• Commentary by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

    This series explicates one of the principal Indian classics of the Madhyamaka tradition, Chandrakirti’s Madhyamakavatara (Entrance to the Middle Way), along with the Kagyü commentary by the eighth Karmapa, The Chariot of the Dakpo Kagyüs. These transcripts cover the Madhyamakavatara’s eleven chapters, which correlate with the ten bhumis (grounds) and the ten paramitas (perfections), plus the ultimate bhumi of buddhahood. The focus is particularly on the sixth chapter of the Madhyamakavatara, which discusses prajna (transcendental knowledge) and its realization of emptiness. Main topics include the selflessness of phenomena and the individual, and the impossibility of finding a self anywhere with the range of phenomenal experience. Includes root text by Chandrakirti and commentary by Mikyö Dorje, translated by Elizabeth M. Callahan.
    • The hardcopy book is shipped from the US. International customers may wish to explore local booksellers, Shambala Publications, or Amazon to save on shipping cost.

    Translator: Mitra Dr. Karl Brunnhölzl

    The Abhisamayalamkara summarizes all the topics in the vast body of the praj aparamita 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 praj aparamita 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 praj aparamita 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.

     

    Karl Brunnhölzl, MD, was trained as a physician and also studied Tibetology. He received his systematic training in Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators, founded by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. Since 1989 he has been a translator and interpreter from Tibetan and English. He is presently involved with the Nitartha Institute as a teacher and translator.

     

    • The hardcopy book is shipped from the US. International customers may wish to explore local booksellers, Shambala Publications, or Amazon to save on shipping cost.

    Translator: Mitra Dr. Karl Brunnhölzl

    The Abhisamayalamkara summarizes all the topics in the vast body of the Prajnaparamita 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 Prajnaparamita 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.  Gone Beyond contains the first in-depth study of the Abhisamayalamkara (the text studied most extensively in higher Tibetan Buddhist education) and its commentaries in the Kagyu School. This study (in two volumes) includes translations of Maitreya's famous text and its commentary by the Fifth Shamarpa Goncho Yenla (the first translation ever of a complete commentary on the Abhisamayalamkara into English), which are supplemented by extensive excerpts from the commentaries by the Third, Seventh, and Eighth Karmapas and others. Thus it closes a long-standing gap in the modern scholarship on the Prajnaparamita Sutras and the literature on paths and bhumis in mahayana Buddhism.  The first volume presents an English translation of the first three chapters of the Abhisamayalamkara and its commentary by the Fifth Shamarpa. The second volume presents an English translation of the final five chapters and its commentary by the Fifth Shamarpa.   Karl Brunnhölzl, MD, was trained as a physician and also studied Tibetology. He received his systematic training in Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators, founded by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. Since 1989 he has been a translator and interpreter from Tibetan and English. He is presently involved with the Nitartha Institute as a teacher and translator.
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