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The Precious Treasury of the Fundamental Nature
The first and only commentary on the Buddhist master Longchenpa's essential text on Dzogchen by modern scholar and Nyingma master, Khangsar Khenpo Tenpa'i Wangchuk.
Longchen Rabjam (1308-1363), also known as Longchenpa, is a great luminary of Tibetan Buddhism. Regarded as a master of Dzogchen, or Great Perfection, Longchenpa's prolific writings have made him one of Tibet's most renowned and precious teachers. In clear and elegant verse, Longchenpa's Precious Treasury of the Fundamental Nature establishes the definitive view of the ultimate nature of mind according to the secret class of pith instructions of the Great Perfection.
Aside from the auto-commentary composed by Longchenpa himself in the fourteenth century, the first and only commentary ever to have been written on this work was composed in the twentieth century by Khangsar Khenpo Tenpa'i Wangchuk, a teacher, scholar, and preserver of Buddhist monastic and scholarly culture in Tibet. This work marks the first step in translating the collected works of this modern Nyingma master. In this commentary, Khangsar Khenpo guides Dzogchen practitioners to experience and understand the phenomena of the outer world detected by the senses as well as the subjective mental and emotional states that apprehend them in order to bring the student to a recognition and stabilized experience of ultimate truth.
Longchen Rabjam (1308-1363), also known as Longchenpa, is a great luminary of Tibetan Buddhism. Regarded as a master of Dzogchen, or Great Perfection, Longchenpa's prolific writings have made him one of Tibet's most renowned and precious teachers. In clear and elegant verse, Longchenpa's Precious Treasury of the Fundamental Nature establishes the definitive view of the ultimate nature of mind according to the secret class of pith instructions of the Great Perfection.
Aside from the auto-commentary composed by Longchenpa himself in the fourteenth century, the first and only commentary ever to have been written on this work was composed in the twentieth century by Khangsar Khenpo Tenpa'i Wangchuk, a teacher, scholar, and preserver of Buddhist monastic and scholarly culture in Tibet. This work marks the first step in translating the collected works of this modern Nyingma master. In this commentary, Khangsar Khenpo guides Dzogchen practitioners to experience and understand the phenomena of the outer world detected by the senses as well as the subjective mental and emotional states that apprehend them in order to bring the student to a recognition and stabilized experience of ultimate truth.
- GenresBuddhism
352 pages, Hardcover
Published February 1, 2022
About the author
Longchenpa
36 books37 followersSame author as:
- Longchen Rabjam
- Kloṅ-chen-pa Dri-med-ʼod-zer
- Longchen Rabjam
- Kloṅ-chen-pa Dri-med-ʼod-zer
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 22, 2022
This translation of Khangsar Tenpai Wangchuck's 20th century commentary on Longchenpa's classic 14th century composition is a wonderful addition to the English language versions now available. Previously (and 1st) we had Padma Publishing's (Richard Barron translator) fine rendition ("Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding' - 1998), then Keith Dowman's ('Old Man Basking in the Sun - Longchenpa's Treasury of Natural Perfection' - Vajra Publications, 2007 - later republished in 2010 by Wisdom Publications as 'Natural Perfection - Longchenpa's Radical Dzogchen'), and now we get a very different version as translated by the Padmakara Group.
All these versions are great by the way, as they all clearly (with slight variation in poetic rendering) present Longchenpa's magnificent work. The first two versions include the root text and Longchenpa's auto-commentary, which, as the intro to this new edition points out, is a "meaning commentary", while Wangchuck Rinpoche's is a "word-commentary." Dowman's version also includes a bit of his own meaning commentary summing up each little section after Longchenpa's root-text and auto-commentary. So technically, this new (3rd) text is incorrect to claim it is the first non-Longchenpa commentary in English. This little snub of Dowman's work doesn't surprise me too much as he is definitely the black sheep of Dzogchen masters alive today, and it could be that the Padmakara Translation Group made an honest mistake and just assumed Dowman's was only of Longchenpa's original text (in other words, they never actually looked at his book). I do feel it's a snub though since Barron's translation is mentioned in the bibliography but Dowman's isn't. Anyway, that's their loss.
As just mentioned, this new commentary is a word commentary which focuses foremost on the meanings of the actual words employed (while a meaning commentary focuses more on the ideas the root text engenders - like a spring-board for further expression), as such, it's an inherently more didactic/scholarly approach (i.e. more pedantic than poetic), with the advantage of making sure the original words (and their meanings) are preserved for future students.
Wangchuck Rinpoche's detailed commentary makes up the bulk (2/3rds) of the text (coming after Longchenpa's root verses without auto-commentary). I'm not going to go into any more detail about the quality of this new commentary (other than it seems very good on first impression) - on its own or compared to the other versions (partly since it is a different kind of commentary, being much more detailed and elaborate, but also mainly because I haven't finished reading it!). However, I recommend getting all three books, as in, the more the better with Longchenpa!
What I do want to offer is a taste of the different translating styles these three versions give us (to show how wonderful they all are while different), so I'll copy the same stanza from the first chapter of each (which book 1 translates as "ineffability", book 2 as "absence," and book 3 as "nonexistence");
"Within the womb of basic space as an infinite sky,
however the universe manifests through transitions and changes in the four elements
these forms of emptiness are ineffable by nature,
as are all phenomena that are the manifestation aspect of awakened mind."
(Barron/Padma Group - 1998)
"In the universal womb that is boundless space
all forms of matter and energy occur as flux of the four elements,
but all are empty forms, absent in reality:
all phenomena, arising in pure mind, are like that."
(Dowman - 2007)
"Illusory reflections, however they appear,
Are unreal, empty by their nature.
Likewise, all things in phenomenal existence,
In the very moment of appearing,
Never stir from the enlightened mind.
They have no real existence."
(Padmakara Group - 2021)
All these versions are great by the way, as they all clearly (with slight variation in poetic rendering) present Longchenpa's magnificent work. The first two versions include the root text and Longchenpa's auto-commentary, which, as the intro to this new edition points out, is a "meaning commentary", while Wangchuck Rinpoche's is a "word-commentary." Dowman's version also includes a bit of his own meaning commentary summing up each little section after Longchenpa's root-text and auto-commentary. So technically, this new (3rd) text is incorrect to claim it is the first non-Longchenpa commentary in English. This little snub of Dowman's work doesn't surprise me too much as he is definitely the black sheep of Dzogchen masters alive today, and it could be that the Padmakara Translation Group made an honest mistake and just assumed Dowman's was only of Longchenpa's original text (in other words, they never actually looked at his book). I do feel it's a snub though since Barron's translation is mentioned in the bibliography but Dowman's isn't. Anyway, that's their loss.
As just mentioned, this new commentary is a word commentary which focuses foremost on the meanings of the actual words employed (while a meaning commentary focuses more on the ideas the root text engenders - like a spring-board for further expression), as such, it's an inherently more didactic/scholarly approach (i.e. more pedantic than poetic), with the advantage of making sure the original words (and their meanings) are preserved for future students.
Wangchuck Rinpoche's detailed commentary makes up the bulk (2/3rds) of the text (coming after Longchenpa's root verses without auto-commentary). I'm not going to go into any more detail about the quality of this new commentary (other than it seems very good on first impression) - on its own or compared to the other versions (partly since it is a different kind of commentary, being much more detailed and elaborate, but also mainly because I haven't finished reading it!). However, I recommend getting all three books, as in, the more the better with Longchenpa!
What I do want to offer is a taste of the different translating styles these three versions give us (to show how wonderful they all are while different), so I'll copy the same stanza from the first chapter of each (which book 1 translates as "ineffability", book 2 as "absence," and book 3 as "nonexistence");
"Within the womb of basic space as an infinite sky,
however the universe manifests through transitions and changes in the four elements
these forms of emptiness are ineffable by nature,
as are all phenomena that are the manifestation aspect of awakened mind."
(Barron/Padma Group - 1998)
"In the universal womb that is boundless space
all forms of matter and energy occur as flux of the four elements,
but all are empty forms, absent in reality:
all phenomena, arising in pure mind, are like that."
(Dowman - 2007)
"Illusory reflections, however they appear,
Are unreal, empty by their nature.
Likewise, all things in phenomenal existence,
In the very moment of appearing,
Never stir from the enlightened mind.
They have no real existence."
(Padmakara Group - 2021)
July 16, 2022
Sentientness
You...we are more than material we predicated our selves to be though that is all we of culture are taught to perceive, time to look beyond industrialized intellectual thinking and become...stupid, hear
You...we are more than material we predicated our selves to be though that is all we of culture are taught to perceive, time to look beyond industrialized intellectual thinking and become...stupid, hear
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews