Mastering Meditation: Instructions on Calm Abiding and Mahamudra

by His Eminence Chöden Rinpoché

Overview

A legendary contemporary meditation master illuminates practices that are essential to Tibetan Buddhists everywhere. Tibetan Buddhism is estimated to have 18 million followers worldwide.

Mastering Meditation gives you the experience of studying with one of the greatest meditation masters of the modern age. His Eminence Chöden Rinpoché was not only a celebrated scholar, honored by selection as a debate partner to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but he was also an accomplished yogi who spent nineteen years in solitary meditation retreat. In this thorough and thoroughly clear book, Rinpoché offers meticulous explanations and profound practical instructions on two essential practices in Tibetan Buddhism: calm abiding and mahamudra.

The first part of this book contains instructions for developing calm abiding, an unshakable single-pointedness of mind. The second part, Rinpoché’s direct commentary on the Fourth Panchen Lama’s foundational text, offers advanced instructions on using calm abiding as a platform to develop mahamudra. Rinpoché elucidates both sutra-system mahamudra—meditation on the emptiness of the mind—as well as mantra-system mahamudra, a specialized meditation that uncovers subtle, hidden levels of mind to pierce into the ultimate nature of self and reality, leading finally to complete enlightenment.

Drawing from his vast learning and personal experience, Rinpoché provides readers with an open gateway to remarkable states of lucidity and peace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614296294
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

His Eminence Chöden Rinpoché was born in eastern Tibet in 1930 and was recognized as a young boy as the reincarnation of the previous Chöden Rinpoché. When he was fifteen, he enrolled at Sera Jé monastic college, where he excelled; he completed all the study necessary for the highest degree of geshé lharampa, was renowned as one of the great Tibetan teacher-yogis of our modern era, and was chosen as a debate partner for the Fourteenth Dalai Lama when His Holiness was taking his geshe exams. After the Chinese takeover of Tibet, Rinpoché entered solitary retreat, in which he stayed for nineteen years. In 1985 the Dalai Lama asked him to leave Tibet to teach in India and Nepal. He taught students in the geshé program at Sera Jé for many years, as well as offering teachings all over the world. He passed away in 2015.

Table of Contents

Foreword His Holiness the Dalai Lama vii

Gyalten Translation Group's Preface ix

Translator's Preface xi

Translator's Introduction 1

A Note on the Translation 27

A Lamp Clarifying the Path to Liberation: The Manner of Actualizing Calm Abiding and Instructions on Gendenpa Mahamudra

Part I Calm Abiding

1 The Importance of the Union of Calm Abiding and Special Insight 37

2 Assembling the Preconditions for Calm Abiding 47

3 The Actual Method of Achieving Calm Abiding 55

4 A Step-by-Step Explanation of the Nine Mental Settlings 81

5 The Means of Achieving Actual Calm Abiding 89

6 Questions and Answers 93

Part 2 Mahamudra

7 Requesting Prayer to the Mahamudra Lineage 109

8 Highway of the Conquerors: The Root Text of Mahamudra of the Precious Genden Instruction Lineage 121

9 The Preliminary Teaching 131

10 The Mantra System of Mahamudra 157

11 Introducing Sutra-System Mahamudra 181

12 The Actual Practice of Sutra Mahamudra 197

13 Meditation on Emptiness 217

14 Questions and Answers 249

Translator's Acknowledgments 251

Appendix 1 Biography of Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen 255

Appendix 2 Biography of His Eminence Chöden Rinpoché 259

Glossary 267

Suggestions for Further Reading 289

Bibliography 291

Index 303

About the Author 331

Editorial Reviews

I am immensely grateful that this fine book makes Chöden Rinpoché utterly present to my mind, and his deep and inspiring teaching gives me consolation! These greatest teachings are simple and direct, yet they give a powerful sense that the teacher actually knows what they mean, is sharing actual experience, not just description.

Robert A. F. Thurman

Kyabjé Chöden Rinpoché was more kind to me than all the three times’ buddhas. His teachings are not just words but come from a learned mind—and from experience.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Kyabjé Chöden Rinpoché was one of the great masters of the past century and the mentor to many of the senior teachers at Sera, including my own teacher Gen Thupten Rinchen. His broad and incisive understanding was supported by years of intensive practice, yielding the true fruits of the Buddhist path. For anybody interested in looking more deeply into the long-term goals of Buddhist practice, this book is an indispensable guide.

Khen Rinpoché Geshé Tashi Tsering

Embodying the scholarship of a lharampa geshé and the insights of a realized yogi, Chöden Rinpoché is the perfect master to explain how to meditate on the ultimate nature of the mind, and does so in this wonderful book, made accessible by Venerable Gache’s excellent introduction and translation. Highly recommended.

Dr. Nicholas Ribush

Rinpoché’s teachings are genuine manifestations of Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition. It is wonderful to see that more of his clear, practical, and precious instructions are now available in English.

Geshé Tenzin Namdak

This volume by one of the preeminent scholars and contemplatives of the Geluk tradition in recent times is bound to become a classic guide to unveiling the mystery of consciousness, which has thus far eluded modern science.

B. Alan Wallace

My precious guru, H.E. Chöden Kyabjé Rinpoché, was a true master of wisdom and skillful means. He was not only a consummate scholar of the highest order, but an enlightened being who embodied the highest qualities of compassion and loving-kindness. I had the great fortune to be with him constantly for many, many years. The peace and stillness he radiated was so profound that just being in his presence was itself a meditation. Through his deep serenity and insight, he lived in the quintessential nature of calm abiding and mahamudra. It is my sincere wish that readers of this book be blessed, as I have been, by Rinpoché’s gentle and profound wisdom.

Khen Rinpoché Geshé Gyalten

Although typically associated with the Kagyü tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the profound meditation on the nature of mind known as mahamudra (the great seal) is also important among the Geluk, whose masters have studied, practiced, and taught the technique for many centuries. In this accurate, scholarly, and highly readable translation, Ven. Tenzin Gache brings to light two important texts by the beloved modern Geluk master Chöden Rinpoché (1930–2015): a clear exposition of how to attain calm abiding (samatha), which is an essential part of mahamudra meditation, and a detailed commentary on the root verses on mahamudra composed by the First/Fourth Paṇchen Lama, Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen (1570–1662). Chöden Rinpoché’s discussion of mahamudra is among the most thorough and practical of any written by a modern Gelukpa—including lucid discussions of the philosophical analysis required to perfect sutra-level mahamudra and of procedures for great-seal tantric practice, while Ven. Gache’s introduction, notes, and supplementary sections provide a helpful window onto Rinpoche’s incisive and inspiring writings. Mastering Meditation is a superlative book, which should be on the bookshelf of anyone interested in mahamudra, its place in Geluk tradition, and its power to reveal to us the true nature of our mind.

Roger R. Jackson

My precious guru, H.E. Chöden Kyabjé Rinpoché, was a true master of wisdom and skillful means. He was not only a consummate scholar of the highest order, but an enlightened being who embodied the highest qualities of compassion and loving-kindness. I had the great fortune to be with him constantly for many, many years. The peace and stillness he radiated was so profound that just being in his presence was itself a meditation. Through his deep serenity and insight, he lived in the quintessential nature of calm abiding and mahamudra. It is my sincere wish that readers of this book be blessed, as I have been, by Rinpoché’s gentle and profound wisdom.

Khen Rinpoché Geshé Gyalten

Kyabjé Chöden Rinpoché was one of the great masters of the past century and the mentor to many of the senior teachers at Sera, including my own teacher Gen Thupten Rinchen. His broad and incisive understanding was supported by years of intensive practice, yielding the true fruits of the Buddhist path. For anybody interested in looking more deeply into the long-term goals of Buddhist practice, this book is an indispensable guide.

Khen Rinpoché Geshé Tashi Tsering

Rinpoché’s teachings are genuine manifestations of Lama Tsongkhapa’s tradition. It is wonderful to see that more of his clear, practical, and precious instructions are now available in English.

Geshé Tenzin Namdak