Tara is an inspirational figure to many practitioners. She embodies the most compelling and vital qualities of the feminine: beauty, grace, and the ability to nurture, care for and protect. In addition, she is a true warrior, vanquishing fear and ignorance. One could say she is the earliest known Buddhist feminist.
Skillful Grace is an entirety of instructions on deity practice centered on the female Buddha Tara. It covers everything from beginning to end. It has all the preliminaries, as well as the main part and the subsequent yogas. There is the outer and inner sadhanas with Tara and her retinue of twenty-one Taras that dispel the various fears. There is also the innermost practice of Tara with consort. It has all the details on the development stage, and describes completion stage both with and without conceptual attributes. Nothing is left out. It is utterly complete with treasure and pith instructions from Tulku Urgyen and Adeu Rinpoche, skillfully arranged by the translation/author team of Erik Pema Kunsang and Marcia Binder Schmidt.
There are many explanations of the different Tara practices. However, Skillful Grace is unique in that it outlines an entire path, taking Tara as support. This book is s divided into three main sections. The first is the root text of this cycle, The Essential Instruction on the Threefold Excellence, according to the mind treasure of the profound essence of Tara as revealed by Chokgyur Lingpa. Following that is a commentary on this root text by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. Next is Jamgon Kongtrul and Adeu Rinpoche's synthesized commentary on the same text. In order to make this work less scholarly and more applicable to practitioners, we decided to paraphrase Jamgon Kongrtul commentary and blend it together with Adeu Rinpoche's teaching.
The book is rounded out with a foreword by Tara Bennett Goleman, author of the best selling book Emotional Alchemy, in depth introduction by Marcia Schmidt, and various appendixes and footnotes.

The Light of Wisdom Vol. I contains the root terma ---hidden treasure text --- of Padmasambhava, The Gradual Path of the Wisdom Essence and its commentary The Light of Wisdom by Jamgon Kongtrul the Great. Annotations on the commentary Entering the Path of Wisdom spoken by Jamyang Drakpa and recorded by Jokyab Rinpoche are included as well as clarifications from other masters.
Volume I presents in-depth explanations of the Vajrajana Buddhist perspective. It begins with the nature of the ground, the buddha nature present in all beings, continues with the teachings that are common to all vehicles, and concludes with the Mahayana and the link to Vajrayana.
This essence of the causal and resultant vehicles,
Especially the core of the realization the three sections of the inner tantras,
Linking together the ground with the path,
Makes you abandon the temporary defilements along with their tendencies,
Realize fruition and quickly accomplish the welfare of self and others,
In this way it is in conformity with each yet exalted above them all.
-Padmasambhava
The root text of Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo, a terma revealed by the great treasure- finder Chokgyur Lingpa, and its commentary by Kongtrul Rinpoche, the great translator in person, form together a complete scripture that embodies all the tantras, statements and instructions of the Nyingma School of the early translations, which is most rare to find in the past, present, or future.
-Kyabje Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche

Padmasambhava, the Indian mystic and tantric Buddhist master, is second only to Buddha Shakyamuni as the most famous personage in the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism. In the ninth century, he made the journey across the Himalayan Mountains to establish Buddhism for the people in that country. He also concealed timeless instructions and practices to benefit future generations. The volume presents in-depth explanations of the Tibetan Buddhist perspective. The Light of Wisdom, Vol. II will be of special interest to students of Buddhism for its clear overview from a Vajrayana perspective of teachings particular to Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism. Included is an extensive commentary by Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, one of the most prominent Buddhist masters of nineteenth-century Tibet.

"Creation and Completion" represents some of the most profound teachings of Jamgon Kongtrul (1813-99), one of the true spiritual and literary giants of Tibetan history. Though brief, it offers a lifetime of advice for all who wish to engage in-and deepen-the practice of tantric Buddhist meditation.
The original text, beautifully translated and introduced by Sara Harding, is further brought to life by an in-depth commentary by the contemporary master Thrangu Rinpoche. Key Tibetan Buddhist fundamentals are quickly made clear, so that the reader may confidently enter into tantra's oft-misunderstood "creation" and "completion" stages.
In the creation stage, practitioners visualize themselves in the form of buddhas and other enlightened beings in order to break down their ordinary concepts of themselves and the world around them. This meditation practice prepares the mind for engaging in the completion stage, where one has a direct encounter with the ultimate nature of mind and reality.

This splendid resource for Chod practitioners contains the Chod sadhana written by the Fourteenth Karmapa. This daily practice text is given in three versions: Tibetan, a phonetic rendering of the Tibetan, and English translation. Jamgon Kongtrul's commentary on the sadhana supplies necessary amplification and clarification; it is given both in English and Tibetan. An important feature of the commentary is the inclusion of illustrations for the different stages of visualization discussed within the commentary. All in all, this is an essential practice tool and reference guide for the serious Chod practitioner.

This book opens the way to a deeper knowledge of mahamudra, a Buddhist system of meditation on the nature of the mind. In providing a detailed commentary on the Vajra Song of the first Jamgon Kongtrul (1813-1899), the author elucidates the stages of ground, path, and fruition for those who wish to meditate according to this system.

Discusses what credentials and qualities students should look for in a wisdom teacher, why a wisdom teacher is necessary, and how the relationship between this teacher and the disciple best develops once it is established. The text is a translation of a Tibetan work written in the latter half of the

Even the most casual contact with the culture, politics, or religion of Tibet and the surrounding region brings outsiders face to face with the institution of reincarnate spiritual masters. Past masters are identified as small children installed in their predecessor's monastery in a ceremony called "enthronement" and educated to continue the work of their former incarnation. This custom has provided a principal source of spiritual renewal for Himalayan Buddhists for the past thousand years. The introduction places the subject of reincarnate meditation masters within two major contexts: the activity of bodhisattvas, and in modern Tibetan society, where the reappearance of past masters is both natural and profoundly moving.
Tai Situpa Rinpoche, a contemporary reincarnate master and a leader of the Kagyu lineage, describes the process of finding other reincarnate masters. Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, an outstanding writer and meditation master, offers a traditional view of the enthronement of reincarnate masters.

The Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Himalayan tantric Buddhism require a long period of intensive training in meditation--a three-year, three-month retreat--before a practitioner is considered to be a qualified teacher. "Jamgon Kongtrul's Retreat Manual" was written in the mid-nineteenth century for those who wish to embark on this rigorous training. It guides them in preparing for retreat, provides full details of the program of meditation, and offers advice for their re-entry into the world.
"Jamgon Kongtrul's Retreat Manual" also introduces us to one of the towering figures of nineteenth-century Tibet: Jamgon Kongtrul the Great (1813-99). The three-year retreat center he describes in this book was his creation, and its program consisted of those practices Kongtrul treasured enough to pass on to future generations through the spiritual leaders he trained.