Natural Perfection : Longchenpa's Radical Dzogchen

by Rabjam, Longchen; Dowman, Keith; Norbu, Chôgyal Namkhai

• ISBN13: 9780861716401
• ISBN10: 086171640X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-20
• Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER

Summary

Eihei Dogen, the thirteenth-century Zen master who founded the Japanese Soto School of Zen, is renowned as one of the world's most remarkable religious thinkers. As Shakespeare does with English, Dogen utterly transforms the language of Zen, using it in novel and extraordinarily beautiful ways to point to everything important in the religious life. He is known for two major works. The first work, the massive Shobogenzo(Treasury of the True Dharma Eye), represents his early teachings and exists in myriad English translations; the second work, the Eihei Koroku, is a collection of all his later teachings, including short formal discourses to the monks training at his temple, longer informal talks, and koans with his commentaries, as well as short appreciatory verses on various topics. The Shobogenzo has received enormous attention in Western Zen and Western Zen literature, and with the publication of this watershed volume, the Eihei Koroku will surely rise to commensurate stature. This edition contains extensive and detailed research and annotation by scholar, translator, and Zen teacher Taigen Dan Leighton, as well as forewords by the eighteenth-century poet-monk Ryokan and Tenshin Reb Anderson, former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center-plus introductory essays from Dogen scholar Steven Heine, and the prominent American Zen master John Daido Loori.

Author Biography

Longchen Rabjam (1308-69) is one of the most recognizable and revered masters in the history of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is regarded as the premiere expositor of then view, methods, paths and results of Dzogchen. Keith Dowman is the author and translator, of several books on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, including Flight of the Garuda and Sky Dancer. He lives in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Translator's Introduction	p. 1
The Treasury of Natural Perfection	p. 21
The Commentary to The Treasury of Natural Perfection
Prologue	p. 51
The Concise Exposition	p. 59
The Extensive Exposition	p. 67
The First Vajra Theme: Absence	p. 67
The Second Vajra Theme: Openness	p. 137
The Third Vajra Theme: Spontaneity	p. 163
The Fourth Vajra Theme: Unity	p. 205
The Fifth Vajra Theme: Advice to Recipients of the Transmission	p. 235
The Conclusion of the Treatise	p. 255
Notes	p. 263
The Tibetan Text and Quotations	p. 275
Index of Similes	p. 287
List of Tibetan Headings in the Auto-commentary	p. 293
Glossary	p. 303
Selected English Bibliography	p. 319
Other Titles by Keith Dowman	p. 321
About the Author	p. 322
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