This book contains a translation of an actual sutra of the Buddha. It is a very short but particularly important sutra from the Great Vehicle teachings given in the third turning of the wheel. The sutra is important for two reasons. Firstly, it is one of the five "condensed" sutras, sutras which sum up the five very large sutras of the Great Vehicle sutras-the Avatamsaka, and so on. This sutra sums up the meaning of the major sutra called The Nirvana Sutra in which the Buddha gives many final instructions before passing away. Therefore, it is regarded that the Point of Passage Wisdom sutra teaches final teachings of the Buddha in a very condensed way. This sutra is so important that the early Dharma Kings of Tibet recited it daily. Secondly, this sutra is one of the ten sutras cited by the Other Empty (Zhantong) school in support of their position. These ten sutras are called the "Profound Meditation System" sutras by the Other Empty school because they are considered to convey the ultimate approach to view and meditation taught by the Buddha to his regent Maitreya. Of the ten sutras, this sutra, despite is very short length, is one of the most interesting. It gives, in an economy of words, a complete instruction on the view and meditation of the profound meditation system. In doing so, it explicitly shows the ultimate meaning of the third turning sutras and explicitly shows that the Other Empty or Zhantong approach is the ultimate intent of the Buddha. As a point of further interest, the seeds of Mahamudra and Dzogchen practice can be very clearly seen in this sutra and practitioners of those systems will also find it very interesting to see what the Buddha says about this.

On the evening of March 17, 1959, as the people of Tibet braced for a violent power grab by Chinese occupiers--one that would forever wipe out any vestige of national sovereignty--the twenty-four-year-old Dalai Lama, Tibet's political and spiritual leader, contemplated the impossible. The task before him was immense: to slip past a cordon of crack Chinese troops ringing his summer palace and, with an escort of 300, journey across the highest terrain in the world and over treacherous Himalayan passes to freedom--one step ahead of pursuing Chinese soldiers.
Mao Zedung, China's ruthless Communist dictator, had pinned his hopes for total Tibetan submission on controlling the impressionable Dalai Lama. So beloved was the young ruler--so identified with his country's essence--that for him to escape might mean perpetual resistance from a population unwilling to tolerate an increasingly brutal occupation. The Dalai Lama's minders sent word to the Tibetan rebels and CIA-trained guerrillas who waited on the route: " His Holiness must escape"--"at all costs.
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In many ways, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was unprepared for the epic journey awaiting him. Twenty-two years earlier, government search parties, guided by prophecies and omens, had arrived at the boy's humble peasant home and subjected the two-year-old to a series of tests. After being declared the reincarnation of Tibet's previous ruler, the boy was brought to Lhasa to learn the secrets of Buddhism and the ways of ultimate power. Forced in the ensuing two decades to cope with aching loneliness and often stifling ritual--and compelled to suppress his mischievous personality--Gyatso eventually proved himself a capable leader. But no previous Dalai Lama had ever taken on a million Communist Chinese soldiers bent on stamping out Tibetan freedom.
To keep his country's dream of independence alive by means of a government in exile, the young ruler would not only have to brave battalions of enemy soldiers and the whiteout conditions waiting on the slopes of the Himalayas' highest peaks, he'd have to overcome a different type of blindness: the naivete intrinsic to his sheltered palace life and his position as leader of a people who considered violence deeply taboo.
His mind made up, the young Dalai Lama set off on his audacious journey to India while behind him a Chinese army rolled over Lhasa, its advance hunter patrols in fierce pursuit of the man they most coveted. The 14th's escape was an act of daring and defiance that represented Tibet's last hope, and so the world watched, transfixed, as the gentle monk's journey unfolded.
Emotionally powerful and irresistibly page-turning, "Escape from the Land of Snows" is simultaneously a portrait of the inhabitants of a spiritual nation forced to take up arms in defense of their ideals, and the saga of an initially childlike ruler who at first wore his monk's robes uncomfortably but was ultimately transformed by his escape into the towering figure the world knows today--a charismatic champion of free thinking and universal compassion.

"From the Hardcover edition."

Hevajra (Tib. Kye'i rdo rje) is one the principal adevat (Tib. Yidam) or meditational deities of tantric Buddhism and is key to Sa skya pa practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Professor SWnellgrove's edition of the Hevajra-tantra has been prepared on the basis of the extant Sanskrit manuscripts, the core being a Sanskrit original found in Nepal in the 19th century. The translation is made with reference also to the Tibetan edition of the tantra, as well as the most important Indian commentaries, among which is the Yogaratnamby Kha, here reproduced in full. The first part is in two sections: the introduction provides historical and religious setting, and then interprets the essential meaning of the tantra; then follows the complete translation, with full explanatory notes based upon the commentaries. The second part contains the complete romanised Sanskrit and Tibetan texts of the tantra, followed by Yogaratnam. Both versions of the text are fully annotated, and followed by a select vocabulary: Tibetan-Sanskrit-English, then Sanskrit-Tibetan.

This commentary is based on the six bardos teachings from a series of hidden treasure texts known as the Profound Dharma of Natural Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones (Zab chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol), discovered by the great terton Karma Lingpa in the fourteenth century. The word "bardo," made popular in the West through the English translation of the Bardo Thodol or The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which also belongs to the same series of treasure texts, means an intermediate or in-between state. The practice of the six bardos, according to the hermeneutics of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, is essentially the meditative practice of living and dying. Natural Appearances, Natural Liberation not only contains very practical advice, but also has many teachings of the Nyingma tantric tradition embedded in it. The original text is not intended as a study of spiritualism or psychology. Neither is it intended to be viewed as handbook for taking care of the deceased, nor as a treatise on emptiness. The intention is to condense the very deep and profound tantric teachings of the six bardos into practices approachable by all sentient beings so that many can swiftly attain various states of liberation. This book offers a scholarly but accessible explanation of the ancient wisdom embedded in this ancient Buddhist classic. Tam Shek-wing (1935-) is a Buddhist scholar, painter, poet, writer and social critic. He is the founder of the Vajrayana Buddhism Association and Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Studies Association in North America. Master Tam was born in Guangzhou, China. As a young man, he received systematic training in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism under the guidance of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche. In 1986, Master Tam emigrated from Hong Kong to Hawaii, and then to Toronto in 1993. As early as the late 1970s, Master Tam began publishing writings on Buddhism, with an emphasis on the teachings and meditative practice in Vajrayana Buddhism. To establish Sino-Tibetan Buddhist studies as a legitimate field in Buddhology, Master Tam helped organize publication of the Monograph Series in Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Studies. The published works sparked interest in establishing new curricula in Buddhist Studies in a number of universities in China, including Renmin University of China in Beijing, Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, and Nanking University in Nanjin. Since 2008, Master Tam has been a visiting professor at these universities, where he lectures on the tathagatagarbha doctrine and its practice.

1894. This book is an historic outline of Lamaism in Sikhim. Waddell describes the Lamaism or Tibetan Buddhism religion while providing information based on his own personal studies of Lamas while living with them. Illustrations.

Selections from Penguin's authoritative first complete translation of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead"
One of the most inspiration and compelling works in world literature; "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" presents a visionary exploration of both the after-death state and the inner workings of our perceptual states during life. "Meditations on Living, Dying, and Loss" offers selected extracts from this influential text, focusing on perspectives and insights that are the most relevant to our modern experience of life, death, and loss. Each chapter is prefaced by the editor of the acclaimed unabridged translation, Graham Coleman. Here, in his accessible and moving essays, he illuminates the text's secrets, revealing the immense creativity that deepening out insight into the relationship between living and dying can bring.

One moment of total awareness is one moment of perfect enlightenment." This is the ultimate insight of Dzogchen, or "the Great Perfection," the pinnacle teaching of Tibetan Buddhism. With his previous bestselling books including Awakening the Buddha Within, American-born Tibetan Buddhist teacher Lama Surya Das has taught millions about the innate wakefulness and liberation that can be our natural ways of being. Now, with Natural Radiance, he offers his first complete daily practice program for the personal experience of the "swift and direct path" of Dzogchen. Dzogchen affirms that we are all Buddhas by nature infinitely open, luminous, compassionate, wise, and free. This profound realization, say the teachings, cannot be understood intellectually or studied mentally, but it can be passed from teacher to student through the spoken word. With Natural Radiance, you can now learn these time - honored practices as they have been shared for centuries through direct transmission from an accomplished master of the tradition. Join Lama Surya Das as your trusted guide to help you awaken to the sky like nature of mind what is known in Tibetan as rigpa, or total and pure presence. "This is the time of Dzogchen," says Lama Surya Das, "when we most need this immediate teaching of the inherent perfection of being the natural state of enlightenment." Includes CD with seven guided Dzogchen techniques.

Seeing in the pattern of the astrological symbols both the development of ego and the path beyond ego's restrictions, Tim Lyons discusses the relationship between astrology and perennial wisdom. The first three chapters present thought-provoking ideas about the development of awareness through the stages described by the planets, signs, and houses. Succeeding chapters explore the role of relationships and emotion in our spiritual development, the evolutionary potential symbolized by the outer planets, and the importance of collective projections. The final chapter explores the relationship between our ideas about freedom and astrological time-analysis. Astrology Beyond Ego concludes with an appendix that explains some astrological correlations to the Buddhist Abhidharma.Tim Lyons has been an astrologer for more than 30 years. He has contributed to two of Llewellyn's New World Astrology series (How to Manage the Astrology of Crisis, 1993; Astrology Looks at History, 1995), been a columnist for American Astrology (now Your Daily Horoscope) since 1990, and contributed numerous astrology articles to Welcome to Planet Earth and The Mountain Astrologer. He has also contributed to The East West Journal, The Liguorian, Chrysalis, The Vajradhatu Sun, Bodhi Magazine, ETC., The Vocabula Review, and various newspapers and given numerous lectures both in Colorado and elsewhere. He has a B.A. in English Literature from Occidental College in Los Angeles (1971) and an M.A. in Creative Writing from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (1974). He works as a writing instructor at the University of Colorado and maintains an active astrology practice.

An innovative and compelling presentation of world-class Tibetan Buddhist art, elucidating its esoteric themes through visual storytelling Encouraging personal engagement with Tibetan Buddhism, this dynamic book presents spectacular Himalayan art and explores the philosophical tenets encoded in its imagery. Taking as its theme the universally accessible experience of Awakening, the book's main text leads readers along an immersive journey of self-discovery, aided by a virtual guide, or lama, and traditional art meant to support meditative practice. Complementary essays examine Tibetan Buddhism's ritual tools, paintings, symbolic imagery, and artistic traditions. Beautiful color images of all artworks, including three by contemporary Nepalese-American artist Tsherin Sherpa, and selected important details enhance our understanding of their complex iconography. Distributed for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Schedule: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (04/27/19-08/18/19) Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (01/17/20-04/19/20)

His Holiness the Dalai Lama describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. However, to millions of people around the world, he embodies the highest human aspiration: to be happy. His messages of compassion, altruism, and peace are articulated in a unique secular ethic for our times and supported with techniques and practices that can help us achieve these ideals. He is the Dalai Lama--or simply, His Holiness--the epitome of the Buddhist model of loving-kindness and an incarnation of Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion and mercy. Evoking global respect and admiration, he is both a prophet and a statesman for our troubled times, yet he's intensely human and accessible. He's an inspiration to millions, yet many feel as if he touches and speaks to them personally. He is a Buddhist but belongs to all humanity. His Holiness is one of the most recognizable--and recognized--faces in the free world.
This remarkable book is an edited compilation of mostly personal conversations spanning nearly 20 years between the Dalai Lama and Rajiv Mehrotra, one of his early disciples who's now the trustee and secretary of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, which was established with the funds from the Nobel Peace Prize. Here, the Dalai Lama is a teacher to a spiritual aspirant; a divine master and a temporal leader; an ambassador for Tibet and a lovable guru-philosopher to the whole world; a practitioner of the 2,500-year-old teachings of Buddhism; a Tibetan Buddhist and an interfaith ambassador; and an intense practitioner of mind-training and an inveterate optimist. His multiple hats may appear contradictory at times, but he balances them all, living his life with ease and happiness.
Within these pages, the Dalai Lama's disarming candor, his deep empathy for his student's quest, and his wisdom--garnered not just from texts and scriptures, but also from an active engagement with life--offer invaluable insights to us all on how we may find true happiness in our lives.

Daring Steps stands out among the multitude of books on Tibetan Buddhism as being a uniquely accessible overview of the Buddhist path that encompasses all three yanas, or traditional Buddhist spiritual paths. Ringu Tulku renowned for both his insight and approachable style consistently brings the teachings back to the reader's own experience as he reveals the vital role of each path in the attainment of genuine realization. Daring Steps draws on several venerable sources, among them the Buddha's earliest teachings and a Vajrayana text by the yogi known as Crazy Khyentse. The author takes us from the most basic meditation practice to the rarefied realm of Mahamudra, touching on a dazzling range of teachings and techniques along the way. This lively presentation will be welcomed as both a trustworthy introduction for the beginning student and an indispensable reference for practitioners at every stage of the path.

Combining an autobiography written with humor and a record of the personal discovery of the deepest wisdom teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Dzogchen appears at first glance to be an unlikely partnering. Beginning the main story at the 50-year mark also seems a bit unusual. Ms. Fleming takes the reader from one incongruous event to the next with lighthearted asides and anecdotes and translates them into universal principles that have marked her progress on the path of spiritual self discovery. Multiple examples of real life applications provide a map for those who may wish to set off on their own spiritual journey.

Buddhist teachings provide numerous methods for bringing greater meaning and happiness into our lives and into our relationships with others. In "A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path," Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche reveals these methods in direct, vibrant, down-to-earth language. At the core of this work lies "The Jewel Treasury of Advice," a text composed by Drikung Bhande Dharmaradza (1704-1754), the reincarnation of Drikung Dharmakirti. Khenchen Rinpoche interprets these ancient teachings with compassion, humor, and a keen awareness for their relevance in contemporary Western life. Those who sincerely want to study and practice the Buddha's teachings will find this an indispensable guide.

The relationship between a teacher and student can be a most rewarding and life-enhancing experience, yet it can also be fraught with problems and misunderstandings. For Westerners working with Eastern teachers, the difficulties can be compounded by cultural differences, language barriers, and divergent expectations. Wise Teacher, Wise Student examines the teacher-student relationship as it is understood in the Tibetan Buddhist context. The author surveys a wide spectrum of situations, exploring the causes of potential pitfalls. In illuminating the sources of misunderstandings, he offers methods to heal wounds and encourage healthy relationships.

Study and Practice of Meditation gives a vivid and detailed account of the meditative practices necessary to develop a calm, alert mind that is capable of penetrating the depths of reality. The Buddhist meditative states known as the concentrations and formless absorptions are best known in the West from Theravada scriptures and from Vasubandhu s Treasury of Manifest Knowledge. In this book the reader is exposed to Tibetan Buddhist views on the mental states attained through meditation as described by three contemporary Tibetan lamas. The book discusses the ways in which certain meditative states act as bases of the spiritual path, as well as the nature of meditative calm and the prerequisites for cultivating and attaining it. In addition to reviewing and translating Tibetan sources, the author considers their major Indian antecedents and draws comparisons with Theravadin presentations.

2010 Reprint of 1924 Edition. In 1924 Spalding published this first and most important volume of Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East. It describes the travels to India and Tibet of a research party of eleven scientists in 1894. During their trip they claim to have made contact with "the Great Masters of the Himalayas," immortal beings with whom they lived and studied, gaining a fascinating insight into their lives and spiritual message. This close contact enabled them to witness many of the spiritual principles evinced by these Great Masters translated into their everyday lives, which could be described as 'miracles'. Such examples are walking on water, or manifesting bread to feed the hungry party. These books have remained consistently popular with spiritual seekers, those interested in the philosophy of the East and those who enjoy a good story because of their accessible nature and easy-to-follow format. However, despite most of the action taking place in India, the Great Masters make it clear that the greatest embodiment of the Enlightened state is that of the Christ (as personified by Jesus): "The Masters accept that Buddha represents the Way to Enlightenment, but they clearly set forth that Christ IS Enlightenment, or a state of consciousness for which we are all seeking - the Christ light of every individual; therefore, the light of every child born into the world."

Heartfelt Advice offers readers an overview of basic Buddhist topics in small, easily digestible bites that illuminate the main principles of Buddhist practice. Lama Dudjom Dorjee skillfully guides students through the vast array of considerations on the path, highlighting what is essential as he presents practical ways to apply Buddhist wisdom to life in the modern world. Suitable for those seeking daily Buddhist inspiration, each of the book's ninety-five sections also works as a stand-alone unit. Newcomers to Buddhism will welcome the clarity of the presentation, and more seasoned students will find Heartfelt Advice to be a useful study companion.

The Kalachakra Tantra--Kalachakra means wheel of time--is a tradition of Buddhist theory and practice whose root text treats a fantastic expanse of knowledge ranging from observations of the cosmos to investigations of meditative states and vital bodily energies. In the Tibetan-speaking world, a public Kalachakra initiation remains the most sought-after eveny in the life of a devout Buddhist. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama has long had a strong connection with the Kalachakra Tantra and brought the initiation to the West in 1981, performing it in the U.S., Switzerland, Spain, and Australia. This volume has been created to celebrate his long involvement with the Kalachakra teachings.

A systematic study of the Tibetan charms and amulets, mantras and cakras that have afforded their wearers protection for centuries and which remain a living tradition today. Drawing from indigenous works of the 19th century, the author illustrates and explains 109 amulets and their accompanying mantras, as well as 102 cakras, primarily associated with the Nyingma-pa and Bon traditions. The author also employs the amulets and cakras to reveal details of the myriad gods, demons and other supernatural beings-many incorporated into Buddhism from earlier belief systems-that comprise the Tibetan pantheon.

When circumstances are challenging, how do we react? This book offers methods to help us develop greater inner strength and openness to life by changing the habit of what Rob Preece calls self-preoccupation the tendency to act from a narrow perspective dominated by insecurity and isolation. When we learn to look outside this mentality and truly cherish others as well as ourselves, we create a happier, relaxed mind and more fulfilling relationships, as well as realizing our life's purpose in a meaningful way. A long-time Buddhist practitioner and psychotherapist, Preece shares traditional meditations and practices for awakening the mind and heart including tonglen, but he also offers a Jungian perspective on these and his own sense-cultivated during many years' experience of the ways in which Westerners may need to re-see these practices to benefit most from them. Preece's insightful fusion of East and West will help readers tap inner resources of compassion and integrity in order to flourish in times of uncertainty and ultimately generate the altruistic aspiration to realize the awakened mind for the benefit of all living beings. Preece offers meditation practices at the end of many chapters to help the reader digest and integrate the book's information.