Longchenpa's classic Buddhist manual for attaining liberation teaches us how to familiarize ourselves with our most basic nature--the clear, pristine, and aware mind. Written in the fourteenth century, this text is the first volume of Longchenpa's Trilogy of Rest, a work of the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition. This profound and comprehensive presentation of the Buddhist view and path combines the scholastic expository method with direct pith instructions designed for yogi practitioners.

This first part of the Trilogy of Rest sets the foundation for the following two volumes: Finding Rest in Meditation, which focuses on Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice, and Finding Rest in Illusion, which focuses on post-meditation yogic conduct. The Padmakara Translation Group has provided us with a clear and fluid new translation to Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind along with selections from its autocommentary, The Great Chariot, which will serve as a genuine aid to study and meditation.

Here, we find essential instructions on the need to turn away from materialism, how to find a qualified guide, how to develop boundless compassion for all beings, along with the view of tantra and associated meditation techniques. The work culminates with pointing out the result of practice as presented from the Dzogchen perspective, providing us with all the tools necessary to traverse the Tibetan Buddhist path of finding rest.
Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind: Trilogy of Rest, Volume 1, Longchenpa, Padmakara Translation Group, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 2017,
384 pp, $29.95

Longchen Rabjam (1308-1363), also known as Longchenpa, is a great luminary of Tibetan Buddhism. He was highly skilled in all aspects of scholarship from an early age and excelled throughout his life in the practice and accomplishment of the Dharma. Regarded as a great Dzogchen master, Longchenpa had many pure visions where he was given direct instructions from Guru Padmasambhava and is recognized as an emanation of Vimalamitra. Longchenpa's prolific writings have made him one of Tibet's most renowned and precious teachers.

The Padmakara Translation Group, based in France, has a distinguished reputation for all its translations of Tibetan texts and teachings. Its work has been published in several languages and is renowned for its clear and accurate literary style.

CONTENTS: Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind
Foreword by Alak Zenkar Rinpoche		xiii
Foreword by Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche		xv
Translators' Introduction		xix
Part One: Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind
Prologue		3
1.	The Freedoms and Advantages of Human Birth So Hard to Find	5
2.	Impermanence	11
3.	The Sufferings of Samsara	17
4.	The Karmic Law of Cause and Effect	35
5.	The Spiritual Master	51
6.	Refuge	67
7.	The Four Unbounded Attitudes	75
8.	Cultivating the Attitude of Mind Oriented toward Enlightenment	85
9.	The Generation and Perfection Stages and Their Union	103
10.	The View That Dwells in Neither of the Two Extremes, the Wisdom whereby the Nature of the Ground Is Realized	115
11.	The Path: Stainless Meditative Concentration	127
12.	The Three Aspects of Meditative Concentration	143
13.	The Great, Spontaneously Present Result	151
Conclusion		163
Part Two: Excerpts from The Great Chariot
The Mind Is the Root of All Phenomena		167
Mind, Intellect, and Consciousness		171
The Eight Consciousnesses as the Basis of Delusion		175
The Three Natures		179
The Universal Ground		191
The Universal Ground, the Eight Consciousnesses, and the State of Sleep		201
The Tathagatagarbha		205
Refuge		243
The Three Concentrations of the Generation Stage		253
The Simple Practice of the Generation and Perfection Stages		257
The Mind and the Objects That Appear to It		261
The Omniscient Longchenpa Speaks about His Realization		265
Notes		269
Texts Cited in The Great Chariot		301
Bibliography		305
The Padmakara Translation Group Translations into English		309
Index		311