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The Guhyasamaja Tantra is one of the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras of Vajrayana Buddhism. In the initial, generation-stage practice, one engages in a prescribed sequence of visualizations of oneself as an enlightened being in a purified environment in order to prepare one's mind and body to engage in the second stage: the completion stage. The latter works directly with the subtle energies of one's mind and body and transforms them into the enlightened mind and body of a buddha. In this book, Gyume Khensur Lobsang Jampa, a former abbot of Gyume Tantric College, provides complete instructions on how to practice the generation stage of Guhyasamaja, explaining the visualizations, offerings, and mantras involved, what they symbolize, and the purpose they serve. These instructions, which are usually imparted only orally from master to student after the student has been initiated into the Guhyasamaja mandala, are now being published in English for the first time and are supplemented by extracts from key written commentaries in the footnotes to support practitioners who have received the required transmissions from a holder of this lineage. The complete self-generation ritual is included in the second part of the book, with the Tibetan on facing pages, which can be used by those who read Tibetan and want to recite the ritual in Tibetan. Guhyasamaja Practice in the Arya Nagarjuna System, Volume One: The Generation Stage, Gyume Khensur Lobsang Jampa, Artemus B. Engle (Translator), Snow Lion Publications, Hardcover, 784 pp, $49.95
Gyume Khensur Lobsang Jampa was born in Lhasa, Tibet, in 1937. He entered the Mey College of Sera Monastery at the age of ten and studied in Tibet until 1959, when he fled to India after the Chinese occupation of Tibet. After completing the final Geshe exam, he was awarded the title of Geshe Lharampa, and later, after entering the Gyume Tantric College, he was awarded the degree of Ngagrampa (the highest Tantric degree in the Gelukpa tradition). The Dalai Lama appointed him as the abbot of Gyume, a position which he filled for a term of three years. He currently teaches throughout the US, Canada, and Asia.
Artemus B. Engle studied Buddhism with the late Sera Mey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche for more than thirty years. Over much of the past decade, he has continued his studies as a student of Gyume Khensur Lobsang Jampa Rinpoche. In 1983, he earned a doctorate in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin and is currently a fellow with the Tsadra Foundation. His previous translations include The Inner Science of Buddhist Practice and The Bodhisattva Path to Unsurpassed Enlightenment.
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