Adornment" and summarizes its key arguments. Ultimately, Lopez examines the long-standing debate over whether Gendun Chopel in fact is the author of the "Adornment"; the heated critical response to the work by Tibetan monks of the Dalai Lama's sect; and what the "Adornment" tells us about Tibetan Buddhism's encounter with modernity. The result is an insightful glimpse into a provocative and enigmatic work" "that" "will be of great interest to anyone seriously interested in Buddhism or Asian religions.