Mahamudra and Related Instructions: Core Teachings of the Kagyu Schools

May 2011 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

The Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism began in the eleventh century with such renowned figures as Marpa and Milarepa, and its seminal meditative traditions are Mahamudra and the six Dharmas of Naropa. Mahamudra teachings focus on the cultivation of profound insight into the nature of the mind. The Mahamudra texts in this volume include a lucid work by the celebrated master Tsele Natsok Rangdrol and works by the twelfth-century master Shang Rinpoche, the great Third Karmapa, the Eighth Tai Situ, and Drukpa Pema Karpo. The volume also contains an inspirational work by Gampopa, the Drigung Kagyu root text, The Single Viewpoint, the Sixth Shamarpa's guide to the six Dharmas of Naropa, and finally an overview of tantric practice by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, author of the famous Moonlight of Mahamudra. The texts in this volume were selected by the preeminent scholar of the Kagyu school, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche.

About the author

Peter Alan Roberts was born in Wales and lives in Hollywood, California. He earned a BA in Sanskrit and Pali and a DPhil in Tibetan Studies from Oxford University (Harris-Manchester College). For more than thirty years he has been working as an interpreter for lamas and as a translator of Tibetan texts. He specializes in the literature of the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions with a focus on tantric practices, and he is the author of The Biographies of Rechungpa.