Across more than a millenium, the lamas, meditators, and scholars of Tibet created a vast literature dedicated to revealing the profound truths about who we are and how we should make use of our lives. Sages living in mountain caves and monastics pursuing their daily rituals used these texts to wear down their obscurations and make space for innate clarity and wisdom to manifest. For those of us in the modern world with hectic lives, however, such teachings from another time and place can be nearly impenetrable. To approach them, we need a guide, a helping hand from someone who is like ourselves but who has spent years learning the ins and outs of the sometimes secretive world of Tibetan Buddhist practice. Bestselling author and former Buddhist monk Alan Wallace is one such guide. With his trademark enthusiasm and keen intelligence, he introduces us here to one of the most cherished works of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence. Written in the nineteenth century, the Vajra Essence presents the practice of Dzokchen, the Great Perfection the highest of all the meditation traditions and its contents have only been revealed to those with the requisite training.

With permission from his teachers, Alan reveals here the works opening section, which presents the methods for calming the mind and bringing it to a state of effortless concentration, the practice of shamatha. In his earlier book, The Attention Revolution, Alan guided readers through the stages of shamatha step by step. Here he uses the wisdom of the Dzokchen teachings to open up this practice into a space of freedom from hope and fear. He makes obscure concepts intelligible to contemporary readers and allows us to glimpse the profound realizations of a great spiritual adept.

Stilling the Mind: Shamatha Teachings from Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence, B. Alan Wallace, Wisdom Publications, Paperback, 200 pp, $18.95

B. Allan Wallace is one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. Having trained as a Buddhist monk for fourteen years in the 1970s and 80s, he later received his PH.D. from Stanford University and now runs the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies.

CONTENTS: Stilling the Mind
	Preface	vii
1.	INTRODUCTION	1
	Dudjom Lingpa and the Vajra Essence	4
	The Vision of Dudjom Lingpa	18
	Teacher and Assembly in Dialogue	21
2.	THE QUESTIONS OF FACULTY OF WISDOM	25
	The Appearance of Teachers	28
3.	THE QUESTIONS OF GREAT BOUNDLESS EMPTINESS	35
	The Swift Path--The Great Perfection	36
	Qualifications of a Student of the Great Perfections	42
	Difficulties Inherent in Other Vehicles	48
	The Time to Practice Vajrayana	54
	Bodhichitta	55
4.	TAKING THE MIND AS THE PATH	61
	The Primacy of Mind	66
	The Emptiness of Mind	73
	Mind's Essential Nature	88
	The Source of Appearances	96
	The Fruits of Practice	104
5.	THE EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS	109
	Psychophysical Obstructions	113
	Settling the Mind in Its Natural State	118
	Nyam--Signs of Meditative Experience	124
	Signs of Progress
	Nyam Emanating from Different Psychophysical Constitutions	143
	Accomplishing the Practice	144
6.	ACCOMPLISHING SHAMATHA	149
7.	PITFALLS	157
	Hazards in the Later Stages of Shamatha Practice	158
	The Role and Significance of Shamatha	168
	Experiencing the Substrate Consciousness	170
	Deeper Possibilities of Shamatha Practice	177
Notes		181
Glossary		183
Index		191
About the Author		201