A Mound of Jewels, The Blazing Pyre, and Beautiful Yellow Flowers are three Tantras, or esoteric scriptures, of the Great Perfection. The Great Perfection, also known as the Atiyoga or Dzogchen (rDzogs chen), is a tradition of esoteric Buddhism that upholds instantaneous enlightenment. This tradition arrived in Tibet in the Eighth Century of the Common Era and has been maintained up until this day. The scriptures of the Great Perfection have not survived in any language other than Tibetan, the originals having been lost in time. A Mound of Jewels and The Blazing Pyre both have colophons declaring that they were translated by Vimalamitra working together with Kawa Paltseg. Both of these translators figure prominently in the rise of Buddhism in Tibet during the Eighth Century of our era. The literature of the Great Perfection is divided into three sections or groups: The Mind Section, the Space Section, and the Upadesha Instruction Section. The Upadesha Instruction Section is represented by a famous set of Seventeen Tantras. The three Tantras translated in this volume are among these Seventeen Tantras, and are filled with practical advice and pointing out instructions for the realization of the Great Perfection.

Mound of Jewels: Three Upadesha Tantras of the Great Perfection, Christopher Wilkinson, Paperback, 179 pp, $23.99

Christopher Wilkinson began his career in Buddhist literature in 1972 at the age of fifteen, taking refuge vows from his guru Dezhung Rinpoche. In that same year he began formal study of Tibetan language at the University of Washington under Geshe Ngawang Nornang and Turrell Wylie. He then received many instructions from Kalu Rinpoche, completing the traditional practice of five hundred thousand Mahamudra preliminaries. He became a Buddhist monk at the age of eighteen, living in the home of Dezhung Rinpoche while he continued his studies at the University of Washington. He graduated in 1980 with a B.A. degree in Asian Languages and Literature and another B.A. degree in Comparative Religion (College Honors, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa). After a two year tour of Buddhist pilgrimage sites throughout Asia he worked for five years in refugee resettlement in Seattle, Washington, then proceeded to the University of Calgary for an M.A. in Buddhist Studies where he wrote a groundbreaking thesis on the Yangti transmission of the Great Perfection tradition titled "Clear Meaning: Studies on a Thirteenth Century rDzog chen Tantra." He proceeded to work on a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of the 20,000 line Perfection of Wisdom in Berkeley, California, followed by an intensive study of Burmese language in Hawaii. In 1990 he began three years' service as a visiting professor in English Literature in Sulawesi, Indonesia, exploring the remnants of the ancient Sri Vijaya Empire there. He worked as a research fellow for the Shelly and Donald Rubin Foundation for several years, playing a part in the early development of the famous Rubin Museum of Art. In the years that followed he became a Research Fellow at the Centre de Recherches sur les Civilisations de l'Asie Orientale, Collge de France, and taught at the University of Calgary as an Adjunct Professor for five years. He is currently completing his doctoral dissertation, a study of the Yoginitantra first translated into Tibetan during the Eighth century of our era, at the University of Leiden's Institute for Area Studies.

CONTENTS: Mound of Jewels. Three upadesha tantras of the great perfection
Acknowledgments	i
Introduction	iii
A Mound of Jewels	1
The self-awareness of self-orginating wisdom is discovered by ourselves	3
The supremely great amazement	13
Revealing the way the base arises as spontaneously realized and indefinite	21
Revealing the empowerment of the yogins into the symbols of the great perfection that are supreme and most amazing	31
The majestic equanimity in which thee are no differences	43
Conclusion	51
The Blazing Pyre	53
Revealing how the signs of previous study in a person's body, speech. and mind will be manifest	65
Revealing the ways that the signs of body, speech. and mind are presently evident for fortunate people	81
Conclusion	93
Beautiful Yellow Flowers
Revealing the long range noose of the water lamp	97
Revealing the lamp of self originating knowledge	105
Revealing the lamp of the empty circle	113
Revealing the lalmp for the dominion of total purity	121
Conclusion	129
Tibetan Texts
A mound of jewels	131
The blazing pyre	149
Beautiful yellow flowers	165
About the translator	179