This book grows out of an oral teaching that Khenchen Thrangu gave in Crestone, Colorado, on Karma Chagme's text Meaningful to Behold: The Essential Instructions of the Compassionate One on the Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Thrangu Rinpoche explains in lucid detail the advanced meditation practices of Mahamudra and Dzogchen and also their similarities and differences, including advice on how to safely perform some of the more advanced Dzogchen practices

Luminous Clarity: A Commentary on Karma Chagme's Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, Khenchen Thrangu, Snow Lion, Paperback, 2016, 208 pages, $19.95

Karma Chagme was born in Tibet in 1613. He was a major lineage holder of the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and his writings have also become central to the Payul Nyingma order.

Khenchen Thrangu was born in Tibet in 1933. At the age of five, he was formally recognized by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and Tai Situpa as the ninth incarnation of the great Thrangu tulku. Because of the Chinese military takeover of Tibet, Thrangu Rinpoche, then twenty-seven, was forced to flee to India in 1959. He was called to Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, where the Karmapa has his seat in exile. Because of his great scholarship, he was given the task of preserving the teachings of the Kagyu lineage. He was appointed by H.H. the Dalai Lama to be the personal tutor for the Seventeenth Karmapa, and he was also the personal tutor of the four principal Karma Kagyu tulkus: Shamar Rinpoche, Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and Gyaltsab Rinpoche. Thrangu Rinpoche established the fundamental curriculum of the Karma Kagyu lineage taught at Rumtek and founded numerous monasteries and nunneries, schools for Tibetan children, and medical clinics. He has taught extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States and is the abbot of Gampo Abbey.

Luminous Clarity: A Commentary on Karma Chagme's Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen
Editor's Preface	vii
1. Introduction	1
2. Cultivating Bodhichitta	5
3. The Generation Stage	13
4. Shamatha Meditation	25
5. Vipashyana Meditation	43
6. The Nature of Mind	63
7. Mahamudra and Trekcho	71
8. Meditation and Postmeditation	83
9. How Signs of Practice Arise	89
10. Togal or Leapover Practice	95
11. The Six Lamps of Togal Practice	107
12. Dedication and Aspiration	121
Appendix A: The Correspondence of the Root Text with Chapters in This Book	127
Appendix B: Aspirational Prayer for Mahamudra	129
Appendix C: The Origins of Mahamudra	133
Appendix D: The Fifty-One Mental Factors	137
Appendix E: The Forty-Two Peaceful Deities	141
Appendix F: The Fifty-Eight Wrathful Deities	145
Appendix G: The Three Realms and the Four Formless Meditative Absorptions	149
Notes	151
Glossary	159
Glossary of Tibetan Terms	175
Annotated Bibliography	179
Index	183