Dzogchen, meaning "great perfection" in Tibetan, is an advanced practice associated particularly with Bon, the native religion of Tibet, and the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Both these traditions describe their teaching as comprising 'nine Ways' or paths of practice leading to enlightenment or realization, and in both classifications, Dzogchen is the ninth and highest Way. While its immediate associations are with these two traditions, Dzogchen is now taught in all Tibetan sects. In this book, Anne Klein, an American scholar of Buddhism, and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a native Tibetan who was one of the first to bring Dzogchen teachings to the west, provide a study and translation of the Authenticity of Open Awareness, a foundational text of the Bon Dzogchen tradition. This will be the first time any text from this tradition has been translated into any Western language, and as such will be a major contribution to the study of Tibetan religion and Eastern thought more generally. Klein and Rinpoche also provide extensive introductory and explanatory material that situates the text in the context of Tibetan thought and makes it accessible to nonspecialists.
Unbounded Wholeness: Dzogchen, Bon, and the Logic of the Nonconceptual, Anne C. Klein & Tenzin Wangyal, Oxford University Press, Paperback, 2006, 384 pp, $35.00
Anne C. Klein is Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is President and Founder of the Ligmincha Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is President of the Ligmincha Institute, which he founded in 1992 to preserve Tibetan Bon culture and teachings. His most recent book is Healing with Form, Energy, and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra, and Dzogchen (2002).
|
Contents: Unbounded Wholeness |
|
|
Introduction |
3 |
|
|
|
|
PART I Core Philosophical Issues |
|
1. |
Authentication and Authenticy
|
25 |
2. |
Unbounded Wholeness: Multiplicity and
Indefiniteness |
53 |
3. |
Primordial Nondelusion: Artful Endeavor and Spontaneity |
87 |
|
The Path of Continuity: Spontaneity and Dependent
Arising |
119 |
5. |
Samantabhadra and Scripture: Reasoning Resolved |
137 |
|
|
|
|
PART II Mythic and Historical Narratives of Discovery |
|
6. |
Colophon Kaleidoscope: Bon's Matrix of Authenticity |
169 |
7. |
Lishu Daring and a Tangle of Terma Tales |
201 |
|
|
|
|
PART III The Text in Translation |
|
|
The Authenticity of Open Awareness: A collection
of the Essential Reasonings |
223 |
|
|
|
|
Appendix |
|
|
Authenticity: Background Texts, Locus, and Chronology |
311 |
|
Texts Cited in Authenticity |
333 |
|
Glossaries |
337 |
|
Bibliography |
363 |
|
Index |
381 |
|
Photo Gallery appears after page 166 |
52 |
|