The Yoginis Eye: Comprehensive Introduction to Buddhist Tantra, Volume I: Systemization and Interpretation introduces a new translation series, Classics of the Early Sakya, which will focus on the extensive literature of the Sakya Lamdre lineage of the Hevajra Tantra cycle of revelation. This first volume of introduction is the earliest book of its type and comprehensive treatment of the subject matter to have been written, and initiated the scholarly study of Tibetan Buddhist Tantra. Subsequent studies in all lineages were built on the foundation established by this book.
The Yoginis Eye has served as the introductory textbook for the study of Sakya Tantra continuously for over 800 years. Over the centuries, the textbook has been supplemented by a total of fifteen commentaries and study guides written by the most learned scholars of the Sakya tradition, including Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen (13121375), Yeshe Gyaltsen (1300s1406), Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (13821450), Lowo Khenchen Sonam Lhundrup (14561532), Ngorchen Konchok Lhundrup (14971547), Amezhap Ngawang Kunga Sonam (15971659), and Dezhung Chopel Jamyang Kunga Namgyal (1880s mid-1950s). This first English edition contains the translation of thirteen of these study guides, excluding all repetitive sections, inserted into the original book in the appropriate context.
Starting in the twelfth century with this book, the early Sakya lineage widely established Buddhist Tantra as an authentic, efficacious, and superior spiritual practice, one that is now being fully transmitted to the modern Western world.
About the Authors and Translators Sonam Tsemo (11421182) is the second of the five founders of the Sakya lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the first person to establish the study of Buddhist Tantra on a rigorous basis equivalent to that of Sutra. Ngor Thartse Khenpo Sonam Gyatso (Hiroshi Sonami) (19331987) was the seventy-fourth abbot of Ngor monastic university in Tibet and was a direct disciple of Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro (18931959). After exile, Hiroshi devoted the remainder of his life to the transmission and preservation of the Sakya Lamdre lineage. Wayne Verrill (1952) received the transmission of Sakya Lamdre from Hiroshi Sonami from 19781987. After a career as an environmental scientist for the state of California, he has retired to return to completion and publication of their earlier work.
Contents: THE YOGINI'S EYE: Comprehensive Introduction to Buddhist Tantra - Classics of the Early Sakya, Volume 1: Systemization and Interpretation by Sonam Tsemo |
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Translator's Introduction |
1 |
Acknowledgments |
33 |
Author's Introduction |
37 |
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Part I: The Result and the Path
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Chapter 1 Ultimate Result as the Reference Point at the Start of All Paths
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41 |
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Chapter 2 Actual Path
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53 |
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Chapter 3 Divisions of the Mahayana Path |
75 |
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Chapter 4 Specific Characteristics of the Path |
91 |
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Chapter 5 Guhyamantrayana Specialization Surpasses Paramitayana |
119 |
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Chapter 6 Classes and Cycles of Tantras |
181 |
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Chapter 7 Origin of Guhyamantra |
345 |
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Part II: Meaning of Titles
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Chapter 8 Meaning of the Hevajra Tantra Cycle Titles |
423 |
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Part III: Methods for Interpretation
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Chapter 9 Methods for Interpreting the Language and Meaning of the Tantras |
459 |
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Epilogue |
531 |
Topic Outline |
535 |
Bibliography |
553 |
Index |
575 |
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