Essence of the Ocean of Attainments
Essence of the Ocean of Attainments

Author: Penpa Dorjee

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2019-02-05

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1614295069

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A comprehensive guide to the creation stage of the Guhyasamaja. The Essence of the Ocean of Attainments (Dngos grub rgya mtsho’i snying po) is a commentary on the creation stage of the Guhyasamaja Tantra written by the illustrious Panchen Lama, Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen (1570–1662). The practice of Guhyasamaja, one of the earliest and most influential of the highest Tantras, along with its remarkable hermeneutic system, created a framework that was applied to other so-called unexcelled Tantras. Still very much a living tradition, in our time the Fourteenth Dalai Lama confers its empowerment every year. In this work, the Panchen Lama not only clarifies each step of the sadhana meditation ritual, but he also offers general insights into the practice and its workings. It is an Essence because it distills the much longer Ocean of Attainments commentary on the practice composed by Khedrup Jé (1385–1438), one of two key disciples of Tsongkhapa, the founder of Tibetan Buddhism’s Geluk school. The Panchen Lama identifies core elements of sadhana and with unparalleled precision clarifies many seminal points. In her introduction, Yael Bentor surveys the creation stage of unexcelled Tantra as presented by the founding fathers of the Geluk school and unpacks the contents of The Essence of the Ocean of Attainments for readers. The translation features both explanatory annotations for practitioners and ample references for scholars.

Ocean of Attainments
Ocean of Attainments

Author: Yael Bentor

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2024-04-16

Total Pages: 835

ISBN-13: 1614298300

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This commentary on Guhyasamaja tantra is the seminal guide to deity yoga and tantric visualization for the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Guhyasamaja Tantra, called the king of all tantras, is revered in Tibet, especially by the Geluk school. Ocean of Attainments, a commentary on Guhyasamaja practice, was composed by Khedrup Jé Gelek Palsang (1385–1438), a key disciple of the Geluk school founder, Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa. It explores the creation stage, a quintessential Buddhist tantric meditation that together with the completion stage comprises the path of unexcelled tantra. In the creation stage, meditators visualize themselves as buddhas at the center of the celestial mandala, surrounded in all directions by male and female buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other enlightened beings. Yet creation-stage practice is not merely visualization but deity yoga—indivisibly uniting the meditation on emptiness with the visualization of the mandala. The creation stage uses the conceptualization in visualization to overcome conceptualization, thereby creating a nonconceptual and nonerroneous direct perception. Such a mind, profound and vast, can bring about a transformation that stops samsaric suffering. How can visions generated as mental constructs not be erroneous? To the awakened eye, the buddhas and other beings who dwell in the mandala are “reality,” and in a sense they are more than real. While the previously published Essence of the Ocean of Attainments is a concise exposition on the practice of the Guhyasamaja sadhana, Ocean of Attainments is far more detailed, providing extensive scriptural citations, clear explanation of the body maanala, arguments on points of contention, reference to other tantric systems, and critiques of misinterpretations. With its extensive and clear introduction, this volume is a vital contribution to the growing body of scholarship on Guhyasamaja and on Buddhist tantra in general.

Ocean of Attainments
Ocean of Attainments

Author:

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2024-04-16

Total Pages: 835

ISBN-13: 161429853X

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This commentary on Guhyasamaja tantra is the seminal guide to deity yoga and tantric visualization for the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. Ocean of Attainments was composed by Khedrup Jé Gelek Palsang (1385–1438), one of Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa’s most prominent disciples. Its subject is the creation stage, a quintessential Buddhist tantric meditation that together with the completion stage comprises the path of unexcelled tantra. The Guhyasamaja Tantra, referred to as the “king of all tantras,” is revered in Tibet, especially by the Geluk school, for its hermeneutic methods, which are in turn applied to other tantras. In the creation stage, meditators visualize themselves as buddhas at the center of the celestial mandala, surrounded in all directions by male and female bodhisattvas and enlightened beings. Since the core of the practice is visualization, this meditation—perhaps more than other meditations—presumes the creative power of the mind. Visualizations form the basis not only of the creation stage and deity yoga but of all tantric practices and rituals, since tantric practice takes place not in mundane existence but in the illusion-like purity of the enlightened view. While the previously published Essence of the Ocean of Attainments is a concise exposition on the practice of the Guhyasamaja sadhana, Ocean of Attainments is much more detailed, providing extensive scriptural citations, clear explanation of the body mandala, arguments on points of contention, reference to other tantric systems, and critiques of misinterpretations. Complemented by the extensive and clear introduction, this volume is a vital contribution to the growing body of scholarship on Guhyasamaja and on Buddhist tantra in general.

The Essence of the Ocean of Attainments
The Essence of the Ocean of Attainments

Author: Translated Bentor

Publisher:

Published: 2017-06

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781935011163

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The Essence of the Ocean of Attainments (dngos grub kyi rgya mtsho'i snying po) is a commentary on the creation stage of the Secret Union Tantra (Guhyasamaja Tantra) written by the illustrious First Panchen Lama, Blo bZang Chos Kyi rGyal mTshan (1570-1662). The practices of the Secret Union, one of the earliest higher Tantras, along with its remarkable hermeneutic system, were later applied to other Tantras as well. Still very much a living tradition, in our times the 14th Dalai Lama confers its empowerment almost every year. In this work, the Panchen Lama not only elucidates each step of the meditation in the sadhana sequence, but also offers general insights into the practice and its workings. Included is an introduction surveying the creation stage as presented by the founding fathers of the Geluk school and analyzing the contents of The Essence of the Ocean of Attainments. The translation features both explanatory annotations for the general reader and copious bibliographical endnotes for scholars. Published by American Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS)

Labrang Monastery
Labrang Monastery

Author: Paul Kocot Nietupski

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2012-07-10

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 0739164457

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The Labrang Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Amdo and its extended support community are one of the largest and most famous in Tibetan history. This crucially important and little-studied community is on the northeast corner of the Tibetan Plateau in modern Gansu Province, in close proximity to Chinese, Mongol, and Muslim communities. It is Tibetan but located in China; it was founded by Mongols, and associated with Muslims. Its wide-ranging Tibetan religious institutions are well established and serve as the foundations for the community's social and political infrastructures. The Labrang community's borderlands location, the prominence of its religious institutions, and the resilience and identity of its nomadic and semi-nomadic cultures were factors in the growth and survival of the monastery and its enormous estate. This book tells the story of the status and function of the Tibetan Buddhist religion in its fully developed monastic and public dimensions. It is an interdisciplinary project that examines the history of social and political conflict and compromise between the different local ethnic groups. The book presents new perspectives on Qing Dynasty and Republican-era Chinese politics, with far-reaching implications for contemporary China. It brings a new understanding of Sino-Tibetan-Mongol-Muslim histories and societies. This volume will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate student majors in Tibetan and Buddhist studies, in Chinese and Mongol studies, and to scholars of Asian social and political studies.

Tantric Revisionings
Tantric Revisionings

Author: Geoffrey Samuel

Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 9788120827523

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Relating to Tibetan Buddhism and Indian religion, this work is a collection of articles. These articles are linked by their subject matter, and they are also linked by a common approach to religion.

Remembering the Lotus-Born
Remembering the Lotus-Born

Author: Daniel Hirshberg

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-10-25

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1614292310

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Based on the author's thesis (doctoral--Harvard University, 2012) under title: Delivering the Lotus-Born: historiography in the Tibetan Renaissance.

A Monastery in Time
A Monastery in Time

Author: Caroline Humphrey

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2013-07-05

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 022603206X

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A Monastery in Time is the first book to describe the life of a Mongolian Buddhist monastery—the Mergen Monastery in Inner Mongolia—from inside its walls. From the Qing occupation of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through the Cultural Revolution, Caroline Humphrey and Hürelbaatar Ujeed tell a story of religious formation, suppression, and survival over a history that spans three centuries. Often overlooked in Buddhist studies, Mongolian Buddhism is an impressively self-sustaining tradition whose founding lama, the Third Mergen Gegen, transformed Tibetan Buddhism into an authentic counterpart using the Mongolian language. Drawing on fifteen years of fieldwork, Humphrey and Ujeed show how lamas have struggled to keep Mergen Gegen’s vision alive through tremendous political upheaval, and how such upheaval has inextricably fastened politics to religion for many of today’s practicing monks. Exploring the various ways Mongolian Buddhists have attempted to link the past, present, and future, Humphrey and Ujeed offer a compelling study of the interplay between the individual and the state, tradition and history.