World-renowned Buddhist scholar Herbert V. Guenther here offers the first comprehensive study of the rDzogs-chen or Ati tradition of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Matrix of Mystery explores man's ability to preserve as well as transmit essential insights into the structure of reality. Utilizing a key root Buddhist scripture, the Guhyagarbha ("Matrix of Mystery"), along with dozens of commentarial Tibetan textual sources, Guenther presents the most profound teachings of the Buddhist tradition, which represent the culmination of religious thought and practice in Tibet. In relating these teachings in modern scientific and humanistic perspectives, he demonstrates how, in many cases, the traditional religious and modern secular perspectives on the nature of reality interface. Professor Guenther discusses the mandala and the deities that reside therein; the organizing principles of body, speech, mind, quality, and action, the three bodies of the buddha (trikaya); the inseparability of prajna and skillful means; and the complex field of Buddhist iconography. Throughout, quotations from numerous Tibetan sources are used to illustrate various teachings. His book will appeal to any serious student of Tibetan Buddhism.
This pioneering study sheds new light on the development of Buddhist ideas as introduced by the visionary Padmasambhava. It is based on primary source material and highlights the experiential aspects of process-oriented thinking.
Westerners wanting to know about tantra--particularly the Buddhist tantra of Tibet--have often had to work with speculation and fancy. Tibet has been shrouded in mystery; "tantra" has been called upon to name every kind of esoteric fantasy; Buddhism has been left vague or inaccessible. In The Dawn of Tantra the reader meets a Tibetan meditation master and a Western scholar whose grasp of Buddhist tantra is real and unquestionable. In their collaboration--based on a seminar given in Berkeley, California--Herbert V. Guenther and Chogyam Trungpa offer a balanced view of their subject which avoids the extremes of arid scholasticism and facile psychology. In the words of Trungpa Rinpoche, "Professor Guenther and I decided that the best way for us to approach the subject of tantra together is for him to deal with the prajna or knowledge aspect of it, and for me to deal with the upaya, the skillful means or actual application aspect of it." The resulting discussion is both true to the intent of the ancient Tibetan teachings and relevant to the everyday world of contemporary Westerners. Book jacket.
In the history of Tibetan Buddhism, the eleventh-century Indian mystic Nbropa occupies an unusual position, for his life and teachings mark both the end of a long tradition and the beginning of a new and rich era in Buddhist thought. Nbropa's biography, translated by the world-renowned Buddhist scholar Herbert V. Guenther from hitherto unknown sources, describes with great psychological insight the spiritual development of this scholar-saint. It is unique in that it also contains a detailed analysis of his teaching that has been authoritative for the whole of Tantric Buddhism. This modern translation is accompanied by a commentary that relates Buddhist concepts to Western analytic philosophy, psychiatry, and depth psychology, thereby illuminating the significance of Tantra and Tantrism for our own time. Yet above all, it is the story of an individual whose years of endless toil and perseverance on the Buddhist path will serve as an inspiration to anyone who aspires to spiritual practice.
This study explores the ideas of the enigmatic and controversial visionary, known as Padmasambhava. It takes as its starting point a unique and hitherto untouched source: Padmasambhava's writings preserved in the rNying-ma rgyud-'bum that remain excluded from the standard editions of the Tibetan Tanjur collections to this day. The first chapter explains Padmasambhava's holistic background that reflects an anthropocosmic worldview. The second chapter deals with the problem of how this anthropocosmic whole becomes enworlded as samsara and of how the enworlded experiencer disentangles himself from it and regains his original wholeness. The third chapter assesses Padmasambhava's psychological insights and their hermeneutical interpretations. In this study, Herbert Guenther discloses the mind of one of the greatest spiritual geniuses in human history, Padamasambhava — wanderer, mystic, and one of the original founders of Tibetan Buddhism. Here his teachings step out from obscurity to speak with a wonderful clarity. In them is found a surprisingly postmodern portrait of how process dynamics self-organize to construct and "light up" our worlds of experience.
This book deals in narrative form with the theme of recovering lost wholeness--with the perennial question of beginnings and what role a human being must play in order to find meaning in his or her life.
World-renowned Buddhist scholar Herbert V. Guenther here offers the first comprehensive study of the rDzogs-chen or Ati tradition of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Matrix of Mystery explores man's ability to preserve as well as transmit essential insights into the structure of reality. Utilizing a key root Buddhist scripture, the Guhyagarbha ("Matrix of Mystery"), along with dozens of commentarial Tibetan textual sources, Guenther presents the most profound teachings of the Buddhist tradition, which represent the culmination of religious thought and practice in Tibet. In relating these teachings in modern scientific and humanistic perspectives, he demonstrates how, in many cases, the traditional religious and modern secular perspectives on the nature of reality interface. Professor Guenther discusses the mandala and the deities that reside therein; the organizing principles of body, speech, mind, quality, and action, the three bodies of the buddha (trikaya); the inseparability of prajna and skillful means; and the complex field of Buddhist iconography. Throughout, quotations from numerous Tibetan sources are used to illustrate various teachings. His book will appeal to any serious student of Tibetan Buddhism.
Despite the interest in meditation, few works have studied what meditation means within the original traditions. Meditation Differently presents a translation of an important Tibetan work which contrasts and compares two central traditions of Buddhist meditative practice-the Mahamudra and the rDzogs-chen, particularly the sNying-thing version. This translation is supplemented by a detailed commentary based on original Tibetan sources by Dr. Guenther, an eminent scholar of Buddhism and modern thought. This critical commentary is a hermeneutical and phenomenological study of the key ideas in the understanding of being and experience, utilizing developments in modern thinking to bring out the nuances of Buddhist thinking.
The study of the Abhidharma is indispensable for understanding the history of Buddhist philosophy and practice. This book gives a synoptic view of the significance of the Abhidharma as presented by the Theravadins and brought to its climax by the Vaibhasikas and Yogacara-Vijnanavadins. It analyzes the concepts of Mind and its States concerning healthy and unhealthy attitudes towards life and deals with the psychological factors and problems in Meditation which is geared to an individual's capacity and temperament. Theories of perception, a predominant feature of Indian and Buddhist philosophies, are discussed together with the interpretation of the world based on these theories as well as their critiques. The discussion of the Path as conceived by the various schools concludes this survey of the Abhidharma. Of particular significance are the accompanying tables of the structure of mind in Buddhist philosophy.
Beginning with a brief account of Saraha's life from what little is known of it, the book surveys his major work, his trilogy of songs: the People, King and Queen Doha. The scarcity of indigenous Indian source material necessitates constant reference to the rich Tibetan tradition, in particular the nDzogs-chen/sNyingthig teaching.
Westerners wanting to know about tantra—particularly the Buddhist tantra of Tibet—often find only speculation and fancy. Tibet has been shrouded in mystery, and "tantra" has been called upon to name every kind of esoteric fantasy. In The Dawn of Tantra the reader meets a Tibetan meditation master and a Western scholar, each of whose grasp of Buddhist tantra is real and unquestionable. This collaboration is both true to the intent of the ancient Tibetan teachings and relevant to contemporary Western life.
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