The Practice of Dzogchen: Longchen Rabjam's Writings on the Great Perfection

by Longchen Rabjam, Harold Talbott (Editor), Tulku Thondup (Translation)

A classic collection of writings on the meditation practice and theory of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, by the celebrated fourteenth-century scholar and adept Longchen Rabjam (Longchenpa).

This classic collection of texts on the meditation practice and theory of Dzogchen presents the Great Perfection through the writings of its supreme authority, the fourteenth-century Tibetan scholar and visionary Longchen Rabjam. The pinnacle of Vajrayana practice in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Dzogchen embodies a system of training that awakens the intrinsic nature of the mind to reveal its original essence, utterly perfect and free from all duality—buddha nature, or buddhahood itself.

In The Practice of Dzogchen, Tulku Thondup translates essential passages from Longchen Rabjam’s voluminous writings to illuminate and clarify this teaching. He also draws on the works of later masters of the tradition, placing Dzogchen in context both in relation to other schools of Buddhism and in relation to the nine-vehicle outline of the Buddhist path described in the Nyingma tradition. This expanded edition includes Counsel for Liberation, Longchenpa’s poetic exhortation to readers to quickly enter the path of liberation, the first step toward the summit of Dzogchen practice.

Genres: Buddhism, Spirituality, Religion

480 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Same author as:
- Longchenpa
- Kloṅ-chen-pa Dri-med-ʼod-zer

Reviews

[Jacques · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clear-cut presentation of a very complex subject

[Frank R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thorough, overwhelming, but unreadable in a few sittings. I hated the interrupted, extended quotation-prose style of writing. This is great as a sourcebook for esoteric and difficult to translate sutras and tantric terma-texts.

[Jeremy]

More historical than practical.