Penetrating Wisdom: The Aspiration of Samantabhadra

(Paperback)

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A description of the Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen path of awakening, with instructions and guidance for following it With deep compassion, sharp observations, and arresting metaphors, the Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche explicates "The Aspiration of Samantabhadra" for both new and experienced practitioners. This Dzogchen prayer explores the different manifestations of rigpa, our basic awareness in daily life, and constitutes a set of instructions for refining the path of practice. Taken from material from a series of talks in Germany and the United States, Penetrating Wisdom includes the text of the prayer, Rinpoche's always-lively commentary, and lucid answers to questions posed by his students. This book is a commentary on an ancient, well-known Tibetan Buddhist prayer of aspiration that expounds on the Dzogchen path to enlightenment. Containing key fundamentals about the Vajrayana path--the guru-student relationship, the role of faith in Vajrayana Buddhism, recognizing basic awareness, and the notion of reality that is beyond mental concepts--this book is a clear and accessible explication of a complex system of philosophy and meditation techniques that are central to Tibetan Buddhism. While the author is a traditionally trained master in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, he has won great appreciation in the West for his humor, familiarity with Western culture, and his unique talent for using examples that are drawn directly from Western metropolitan lifestyles. He has lived and taught in Europe and North America for many years.

Reviews

"One of the most brilliant Tibetan Buddhist teachers of his generation."Sogyal Rinpoche

Author Bio

Born into a family of Buddhist scholars and teachers, DZOGCHEN PONLOP was ordained as a monk at an early age and studied closely with the 16th Karmapa and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, two of the greatest Buddhist masters of the twentieth century. One of the foremost scholars of his generation in the Nyingma and Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism, he is an accomplished meditation master, calligrapher, visual artist, and poet. He is the primary architect for the many websites under the Nalandabodhi/Nitartha umbrella and publisher of Bodhi magazine, an internationally distributed Buddhist periodical. His Buddhist practice and study organization, which is called Nalandabodhi and is based in Seattle, has centers in many major cities in the United States and Europe.