During the latter part of the Eighth Century of our era, the Tibetan translator Vairochana went to India in search of the teachings on instantaneous enlightenment that are known as the Great Perfection. In India, Vairochana met his teacher, Sri Singha, and lived there in Dhahena, studying with him for many years. During this time they published translations into Tibetan of numerous important works, and these early translations became exemplars for the work that came later. It is clear that Vairochana's translations were being read by members of the ex-patriot Tibetan community even before he returned to Tibet, and that copies of his translations were probably being read in Tibet even while he was still in India. The four Tantras translated in the present volume belong to this early period. We have The Tantra on Secret Wisdom, the Tantra on the Perfect Wisdom of the Bodhicitta, the Tantra on the Lamp for Secret Wisdom, and the Tantra that Displays the Precious Noble Path. According to the system that divides the Great Perfection scriptures into three classes: The Mind Section, the Space Section, and the Upadesa Instruction Section, these Tantras belong in the Space Section.

Perfect Wisdom: Four Early Tantras of the Great Perfection, Christopher Wilkinson, Paperback, 309 pages, $32.00

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, College 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.