Description
The highest teaching of the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism (rNying-ma) is called the Great Perfection (rDzogs-chen). It represents the real teaching of the Buddha as direct simplicity of heart and mind, an unending experience of openness and spontaneity, which once revealed is a natural perfection that has no need of a conceptual base, religious or philosophical.
Because of the geographical isolation of Tibet, the Great Perfection—which was introduced there in the eighth century AD—possibly preserves an older tradition of Ch’an (and consequently of Zen) Buddhism than now exists elsewhere.
Tantric Practice in Nying-ma is the most accessible of Professor Hopkins’ translations to date. In Parts One and Two, Khetsun Sangpo Rinbochay presents a gloss on the instructions of the great nineteenth-century lama, Patrol Rinbochay, on the preliminaries traditionally undertaken before receiving the Great Perfection. Part Three is an edited translation of an oral commentary by Khetsun Sangpo Rinbochay on one of The Seven Treasures (mDzod-bDun)—a collection of works which is a brilliantly clear exposition of the Great Perfection by the fourteenth-century master Longchenpa. Part Four contains the recitation text of the preliminaries to the highest teachings of the “Heart Essence of Vast Openness” (kLong Chen sNying Thig) by the eighteenth-century master Jigme Lingpa, with a brief introduction by Khetsun Sangpo. None of these texts has ever been published in the West. The Glossary contains extended explanations of the key Tibetan terms.
Tantric Practice in Nying-Ma, Khetsun Sangpo Rinbochay, Rider, 1982
Hardback. Octavo. Bound in black cloth. Ex-library. Endpapers and title page stamped. Dust jacket is in very good conciditon, shows some minor shelf wear. A clean, tight copy. 239 pp.
