The Crystal And The Way Of Light: Sutra, Tantra And Dzogchen PDF
Preview The Crystal And The Way Of Light: Sutra, Tantra And Dzogchen
The Crystal and the Way of Light Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen The Crystal and the Way of Light Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu compiled and edited by John Shane Contents Editor's Note to the Snow Lion Edition 9 The Six Vajra Verses 15 1. My Birth, Early Life, and Education; and How I Came to Meet My Principal Master 19 2. An Introductory Perspective: The Dzogchen Teachings and the Culture of Tibet 31 3. How My Master Changchub Dorje Showed Me the Real Meaning of Direct Introduction 35 4. Dzogchen in Relation to the Various Levels of the Buddhist Path 45 5. With My Two Uncles Who Were Dzogchen Masters 63 6. The Base 103 7. The Path 109 8. The Fruit 149 Appendix One 169 A. Garab Done's Three Principles of the Dzogchen Teaching 169 B. Key to the Groups of Three in the Dzogchen Teachings 170 C. Summary of the Three Methods 173 D. Principal Practices of the Three Series 176 Appendix Two: Biographical Sketch of the Author 181 Appendix Three: Commentary to the Plates 187 Notes 193 Other Publications by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu 203 The Dzogchen Community 206 Index 207 Illustrations Plates An eighteenth-century crystal polyhedron 20 Garab Dorje and Adzam Drugpa 75 Thangka showing Padmasambhava with his two principal consorts 76 Detail of the above thangka 77 Thangka detail showing Nubchen Sangye Yeshe 77 Thangka detail showing Yeshe Tsogyal entrusting terma to three dakinis and a Naga 78 Thangka detail showing Mandarava 79 Thangka detail showing one of Padmasambhava's principal female disciples (probably Kalasiddhi) 79 Thangka detail showing the translator Vairocana and his disciples 80 Thangka detail showing Palgi Yeshe 81 Thangka detail showing a Heruka appearing to Padmasambhava 81 Tibetan thangka showing the great Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-82) 82 Details from the murals in the Fifth Dalai Lama's secret temple, Zongdag Lukhang 83 A Tibetan monk putting the finishing touches to a statue of the Tibetan yogi poet Milarepa 86 Detail of a thangka showing Milarepa's principal disciple 86 His Holiness Tendzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama 87 Detail from the Thodgal mural in the Fifth Dalai Lama's secret temple 87 Chogyal Namkhai Norbu practicing 88 Line drawings The Six Vajra Verses 16 Tibetan letter A 18 Green Tara 22 Shenrab Miwo 39 Garab Dorje 42 Buddha Shakyamuni 46 Padmasambhava 54 Guru Tragpo 55 Simhamuka 57 The Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (1284-1339) 59 The Fifth Dalai Lama 61 A practitioner of the Chad, practicing in a charnel ground 64 Machig Labdron 66 The Tibetan syllables OM AH HUM 95 The Wheel of Existence 96 The Sanskrit syllables EVAM 121 Guru Amitayus 123 Vairochana, the great translator 126 The great Dzogchen master Jigmed Lingpa (1729-98) 135 The Guardian Ekajati 136 The Guardian Dorje Legba 137 The Guardian Mahakala 138 The Guardian Rahula 139 Changchub Dorje, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu's principal master 144 This book is dedicated to my master, Changchub Dorje, and to my uncles Ogyen Tendzin and Khyentse Chokyi Wangchug, and to the benefit of all sentient beings. -Namkhai Norbu Editor's Note to the Snow Lion Edition When, in 1980, I was first invited to work with Chogyal Namkhai Norbu to produce a book in English about Dzogchen, it was envisaged that the project would take about a year. But in the end the project took four years to complete, and The Crystal and the Way of Light was not, in fact, published until 1986. It is worth remembering, as Snow Lion Publications is preparing to release a new, revised and updated edition of The Crystal in the United States, that there were no books about Dzogchen available for the general Western reader at the time this book was first published. Furthermore, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu was practically the only Tibetan lama who was willing, at that time, to teach Westerners openly about Dzogchen. The extraordinary generosity of his attitude in relation to what was regarded in many circles as a reserved teaching was based on his great wisdom and clarity, as he clearly foresaw the enormous growth of interest in Tibetan Buddhism that would develop in the following years. He was fully aware that there was great hunger in the hearts of an increasing number of people for a teaching that they could practice in the midst of their busy lives in a world that seemed to be turning faster with every passing year, and he knew from his own experience that Dzogchen was a teaching ideally suited to their needs. As it turned out, Rinpoche's intuition of the way things would develop was extremely accurate, and the interest in authentic spiritual teachings that was growing so fast in the West lead to The Crystal immediately being a great success in publishing terms. This surprising success seems particularly impressive when, with the benefit of hindsight, one considers that Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism were relatively obscure subjects at that time, and that the Dzogchen teachings themselves-which are the subject of this book-were not at all well-known even among those already interested in Buddhism. Now, of course, as we approach the turn of the century and the beginning of a new millennium, Tibet is a fashionable cause, and there are many books available on every aspect of Tibetan Buddhism, including Dzogchen, which is no longer an obscure subject known only to a few Tibetologists. But the arrival of other books on the same subject seems not to have
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