Principles of Buddhist Tantra

by Kirti Tsenshap Rinpoche, Ian Coghlan (Editor), Voula Zarpani (Editor)

Overview

Kirti Tsenshap Rinpoche was a renowned teacher of Tibetan Buddhism with students worldwide. Revered as a teacher by even the Dalai Lama, he was known especially as a master of Buddhist tantra, the powerful esoteric methods for attaining enlightenment swiftly. The teachings in this book are a singular record of his deep learning in that field. Originally delivered in California to a group of Western students, the teachings comment on a classic introduction to tantra by the nineteenth-century Mongolian lama Choje Ngawang Palden. The work, Illumination of the Tantric Tradition, is a staple even today of the curriculum for training young monastics.

Kirti Tsenshap Rinpoche explains the distinctive features of the four classes of tantra--action tantra, performance tantra, yoga tantra, and highest yoga tantra--by describing the way to progress through their paths and levels. He illuminates key issues in tantric practice that are still a matter for debate within the tradition. Finally, he gives a special treatment of the unique methods of Kalacakra tantra, which is regularly taught around the globe by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780861716883
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	05/01/2011
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Kirti Tsenshap Rinpoche was born in the province of Amdo in eastern Tibet in 1926. A monk from age nine, he trained at Kirti Monastery and at Drepung Monastery in Lhasa. He escaped to India in 1959, and in 1972 he embarked on a fifteen-year retreat in the mountains above Dharamsala. In the decades before his death in 2006, Rinpoche taught extensively at Buddhist centers throughout the world.

Ian Coghlan (Jampa Ignyen) was a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for twenty years and completed his geshe studies at Sera Je Monastery in 1995. He holds a PhD in Asian studies from La Trobe University and is currently a translator for the Institute of Tibetan Classics and an adjunct research fellow at Monash Asia Institute, Melbourne.

Voula Zarpani holds a double master's degree from the Agricultural University of Athens and graduated from the first Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program in Dharamsala, India, in 1995. She became translator for Kirti Tsenshap Rinpoche in 2000 and continues to translate for various Tibetan Lamas.
Ian James Coghlan (Jampa Yigyen) trained as a monk at Sera Jé Monastic University, completing his studies in 1995, and holds a PhD in Asian studies from La Trobe University. Currently he is a research associate at the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, Monash University, and a translator for the Institute of Tibetan Classics, the American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Wisdom Publications, the Khenpo Appey Foundation, and the Juniper Foundation.
Voula Zarpani holds a double master’s degree from the Agricultural University of Athens and graduated from the first Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program in Dharamsala, India, in 1995. She continues to translate for various Tibetan lamas.

Table of Contents

Translators' Introduction Illumination of the Tantric Tradition The Principles of the Grounds and Paths of the Four Great Secret Classes of Tantra 1

Introduction 13

Part 1 The Three Lower Tantras

1 Action Tantra 21

2 Performance Tantra 45

3 Yoga Tantra 61

4 Grounds and Paths 79

Part 2 Mainstream Highest Yoga Tantra

5 The Generation Stage 95

6 Trie Completion Stage 131

7 Physical Isolation 151

8 Verbal Isolation 175

9 Mental Isolation 195

10 Relative Illusory Body 221

11 Ultimate Clear Light 247

12 Learner's Union 261

13 Alternate Systems of Highest Yoga Tantra 273

14 Enhancing and Manifesting Results 285

15 Practitioners 301

16 Vows 315

17 The Generation Stage 317

18 The Vajra Body of the Completion Stage 333

19 The Six Branches of Practice of the Completion Stage 347

20 Manifesting Results 379

Appendix: Tables 387

Notes 393

Glossary 439 .

Bibliography 453

Index 467

About the Contributors 481

Editorial Reviews

"Kirti Tsenshap Rinpoche was like the Kadam masters of the past in his profound renunciation. He showed not the slightest worldly activity, not a single one of the eight mundane concerns, and he had no self-cherishing thought. Everything he did, even talking, was utterly pleasing to the minds of sentient beings."

Lama Zopa Rinpoche