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This massive volume is the third masterpiece in Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen Rinpoche's trilogy on Bon Dzogchen Meditation. It is a detailed exposition of Dzogchen (Great Completion) across twenty-one extensive chapters.
The opening chapter states of Buddha-nature is inherent to all sentient beings. It also elucidates the 85 positive qualities of the completely purified mind. The second chapter reviews various kinds of pith instructions in the oral tradition, the Tantras, and in Great Completion. The third chapter is a detailed discussion of various tantric practices with seed-syllables, sounds, initiations and gift-waves of influence, mandala visualizations, the accumulation and accomplishment stages of generation Tantras. The fifth chapter is a detailed discussion of the kinds of spiritual duties required in different practices. The sixth and seventh chapters entail an extensive discussion of the natural state and universal ground and the way appearances arise from this universal ground. The eighth and ninth chapters sets out the sacred physical body-the channels, chakras, energy drops and winds and the unique channel system of the Lamps practice, as well as explaining the pith instructions regarding the practices related to the sacred body. Chapter ten describes the ordinary deluded world of sentient beings, the five elements and their manner of liberation through pointing out the expanse of the Dharmakaya. Chapter eleven delineates the Great Completion path of liberation and the fruition of this path. It contains detailed instructions on various emptiness meditations, concentrative evenness, and practices to destroy habitual karmic tendencies and to liberation the mind-stream, and dispelling mistakes and obscurations along the path of liberation, and elucidating the stages along the path according to the capacity of the student. Chapters twelve and thirteen are a general introduction to Bon Great Completion meditation-the mind-, space-, and pith instruction-series of teachings. Chapter fourteen is a detailed explanation of how the pith instructions work in thoroughly cutting through Great Completion practice. Emphasis is given to the importance of 'not-doing' instructions for cross-over from ordinary mind to awakened mind, and the manner of liberation to the three-fold embodiment of enlightenment. Chapter fifteen is a detailed explanation of how the pith instructions work in by-passing Great Completion meditation. It begins with a detailed account of the differences between thoroughly cutting through and by-passing practice. It contains a detailed explanation of the Lamps by-passing practice. Chapter 16 elucidates the most secret essential points in by-passing practice, the levels of by-passing visions, and nailing the attainment. Chapter 17 is an explanation of dark retreat by-passing practice. Chapter eighteen presents a pointing out/pith instruction approach to a two pathway system-the path of delusion and samsara and the path of liberation and enlightenment. Emphasis is on the more refined close-to-heart determination as compared with standard pointing out pith instructions. Chapter nineteen discuss the signs of meditative progress expected along the by-passing Great Completion path of liberation. This includes a rare exposition of the four ways to attain rainbow body while dying. Chapter twenty is a detailed review of practices used during dying and the after-death bardos of dharmadhatu and rebirth. The last, twenty first chapter explains the fruition, Buddhahood in some detail-the ground of liberation, the manner of liberation, the process of dharmadhatu exhaustion, how enlightened intention manifests for the advanced practitioner, and how the three-fold embodiment of enlightenment and the primordial wisdoms directly manifest.
Precious Treasury of the Expanse and Awakened Awareness: The Ornament of the Definitive Meaning, Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen, Daniel P. Brown & Geshe Sonam Gurung (Translators), Mustang Bon Foundation, Hardcover, $160.00
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