The teachings in this book are the distillation of a lifetime's commitment to Dzogchen realization and practice. Here, Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche teaches from "the top of the mountain down." That is, he offers to Western readers with varying levels of experience the peak of Dzogchen wisdom, largely from hermit masters unknown in the West. He also connects Dzogchen with early Indian Abhidharma teachings and presents the various meanings of Mahamudra (Great Seal) in the different Tibetan Buddhist traditions in order to highlight its particular meaning in Dzogchen and to show all interpretations are valuable. Above all, Khetsun Sangpo carefully explains the absolutely crucial discriminations that practitioners must make regarding their own experience in order to get past illusions and connect to their own genuine being.

Strand of Jewels : My Teachers� Essential Guidance on Dzogchen, Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche, Anne Carolyn Klein, Snow Lion, Paperback, 357 pages, 2015, $24.95

Khetsun Sangpo (1921�2009) was born in central Tibet and worked in a monastery as a servant when he was a boy, learning to read and write during his free hours. He later pursued study for several years with a renowned nun. (It was unusual for a man to seek teachings from a woman.) He eventually pursued formal monastic education in both the Gelukpa and Nyingma traditions. He fled Tibet to India in 1959. He had a close relationship with Dudjom Rinpoche, who asked him to teach in Japan for ten years as his representative. After that period, he spent the rest of his life in India and Nepal.

Strand of Jewels: My Teacher's Essential Guidance on Dzogchen: Heartfelt and Straightforward
Long-Life Prayer for Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche	xiii
Acknowledgments	xvii
Translator's Introduction	xxi
Meeting Khetsun Rinpoche	xxxiii
Technical Note	xxxix
PART ONE: THE TEXT
HOMAGE AND PROLOGUE	3
1. YOUR ORIGINAL FACE: BASE, PATH, AND FRUITION	7
Brief Explanation of the View	7
The Ordinary Mind: Eighty Conceptions	15
Our Moving Mind: More on the Eighty Conceptions	17
Illusions Laced with Holes	25
Buddhas and Other Beings	31
Realizing the Great Seal	33
2. MINDNATURE: THE GREAT SEAL IN NYINGMA	41
3. PATH: DISTINCTIONS THAT ARE KEY TO DZOGCHEN PRACTICE	53
Distinguishing Mind from Sheer Awareness	53
Distinguishing Mental Functioning from Sublime Knowing	55
Distinguishing Consciousness from Primordial Knowing	55
Distinguishing the Allground from the Sheer Essence Dimension	57
Serene Abiding and Dzogchen	57
The Three Doors of Liberation	61
Special Seeing in Dzogchen Meditation	65
4. FINE POINTS OF PRACTICE	87
Sidetracking and Slipping: Pitfalls on the Path	87
Specifics on Slippage	95
Phases of Practice	101
The Three Buddha Dimensions	103
Epilogue	111
PART TWO: THE ORAL COMMENTARY	196
HOMAGE AND PROLOGUE	117
5. YOUR ORIGINAL FACE: BASE, PATH, AND FRUITION	121
Brief Explanation of the View	124
The Ordinary Mind: Eighty Conceptions	127
The Seven Conceptions Associated with Obscuration	130
Our Moving Mind: More on the Eighty Conceptions	131
First Meditation	134
Illusions Laced with Holes	134
The Forty Conceptions Associated with Desire	136
Second Meditation	137
Questions and Responses: Posture, Dzogchen, and Indrabhuti	137
Buddhas and Other Beings	141
Realizing the Great Seal	144
6. MINDNATURE: THE GREAT SEAL IN NYINGMA	149
Third Meditation	154
Questions and Responses: The Three Dimensions and the Two Types of Clarity	155
7. PATH: DISTINCTIONS THAT ARE KEY TO DZOGCHEN PRACTICE	159
On Sublime Knowing and Primordial Knowing	159
Distinguishing Mind from Sheer Awareness	160
Distinguishing Mental Functioning from Sublime Knowing	161
Distinguishing Mental Functioning from Primordial Knowing	161
Distinguishing Consciousness form Primordial Knowing	162
Distinguishing the Allground from the Sheer Essence Dimension	163
The All-Inclusive View That Is Dzogchen	164
Fourth Meditation	168
Questions and Responses: Distinctions Key to Dzogchen	169
Serene Abiding and Dzogchen	173
Special Seeing in Dzogchen Meditation	176
The Three Doors of Liberation	179
Knowing Your Mind	179
Fifth Meditation	182
Questions and Responses: Serene Abiding, Drowsiness, and Furthering Compassion	182
8. FINE POINTS OF PRACTICE	187
Instructions and Stories	187
Sidetracking and Slipping: Pitfalls on the Path	193
Questions and Responses: Pitfalls Regarding Emptiness, Tantra, and Dzogchen	199
The Tibetan Context: Different Moves on the Mountain	205
Stories of Great Practitioners	206
Foundations of Dzogchen Practice	209
Sixth Meditation	213
Questions and Responses: Furthering Meditation and Helping Others	213
The Three Buddha Dimensions	231
Epilogue to Strand of Jewels	237
PART THREE: KHETSUN SANGPO RINPOCHE: EPISODES FROM A LIFE OF PRACTICE
Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche: A Life of Practice	243
Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche: A Brief History in His Own Words	249
Prayer for Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche's Swift Return	261
Notes	265
English-Tibetan Glossary	293
Tibetan-English Glossary	311
Bibliography of Works Cited	329
Bibliography of Tibetan-Language Works by Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche	337
Credits	339
Index	341