The first volume in an historic and noteworthy 6-volume series containing many of the first English translations of the classic mahamudra literature compiled by the Seventh Karmapa.

Sounds of Innate Freedom: The Indian Texts of Mahamudra are historic volumes containing many of the first English translations of classic mahamudra literature. The texts and songs in these volumes constitute the large compendium called The Indian Texts of the Mahamudra of Definitive Meaning, compiled by the Seventh Karmapa, Chotra Gyatso (1456-1539). The collection offers a brilliant window into the richness of the vast ocean of Indian mahamudra texts cherished in all Tibetan lineages, particularly in the Kagyu tradition, giving us a clear view of the sources of one of the world's great contemplative traditions.

This first volume in publication contains the majority of songs of realization, consisting of dohas (couplets), vajragitis (vajra songs), and caryagitis (conduct songs), all lucidly expressing the inexpressible. These songs offer readers a feast of profound and powerful pith instructions uttered by numerous male and female mahasiddhas, yogis, and dakinis, often in the context of ritual ganacakras and initially kept in their secret treasury. Displaying a vast range of themes, styles, and metaphors, they all point to the single true nature of the mind--mahamudra--in inspiring ways and from different angles, using a dazzling array of skillful means to penetrate the sole vital point of buddhahood being found nowhere but within our own mind. Reading and singing these songs of mystical wonder, bliss, and ecstatic freedom, and contemplating their meaning in meditation, will open doors to spiritual experience for us today just as it has for countless practitioners in the past.
Sounds of Innate Freedom: The Indian Texts of Mahamudra, Vol. 5; compiled by the Seventh Karmapa, Chotra Gyatso; Translated by Karl Brunnholzl; Wisdom Publications, Hardcover, 768 pp, $59.95

Karl Brunnholzl, MD, PhD, (translator) was originally trained as a physician. He received his systematic training in Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators, founded by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, as well as the Nitartha Institute, founded by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. Since 1989 he has been a translator and interpreter from Tibetan and English. Karl Brunnholzl is a senior teacher and translator in the Nalandabodhi community of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, as well as at the Nitartha Institute. He lives in Seattle and is the author and translator of numerous texts, including A Lullaby to Awaken the Heart: The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra and Its Tibetan Commentaries.

Volume Five (this book) starts with a Foreword by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, a Preface, Abbreviations, and an Introduction; and concludes with an appendix "Jamyang Kyentse Wangpo's and Jamyang Kyentse Wangchug's Commentaries on Mitayogi's Letting Your Own Mind Take a Rest (Text 201) and Pith Instruction on Threefold Essential Reality", Notes, Selected Bibliography, and About the Translator.

The following, which was taken from the Introduction, describes the body of this work:

"Among the six volumes of the Seventh Karmapa's compilation of Indian Mahamudra texts, the fifth contains by far the most individual works (112). With only five prose texts, the bulk of this volume consists of versified songs of realization. Thus among the six volumes, the fifth represents the primary one with such songs, consisting of dohas, vajragitis ("vajra songs"), as well as caryagitis ("conduct songs"). Most of these songs are quite short, sometimes just a single stanza. Furthermore, besides individually listed songs by distinct authors, many more are found in the seven song collections in this volume, which were uttered by numerous male and female siddhas, yogis, yoginis, and dakinis and later arranged into anthologies of different sizes by others. Thus the overall number of songs in this volume amounts to about 950, the vast majority of which is translated here for the first time into a language other than Tibetan.