Parting from the Four Attachments

Parting from the Four Attachments: A Commentary on Jetsyn Drakpa Gyaltsen's Song of Experience on Mind Training and the View
The spiritual masters of the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism today generously teach a wide variety of special methods for achieving enlightenment according to the systems of the Great Vehicle (Mahayana) and the Vajra Vehicle (Vajrayana). The treasured teachings of both traditions have been passed down for more than 1000 years from teacher to student without any interruption in the lineage. From among the treasure trove of Mahayana instructions of the Sakya school, the brief teaching known as Parting from the Four Attachments (Zhen pa bzhi bral) is traditionally considered to be an invaluable gem that summarizes the entire spiritual path in the form of a short oral instruction. This particular teaching is said to have a divine origin. When he was just twelve years old, the founder of the Sakya tradition, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158), received a concise and profound summation of the entire Mahayana teaching directly from the bodhisattva Manjushri. The bodhisattva's words were: "If you are attached to this life, you are not a person of Dharma. If you are attached to cyclic existence, you do not have renunciation. If you are attached to your own purpose, you do not have bodhicitta. If grasping arises, you do not have the view."
Each of Manjushri's four phrases point to an essential aspect of the spiritual path. To achieve enlightenment, a Buddhist practitioner must become free of the four attachments mentioned by the bodhisattva. Sachen Kunga Nyingpo taught these instructions orally to his son, Drakpa Gyaltsen (1147-1216), who first wrote down the teaching and composed an exceptionally elegant and profound explanation of the original lines in the form of a spiritual song expressing his own experience arisen from meditation. Drakpa Gyaltsen's nephew, Sakya Pandita (1182-1251), later wrote a summary of the teaching, and various other masters wrote more extensive and scholastic expositions in the following centuries. In the Sakya tradition, Parting from the Four Attachments is still today the essential teaching of Mind Training (Blo sbyong), especially valued for developing the altruistic motivation of attaining enlightenment in order to be able to truly benefit other living beings.

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Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi, also known as The Holy Canon of Nanhua, is a Taoist classic written by the Warring States period philosopher Zhuangzi and his students. The book is composed of 33 chapters including 7 Inner Chapters, 15 Outer Chapters, and 11 Miscellaneous Chapters.
In this book, Zhuangzi inherited and developed Laozi's viewpoint of "the ways of Tao being conditioned by the self-so. "Taking Tao as the origin of the world, he held that Tao is self-sufficient and eternal whereas the difference between things is relative. To correspond with this world outlook, Zhuangzi advocated an outlook on life of "non-action in face of nature, "which recommended maintaining personal freedom of body and mind, and of attaining a spiritual plane of complete liberty and of harmony between man and nature.
Before being translated into modern Chinese, the original Chinese text of the present edition has been checked and punctuated with reference to Guo Qingfan's A Vatiorum Zhuangzi. The English translation, which is its latest complete edition, has been accomplished with reference to the existing complete as well as selected English translations of the book.

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Dropping Ashes on the Buddha:

 Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn
“Somebody comes into the Zen center with a lighted cigarette, walks up to the Buddha statue, blows smoke in its face, and drops ashes on its lap. You are standing there. What can you do?” This is a problem that Zen Master Seung Sahn is fond of posing to his American students who attend his Zen centers. Dropping Ashes on the Buddha is a delightful, irreverent, and often hilariously funny living record of the dialogue between Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn and his American students. Consisting of dialogues, stories, formal Zen interviews, Dharma speeches, and letters using the Zen Master’s actual words in spontaneous, living interaction with his students, this book is a fresh presentation of the Zen teaching method of “instant dialogue” between Master and student which, through the use of astonishment and paradox, leads to an understanding of ultimate reality.

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Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears

Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears - Pema Chödrön
This gently encouraging book by popular teacher Chödrön (When Things Fall Apart; The Places That Scare You) applies Buddhist wisdom to the problems of deeply ingrained reactions. An American Buddhist nun in the lineage of Tibetan master Chogyam Trungpa, she writes that we already have what we need to change and heal. Chödrön focuses on the preverbal moment—called shenpa in Tibetan—in which individuals are hooked into harmful stories, emotions and actions within the flux of their experiences. Clear descriptions of how this process works are accompanied by simple techniques to begin to break the cycle. Her suggestions can be easily practiced by anyone at any time without meditation training, although she presents the benefits of sitting meditation. With anecdotes from her teachers and examples from her own and others' lives, Chödrön demonstrates that people can stop their suffering and access their natural intelligence, warmth and openness. Throughout, she emphasizes the global implications of personal change. Among her strengths are compassion for the difficulty of human existence and her willingness to acknowledge her own failings. This short guide provides valuable tools for change in uncertain times.

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Living with the Himalayan Masters

Living with the Himalayan Masters
I will tell you how I grew up and how I was trained, about the great sages with whom I lived and what they taught me, not through lectures and books but through experiences, writes Sri Swami Rama in the opening pages of this timeless saga. These stories record his personal quest for truth and enlightenment. Inspiring, illuminating, entertaining, mystifying, and frequently droll humorous, they bring you face-to-face with the great Himalayan Masters, including: Mataji of Assam, a ninety-six-year-old lady sage who never slept Gudari Baba, who taught Swami Rama the value of direct experience Yogi Sri Aurobindo, who integrated meditation with action Uria Baba, who teaches that every human being has a potential for healing Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation.

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Natural Perfection: Longchenpa's Radical Dzogchen

Natural Perfection: Longchenpa's Radical Dzogchen - Longchen Rabjam
Dzogchen or the Great Perfection is the apex of Tibetan Buddhism, and Longchen Rabjam is recognized as the pre-eminent master of Dzogchen and one of Tibet's greatest writers and sages. His Treasury of Reality encompasses and optimizes the radical precepts of Dzogchen and is a shining example of why people continue to turn to the traditions of Tibet for spiritual and personal transformation. Transcending the Tibetan context, Longchen Rabjam’s book is a manual of practical wisdom for all people of all times, cultures, and traditions. Dzogchen teaches the natural perfection of all experience, phenomena, and life, just as it is, with no need to alter or fabricate complex ideas or philosophical views. This discipline of spiritual transcendence provides the key not only to our inner enlightenment but to the health and survival of our planet.


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Lion's Gaze

Lion's Gaze: A Commentary on Tsig Sum Nedek
The most profound and direct teaching of Buddha Shakyamuni's is called Dzogchen, or atiyoga, the Clear Light Great Perfection. This is the culmination of all nine vehicles that form the foundation path. Familiarity with its view, meditation and conduct brings unique results. In "Lion's Gaze", the authors Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, a highly qualified Lama and Dzogchen Master, and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, also a highly qualified Lama, Kama and Terma lineage holder and recognized expert in ancient Tantric literature, gather the teachings and reintroduce their essence in a timeless way. The first part of the book summarizes the history of Dzogchen and notes its lineage masters, illustrated with 15 beautiful portrait line drawings, and continues with explainations of the preliminary practices.
The second section begins with "Three Words That Strike The Crucial Point", written by 8th century Vidyadhara Garab Dorje, the first human teacher of Dzogchen. This three line text is followed by Master Patrul Rinpoche's famous commentary entitled, "The Special Teaching of The Wise and Glorious Sovereign", written in the 19th century. The original Tibetan with English translations are provided for all original texts.

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Real Happiness

Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program
 Thousands of years prove it, and Western science backs it: Meditation sharpens focus. Meditation lowers blood pressure, relieves chronic pain, reduces stress. Meditation helps us experience greater calm. Meditation connects us to our inner-most feelings and challenges our habits of self-judgment. Meditation helps protect  the brain against aging and improves our capacity for learning new things.

Meditation opens the door to real and accessible happiness.  There is no better person to show a beginner how to harness the power of meditation than Sharon Salzberg, one of the world’s foremost meditation teachers and spiritual authors. Cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society, author of Lovingkindness, Faith, and other books, Ms. Salzberg distills 30 years of teaching meditation into a 28-day program that will change lives. It is not about Buddhism, it’s not esoteric—it is closer to an exercise, like running or riding a bike. From the basics of posture, breathing, and the daily schedule to the finer points of calming the mind, distraction, dealing with specific problem areas (pain in the legs? falling asleep?) to the larger issues of compassion and awareness, Real Happiness is a complete guide. It explains how meditation works; why a daily meditation practice results in more resiliency, creativity, peace, clarity, and balance; and gives twelve meditation practices, including mindfulness meditation and walking meditation. An extensive selection of her students’ FAQs cover the most frequent concerns of beginners who meditate—“Is meditation selfish?” “How do I know if I’m doing it right?” “Can I use meditation to manage weight?”



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Glimpses of Abhidharma

Glimpses of Abhidharma - Chogyam Trungpa
A provocative interpretation of the development of the ego and human psychology. The Abhidharma is a collection of Buddhist sciptures that investigate the workings of the mind and the states of human consciousness. From the Buddhist perspective, the creation of ego is a neurotic process based on fundamental ignorance of our true situation. Trungpa shows how an examination of the formation of ego leads to a realization of confusion and also provides an opportunity to develop real intelligence. The practice of meditation is represented as the means that enables us to see our psychological situation clearly and directly.

"The abhidharma deals with the five skandhas. The skandhas represent the constant structure of human psychology as well as its pattern of evolution and the pattern of evolution of the world. The skandhas are also related to blockages of different types - spiritual ones, material ones, emotional ones. An understanding of the five skandhas shows that once we are tuned into the basic core of egohood, then anything - any experience, any inspiration - can be made into a further blockage or can become a way of freeing ourselves. Abhidharma is a very precise way of looking at mind.

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Cultivating a Compassionate Heart

Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig
Perhaps the most widely known and loved deity throughout the Buddhist world, Chenrezig—also known as Avalokiteshvara, Kuan Yin, or Kannon—is the Buddha of Compassion. Buddhists turn to Chenrezig for protection, friendship, and inspiration on a daily basis. The meditation practice in this book—composed by a teacher with an extensive Western following—is presented as a useful manual for ease of practice. An enlightening—and often humorous—commentary by well-known author Thubten Chodron offers instructions and tips on making the practice even more relevant to daily life.
"With her usual clarity and humor Venerable Thubten Chodron delivers a first rate exposition of the theory and practice of Action Tantra basing herself on the sadhana of the 1000 armed Chenrezig. Her clear and helpful explanation are certainly of great benefit for all of us on the Vajrayana path."—Ven. Tenzin Palmo, author of Reflections on a Mountain Lake
"Ven. Thubten Chodron is someone whose life embodies the virtues of kindness, simplicity and a clarity of vision, which lie at the heart of the Buddha's teaching. It is these perennial qualities that shine through her writings and touch the hearts of readers all over the world.

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Peaceful Mind: Using Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Psychology to Overcome Depression

Peaceful Mind: Using Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Psychology to Overcome Depression
A concept grounded in the practice of certain forms of Buddhism, mindfulness is the conscious, uninvolved awareness of the present moment. Western psychologists have recently learned that this state of mind is particularly conducive to the accomplishment of cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT: an active mode of psychological treatment that attempts to recognize and counter negative thoughts and behaviors before they lead to debilitating symptoms like depression. As statistics confirm again and again that depression is the single most common psychological problem affecting Americans, the refinement of psychotherapy through the integration of spirituality-based techniques has generated considerable interest among psychology professionals. This approachable and easy-to-use book makes these powerful techniques available to the general public.

The book is built around a compelling series of specific, step-by-step interventions that provide readers with an understanding of the thoughts that lead to depression. They learn how to find the motivation to confront depressive feelings. By "sitting" with painful emotions and allowing them to pass, readers find that they can reduce the frequency of depressive episodes. Using meditation practices for observation and awareness, they develop the ability to recognize cognitive, physiological, and environmental triggers that can lead to aggravated periods of the disorder. When readers change how they approach their day-to-day lives—their daily activities, the choices they make, and the way they cope with life’s ups and downs—they strengthen the skills they need to move beyond depression and develop lasting peace of mind.

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Tara's Enlightened Activity

Tara's Enlightened Activity: Commentary on The Praises to the Twenty-one Taras
The female Buddhist deity Tara is an object of devotional worship and meditative practice for Tibetan Buddhists everywhere, both male and female. She clears away fears, overpowers negative emotions, and enables all beings to reach enlightenment. She has special resonance as a source of female spiritual wisdom. Tibetans of all schools and traditions recite the verses on which this commentary is based. Focused, contemplative meditation in relation to the myriad aspects of Tara work to transform the practitioner's mind into those enlightened qualities and mind states that Tara represents.
Sought-after teachers throughout the West for over twenty-five years, Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and his brother Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche illuminate the practice of The Praises to the Twenty-one Taras with humor and wisdom. The explanations cover progressively more subtle levels, from basic Buddhism through the Inner Tantras and culminate with Dzogchen. Interspersed with lively stories about Tara, the authors explain the physical conditions for practice, the outer and inner meanings of the text itself, and give solutions for problems that may emerge as practice progresses.

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Nirvana: Concept, Imagery, Narrative

Nirvana: Concept, Imagery, Narrative
The idea of nirvana (Pali nibbāna) is alluring but elusive for non-specialists and specialists alike. Offering his own interpretation of key texts, Steven Collins explains the idea in a new, accessible way - as a concept, as an image (metaphor), and as an element in the process of narrating both linear and cyclical time. Exploring nirvana from literary and philosophical perspectives, he argues that it has a specific role: to provide 'the sense of an ending' in both the systematic and the narrative thought of the Pali imaginaire. Translations from a number of texts, including some dealing with past and future Buddhas, enable the reader to access source material directly. This book will be essential reading for students of Buddhism, but will also have much to teach anyone concerned with Asia and its religions, or indeed anyone with an interest in the ideas of eternal life or timelessness.

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Buddhism and Dalits

Buddhism and Dalits : Social Philosophy and Traditions
Buddhism is nothing if it is not social. A man from Kapilavastu on the border of Nepal saw the interaction of interests among individuals, associations, kingdoms and general folks with murderous hunt for enthronement, cut-throat competition between kins, rule of might over meek from a corner of Uruvela forest and found the way leading to the end of this misery and professed and propagated his vision of new and fresh dispensation by words of mouth while treading the rugged lands from east to west and n:orth to south on foot for forty five years and breathed his last at the age of eighty years in Kusinagar.

This was Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha whose legacy is transmitted to the world through Buddhist countries and missionaries who cared it more than their own and passed it on to us at present. Buddhism as philosophy appealed to the rational and as art to the artists. In the later half of the 19th century the attention of European scholars was drawn to the study of the Buddha and his religion. The story of Buddhism in India extended to Far East with its ramifications into different schools and sects, its literature, its education, its rulers and writers, during the fifth and seventh centuries A.D., its art, its revival and its present status in the world.

The most compassionate feature of Buddhism was its adoption of Dalits as its own and rendering service to uplift them on par with generality. Dr. Ambedkar, the 14th Dalai Lama, Yen. Thich Nhat Hanh, Sulak Sivaraksha and alike belonged to this social stream of Buddhism. They have always espoused the cause of the most degraded and downtrodden sections of society and set them free from the thraldom of social slavery, economic exploitation, educational backwardness and political subjugation. Out of 14 million Dalits in India none falls above ultra poor or poverty line poor. As such they suffer from poverty including deprivation of food, income and employment and, being socially disadvantaged group Dalits suffer from backwardness in education, discrimination in employment. atrocities and suppression in social, cultural and religious matter. Needless to stress that compared to SCs and STs, let alone OBCs and General Category the Buddhist group in Maharashtra has greatest incidence of poverty. No radical change is possible without Dalit participation in the midst of capitalist privatized corporate market economy neglecting human labour and its contribution for new products and new order of humanity.

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Mahamudra: The Moonlight

Mahamudra: The Moonlight -- Quintessence of Mind and Meditation
When Mahamudra first appeared in 1986, it was a landmark in the history of Buddhist publishing in English. It was translated at the behest of the 16th Karmapa, who was asked what text would be most beneficial to Western practitioners. Collecting all of Mahamudra's key texts in one volume, the book is a staple for practitioners of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, who appreciate its detailed theoretical and practical explanations. This stunning new edition, printed on fine paper, is as inspiring to behold as it is to read.

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Kindness, Clarity, and Insight

Kindness, Clarity, and Insight: The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso By Dalai Lam
This best-selling book contains teachings for Western audiences during His Holiness' tours of North America. He covers a wide variety of spiritual and human concerns in a practical and direct manner with his characteristic warmth, wit and perception. The teachings move ever deeper: Religious Values and Human Society, The Luminous Nature of the Mind, Altruism and the Six Perfections; Deities; Transforming the Mind Through Meditation; Eight Verses of Training the Mind; Om Mani Padme Hum; The Path to Enlightenment; Tibetan Views on Dying; Self and Selflessness; The Two Truths.

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Rediscovering the Buddha: The Legends and Their Interpretations

Rediscovering the Buddha: The Legends and Their Interpretations
Hans Penner takes a new look at the classic stories of the life of the Buddha. In the first part of the book, he presents a full account of these stories, drawn from various texts of Theravada Buddhism, the Buddhism of South and Southeast Asia. Penner allots one chapter to each of the major milestones in Buddha's life, with titles such as: Birth and Early Life, Flight from the Palace, Enlightenment and Liberation, Last Watch and Funeral. In the process, he brings to the fore dimensions of the myth that have been largely ignored by western scholarship. In Part II, Penner offers his own original interpretations of the legends. He takes issue with Max Weber's assertion that "Buddhism is an other-worldly ascetic religion," a point of view that remains dominant in the received tradition and in most contemporary studies of Buddhism. His central thesis is that the "householder" is a necessary element in Buddhism and that the giving of gifts, which creates merit and presupposes the doctrine of karma, mediates the relation between the householder and the monk. Penner argues that the omission of the householder - in his view one-half of what constitutes Buddhism as a religion - is fatal for any understanding of Buddha's life or of the Buddhist tradition. This boldly revisionist and deeply learned work will be of interest to a wide range of scholarly and lay readers.

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Orthodox Chinese Buddhism

Orthodox Chinese Buddhism: A Contemporary Chan Master's Answers to Common Questions
As a well-known scholar and meditation master—His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama called him “extremely modest, a true spiritual practitioner of deep and broad learning”—Sheng Yen is uniquely qualified to guide Western seekers into the world of contemporary Chinese Buddhism. Written while the author was secluded in solitary retreat in southern Taiwan, Orthodox Chinese Buddhism provides a wealth of theory and simple, clear guidelines for practicing this increasingly popular form of spirituality. One of the most influential Buddhist books in the Chinese language, the book explores a wide range of subjects, from distinguishing core teachings from outdated cultural norms to bridging the gap between Western and Chinese traditions. In the process, it addresses such questions as “To what extent should Buddhism be Westernized to fit new cultural conditions?” and “Does Westernization necessarily lead to ‘a dumbing down’ of Buddhism?” In addition to the translation of the complete original text, this edition includes new annotations, appendixes, and a glossary designed for the Western reader.

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Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment

Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment
Wallace, founder of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, explores key Buddhist meditation-related concepts that aid the "conquest of our inner obscurations" and "present a path to inner fulfillment and human flourishing." He first examines several particular methods—such as "mindfulness of breathing"—for cultivating shamatha, a state of "meditative quiescence" in which people's capacity for attention is refined and stabilized. They can then use these techniques to make a direct, delusion-free investigation of their own bodies, feelings and thoughts. These insights, in turn, help them nurture hearts of compassion and equanimity and, ultimately, realize more advanced teachings such as cultivating bodhichitta (a "spirit of awakening"), dream yoga and a highly developed meditation technique known as dzogchen. Wallace's discussions are usually clear and helpful (on why meditation works: "sustained, continuous effort can actually reconfigure your brain"), and his questions invite readers to see for themselves if his assertions resonate. Moreover, each chapter contains guided meditations to help readers encounter the teachings more directly. Nevertheless, the text can become dense and self-referential, and if readers miss a particular point early on, the effectiveness of later sections may be lessened. The result is a solid—if advanced—examination of some key Buddhist meditation techniques that will appeal to the serious student more than the casual seeker.

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The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of Individuation in Buddhist Life

The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of Individuation in Buddhist Life
If you have been practicing Buddhism for a while, why do you still have problems? And how do you balance the (apparently) sometimes different needs of spiritual and psychological perspectives? This wonderful book fills a hitherto unmet need among Buddhists.
Psychotherapist and meditation teacher Rob Preece draws on his eighteen years as a psychotherapist and many years as a meditation teacher to explore and map the psychological influences on our struggle to awaken. Acceptance of imperfection, for both psychological and spiritual health, is key.

Love and compassion grow out of an understanding of our fallibility, not from ideals of perfection, and wisdom does not always come as a flash of inspiration, but from the slow—often painful—working of experience. The Wisdom of Imperfection explores the journey of individuation in Buddhist life, looking at the psychological process beneath the traditional path of the Bodhisattva.

Rob Preece has been a practicing Buddhist since 1973, principally within the Tibetan tradition. He has spent many years in intensive retreat in the Himalayas under the guidance of eminent Tibetan lamas. He has been working as a psychotherapist since 1987 and gives workshops on comparative Jungian and Buddhist psychology. He is an experienced meditation teacher and Thangka painter.

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