The poems and teachings of a beloved Buddhist master, vividly presented so that readers feel they are listening to the precious and renowned teachings of His Holiness directly—and learning how to live with more joy and ease. His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok was a prominent teacher in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He was recognized as a tertön and renowned for his mastery of Dzokchen and his visionary activities, including the establishment of the nonsectarian Buddhist community of Larung Gar, one of the largest monastic settlements in the world and a vibrant Buddhist teaching center that has contributed enormously to the resurgence of Buddhism in Tibet and China. In memory of the thirteenth anniversary of Rinpoche’s passing, this book was compiled of his precious and renowned teachings. It includes stories of the lives of great masters, as well as teachings on the principle of cause and effect, keeping an open mind toward all religious traditions, spreading the Dharma and benefiting sentient beings, and mastering what to adopt and what to abandon. Readers will also learn about Tibetan culture, customs, and the many kinds of Tibetan tulkus. His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok’s heartfelt advice on how to improve interpersonal relationships enables us to live with more ease and joy. Five poems by Jigme Phuntsok in both Tibetan and English translation enrich the teachings with His Holiness’s poetic voice.

Winner of a 2021 Kayden Translation Award A true story of love, separation, and rediscovery in a time of cultural and spiritual upheaval in Tibet. An inspiring and intimate tale set against the turmoil of recent Tibetan history, Inseparable across Lifetimes offers for the first time the translations of love letters between two modern Buddhist visionaries. The letters are poetic, affectionate, and prophetic, articulating a hopeful vision of renewal that drew on their past lives together and led to their twenty-year partnership. This couple played a significant role in restoring Buddhism in the region of Golok once China’s revolutionary fervor gave way to reform. Holly Gayley, who was given their correspondence by Namtrul Rinpoche himself, has translated their lives and letters in order to share their remarkable story with the world.

A collection of new voices from Tibet--at celebrated Larung Gar--with innovative reflections on how Buddhism can meet the challenges of our times. Voices from Larung Gar is the first collection of talks and writings by the leading voices of Larung Gar, the largest Buddhist institution on the Tibetan plateau. The book offers a compelling vision for Buddhism in the twenty-first century by some of the most erudite, creative, and influential Tibetan Buddhist luminaries today. In everyday language, these leaders delve into an array of contemporary issues, including science, ethics, gender equity, and animal welfare. This collection features contributions from a range of prominent figures who are forging dynamic, modern paths forward for an ancient tradition. Included are the internationally renowned Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, founder of Larung Gar, his distinguished successors Khenpos Sodargye and Tsultrim Lodro, and erudite nuns holding the scholarly title Khenmo, who are becoming known for their impressive publishing projects. Larung Gar is thus one of Tibetan Buddhism's most vital communities, actively balancing cultural preservation and innovation.

Love Letters from Golok chronicles the courtship between two Buddhist tantric masters, Tāre 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, Tāre 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.

Silver Medalist, 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Religion (Eastern/Western) Category This groundbreaking book explores Buddhist thought and culture, from multiple Buddhist perspectives, as sources for feminist reflection and social action. Too often, when writers apply terms such as "woman," "femininity," and "feminism" to Buddhist texts and contexts, they begin with models of feminist thinking that foreground questions and concerns arising from Western experience. This oversight has led to many facile assumptions, denials, and oversimplifications that ignore women's diverse social and historical contexts. But now, with the tools of feminist analysis that have developed in recent decades, constructs of the feminine in Buddhist texts, imagery, and philosophy can be examined—with the acknowledgment that there are limitations to applying these theoretical paradigms to other cultures. Contributors to this volume offer a feminist analysis, which integrates gender theory and Buddhist perspectives, to Buddhist texts and women's narratives from Asia. How do Buddhist concepts of self and no-self intersect with concepts of gender identity, especially for women? How are the female body, sexuality, and femininity constructed (and contested) in diverse Buddhist contexts? How might power and gender identity be perceived differently through a Buddhist lens? By exploring feminist approaches and representations of "the feminine," including persistent questions about women's identities as householders and renunciants, this book helps us to understand how Buddhist influences on attitudes toward women, and how feminist thinking from other parts of the world, can inform and enlarge contemporary discussions of feminism.

A perfect companion to the well-known Tibetan Book of the Dead. In life and in death, in meditation and in sleep, every transitional stage of consciousness, or bardo, provides an opportunity to overcome limitations, frustrations, and fears. The profound teachings in this book provide the under- standing and instruction necessary to turn every phase of life into an opportunity for uncontrived, natural liberation. Like the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Natural Liberation is a terma, a "hidden treasure" attributed to the eighth-century master Padmasambhava. Gyatrul Rinpoche's lucid commentary accompanies the text, illuminating the path of awakening to the point of full enlightenment. Natural Liberation is an essential contribution to the library of both scholars and practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism.

This “gem of a book” reveals how we can go beyond mindfulness to connect with the ultimate happiness within us and transform our lives (Rick Hanson, Buddha’s Brain) The true nature of our mind is brilliant, clear, and joyful. But we don’t experience this reality amid the swirl of stresses, thoughts, and emotions of day-to-day life. Our Pristine Mind is a practical guide to uncovering our naturally comfortable state of mind and reconnecting with the unconditional happiness that is already within us. Using straightforward, accessible language, Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche leads us through the path of Pristine Mind meditation, a practice from the profound teachings known as Dzogchen. This book presents the entire journey of meditation, from the very beginning all the way to the complete happiness of enlightenment. It is a realistic, natural process that can be practiced and experienced by anyone.

Intro -- Contents -- Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter One: The Name -- Chapter Two: The Book -- Chapter Three: The Eye -- Chapter Four: The Spell -- Chapter Five: The Art -- Chapter Six: The Field -- Chapter Seven: The Prison -- Notes -- Index

The Buddha's definitive teachings on how we should understand the ground of enlightenment and the nature and qualities of buddhahood. All sentient beings, without exception, have buddha nature—the inherent purity and perfection of the mind, untouched by changing mental states. Thus there is neither any reason for conceit nor self-contempt. This is obscured by veils that are removable and do not touch the inherent purity and perfection of the nature of the mind. The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra, one of the “Five Treatises” said to have been dictated to Asanga by the Bodhisattva Maitreya, presents the Buddha’s definitive teachings on how we should understand this ground of enlightenment and clarifies the nature and qualities of buddhahood. This seminal text details with great clarity the view that forms the basis for Vajrayana, and especially Mahamudra, practice.

Presents a new vision of the Buddhist history and philosophy of emptiness in Tibet. This book brings together perspectives of leading international Tibetan studies scholars on the subject of zhentong or “other-emptiness.” Defined as the emptiness of everything other than the continuous luminous awareness that is one’s own enlightened nature, this distinctive philosophical and contemplative presentation of emptiness is quite different from rangtong—emptiness that lacks independent existence, which has had a strong influence on the dissemination of Buddhist philosophy in the West. Important topics are addressed, including the history, literature, and philosophy of emptiness that have contributed to zhentong thinking in Tibet from the thirteenth century until today. The contributors examine a wide range of views on zhentong from each of the major orders of Tibetan Buddhism, highlighting the key Tibetan thinkers in the zhentong philosophical tradition. Also discussed are the early formulations of buddhanature, interpretations of cosmic time, polemical debates about emptiness in Tibet, the zhentong view of contemplation, and creative innovations of thought in Tibetan Buddhism. Highly accessible and informative, this book can be used as a scholarly resource as well as a textbook for teaching graduate and undergraduate courses on Buddhist philosophy. “The book contains extremely interesting material and makes a valuable contribution to the study of Tibetan Buddhism. It will be appreciated by those interested in the development of one of the important and yet understudied of its traditions, the other emptiness tradition.” — Georges B. J. Dreyfus, coeditor of The Svātantrika-Prāsaṅgika Distinction: What Difference Does a Difference Make?