CHRISTINA MONSON (1969–2023) was a Buddhist practitioner and teacher and Tibetan language translator and interpreter. She had over thirty years of study, translation, and practice experience in Buddhism beginning with an interest in Asian philosophy as an undergraduate student at Brown University. Later, she focused her studies on Tibetan Buddhism while completing a master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She journeyed to Nepal in 1989 where she met her root guru, Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche, under whose guidance she studied and practiced in periods of intensive retreat for the next twenty-seven years. Chatral Rinpoche first introduced her to the person and treasure lineage of Sera Khandro Dewai Dorje and conferred empowerment, reading transmission, and practice instructions. She spent the last several years of her life translating Sera Khandro’s sheldam (instructions) into English as a Tsadra Foundation translator and scholar, along with teaching and practicing the Dharma.
CHRISTINA MONSON (1969–2023) was a Buddhist practitioner and teacher and Tibetan language translator and interpreter. She had over thirty years of study, translation, and practice experience in Buddhism beginning with an interest in Asian philosophy as an undergraduate student at Brown University. Later, she focused her studies on Tibetan Buddhism while completing a master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She journeyed to Nepal in 1989 where she met her root guru, Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche, under whose guidance she studied and practiced in periods of intensive retreat for the next twenty-seven years. Chatral Rinpoche first introduced her to the person and treasure lineage of Sera Khandro Dewai Dorje and conferred empowerment, reading transmission, and practice instructions. She spent the last several years of her life translating Sera Khandro’s sheldam (instructions) into English as a Tsadra Foundation translator and scholar, along with teaching and practicing the Dharma.
Sera Khandro Dewai Dorje was a modern Tibetan Buddhist teacher who single-pointedly pursued a life of Dharma while balancing family life and public teaching. This collection of her advice, prayers, dreams, prophecies, and treasures (terma) is both biographical and instructional. It comes from within the tradition of Dzogchen, replete with practices for resting in the nature of mind. This lineage forms the bedrock of Christina Monson’s own spiritual path, lending a deep intimacy to the translations, which serve as a window into Sera Khandro’s life, teachings, and rich inner experience.
$26.95 - Paperback
Prayer Chapter 1, page 1-6
Sometimes the only thing to do is pray.
In the Buddhist tradition in general, to pray is to surrender to the infinite manifestative potency of interdependence: causes and conditions coming together such that anything and indeed everything is possible. In the Great Perfection tradition, prayer often carries a deeply devotional flavor, reflecting the special relationship between teacher and disciple at the core of its authentic transmission. Dewai Dorje’s unbounded devotion, love, and joy frequently burst forth through prayers. These sublime portals into her inner world reveal ways she worked with some of the most powerful emotions of her life and experienced their fullest transformative potential. Similarly, she grounded herself in times of bottomless pain, grief, and sorrow through expressions of heartfelt longing and aspiration. Her intimacy with the vast spectrum of human feeling shines through the numerous prayers she composed throughout her biographical writing and treasure revelations.
Chapter 1 welcomes us through prayer into Dewai Dorje’s sea of deep love as seen for and through the eyes and heart of her lama and consort, Drime Ozer. We are treated to a glimpse of their relationship through this first piece, “An Offering from the Vulture to the Cuckoo,” a poetic letter authored by Drime Ozer himself. While all other selected translations here were penned by Dewai Dorje, this unique prayer is a rare piece of his original writing. Little of the bulk of Drime Ozer’s treasure collection, unlike that of his father Dudjom Lingpa, appears to have survived the turmoil of post 1959 Tibet. However, some selections of his writing, ritual practice compositions, and profound instructions are included in Dewai Dorje’s Collected Works. A notable exception is his longest known existent work, an as-yet untranslated commentary on the meaning of his father’s seminal teaching Buddhahood without Meditation.
Drime Ozer’s letter to Dewai Dorje takes us into their multidimensional connection as he lauds her special qualities and prays for her longevity. Half prayer, half poem, the language overflows with reverence and love for her. The second half tells the tale of a white vulture and a cuckoo to intimate the connection between Drime Ozer and Dewai Dorje with metaphoric imagery. This unique love language, drawing from the natural world, is found elsewhere in Dewai Dorje’s writings. In the poem that directly follows this prayer, seemingly as a response to it, she tells the tale of a “blue lady cuckoo” who perfects Secret Mantra practice and concludes,
These secret words about secret conduct, inspired by the white vulture [Drime Ozer], naturally occurred from whatever arose.
She also refers to Drime Ozer as a “white vulture” in his biography.2 There she recounts a dream where Drime Ozer meets his father Dudjom Lingpa, who instructs him to unite with the magical emanation of Vajravarahi, Dakini Sukha Vajra (Dewai Dorje), to overcome negative circumstances in his life. Dudjom Linga predicts,
Hey, hey! When the luminescence of the eastern sky is welcomed by the roar of the southern turquoise dragon [Dewai Dorje] and the triple-skilled white [vulture] soars in space, if splendor and thunder come together, they are sure to make harmony as one.
The words of the cryptic prophecy continue but clearly refer to him and Dewai Dorje. As further evidence of their prophesized connection beyond the confines of time and space, Drime Ozer makes mention of her connection to his past lives. Some of these specificincarnations are also identified by Dewai Dorje in Drime Ozer’s biography where she lists, “At Yarlha Shampo, he was born as Pema Ledrel Tsal. At Dragdra Drogmoche, he was Longchen Dorje Ziji. At Tarpaling in Bumthang, Bhutan, he came as Pema Lingpa. At Yarlung, he was born as Urgyen Samten Lingpa.”
Such long-term connection stretching across lifetimes defies ordinary notions of relationship. It is a repeated theme between Dewai Dorje and Drime Ozer. The topic of Drime Ozer’s past incarnations comes up again in “The Ennobling Deeds of All Buddhas and Their Heirs.” There, his past lives as important treasure revealers are emphasized. The Nyingma tradition holds as a core tenet that the activities of realized beings include the revelation of treasures. Myriad in form and modality, treasures are encrypted wisdom teachings. The tradition identifies one hundred masters who are considered great treasure revealers, including five considered to be especially significant.3 Dewai Dorje’s list of Drime Ozer’s past lives name at least four with the treasure revealer name Lingpa: Pema Lingpa, Urgyen Samten Lingpa, Dodrul Lingpa, and Rok Dechen Lingpa.
Notable as well in the first prayer is the way Drime Ozer refers to Dewai Dorje using different names. He begins the homage by introducing the three kayas, dimensions of wisdom form. These are the dharmakaya, which is connected to mind’s empty essence, the sambhogakaya, which is connected to mind’s lucid and blissful nature, and the nirmanakaya, which is connected to mind’s compassionate capacity.4 Dakinis, wisdom manifesting through the feminine principle, are present in each dimension. In paying homage to Vajravarahi (Dorje Phagmo), Dewai Dorje’s principal tutelary deity, he is revering Dewai Dorje herself as a manifestation of mind’s empty and blissful unity. Her special connection with this deity is also further reflected in references to Khacho, the buddha field connected with Vajravarahi.
Dewai Dorje was a practitioner who had mastered the yogic teachings found in the inner tantric approach of anuyoga. These are powerful techniques for directly actualizing the potential of thebody’s subtle network of energy channels, winds, and vital essences to enable realization of primordial wisdom. Relying upon both one’s own and another’s body, the anuyoga practitioner induces experiences of bliss to swiftly catalyze and deepen recognition of mind’s nature. As restrictions to the movement of wisdom winds through the body are lifted, the practitioner’s capacity to encounter the entirety of perceptual experience as teacher and teaching and as phenomena of purity is enhanced. In this context, “wind-mind” is a designation used to refer to the mobile aspect of consciousness, refined and rendered pliable through these practices.
Indeed, Drime Ozer himself was a master who had fully perfected the techniques of anuyoga as well. As such, he was a fully qualified consort for Dewai Dorje, her “heruka of great bliss,” as she too was for him. Heruka is a Sanskrit term indicating a wrathful, “blood-drinking” deity. As a tantric couple, Drime Ozer and Dewai Dorje practiced divine union as a yab yum (masculine and feminine) couple, using visualization of the wrathful deities Hayagriva and Vajravarahi and other techniques. Their special relationship thus involved being destined tantric partners for each other, as well as having a mutually reciprocal guru-disciple bond. Dewai Dorje’s love and devotion for Drime Ozer as her lama, consort, and treasure-revealing partner are paramount themes throughout her writing.
She celebrates his realization in “The Accomplished Secret Mantra Yogi.” Likening him to the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra and the Second Buddha Padmasambhava, the great Indian adept who helped the Tibetan king Trisong Deutsen overcome obstacles to the propagation of the Buddhadharma in Tibet in the eighth century, she lauds his exalted level of realization. To see “the truth of ultimate reality,” as he did, is to directly encounter the empty yet luminous nature of mind precisely as it is, within the context of the Great Perfection. This approach—which emphasizes such an encounter and the subsequent training of familiarity with it until stability is achieved—is the only way to untangle the web of dualistic thinking and its mistaken understanding of reality. It’s theonly place where freedom from the confines of conceptual mind is found. This is what enabled Drime Ozer to “dance” with “wisdom’s illusions”: to be in the world of relative appearances but not be enslaved by them. This, of course, is made possible through realizing nothing that appears truly exists. Rather, according to Dzogchen, phenomenal existence is none other than a manifestation of the ground from which it arises: luminous, empty awareness. For Dewai Dorje, Drime Ozer’s realization of this fundamental truth made him a buddha, transcending even the limitation of necessarily appearing in a body made of flesh and blood.
“Prayer of a Crazy, Carefree Lady” uncovers more subtle qualities of his meditative presence, while “The Ennobling Deeds of All Buddhas and Their Heirs” unfolds Dewai Dorje’s utter disbelief and joy at having him in her life, as well as her despair at not being with him. This prayer is dated to the Tibetan year of the Dog. This may refer to 1911, according to the Western calendar, a time of intense turmoil for Dewai Dorje as she struggled to find her way without family or support as an outsider in the communities of eastern Tibet, where she had newly arrived.
The remaining prayers in the chapter unfold other dimensions of Dewai Dorje’s life in early nineteenth-century Golok. “I Supplicate Pema Totreng Tsal” laments the hypocrisies of fake treasure revealers. Dewai Dorje lived within a world of Dharma communities shaped by beliefs about the continuity of spiritual teachings from Guru Padmasambhava and his Tibetan consort Yeshe Tsogyal in eighth-century Tibet up to her own time and place in early twentieth-century eastern Tibet. These treasures were hidden in the physical world as well as in the intangible domain of the minds of those who were destined to discover them, the treasure revealers. The various mechanisms of their revelation and dissemination made sacred the landscape of Dewai Dorje’s life.
Even so, against such a highly sacrosanct backdrop, deceit existed. The degeneration of pure Dharma teachings and traditions for its followers is one sign of what made that time “dark” for Dewai Dorje. While Buddhist cosmology stemming fromIndian sources labels the current age one of dissolution when all things decline, Dewai Dorje identifies in this prayer specific negative characteristics of treasure revealers proximate to her in time and space. To ensure she remains free from such bad behavior, she concludes with an aspiration for the circumstances of her authentic Great Perfection practice to prevail.
Remaining selections include a refined overview of the view, meditation, and conduct of Dzogchen according to her personal experience and practice as well as a synthesized version of some of the most important moments of her life. Much of Dewai Dorje’s writing teaches through the way it reflects her own realization. Prayers blend with delicate expressions of insight and wisdom such as the final prayer to Yeshe Tsogyal. This, a supplication to Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal, presents the progressive unfolding of the visions of pure appearances induced through the Dzogchen practice of Togal. Dewai Dorje’s familiarity with the visions of Togal speaks to her stable recognition of awareness, as these appearances of purity both depend upon and enhance a practitioner’s authentic experience of it.
Sera Khandro (1892–1940) was one of the most prolific Tibetan female authors of the past several centuries. At the age of fifteen, she left her home in Lhasa for eastern Tibet, embarking on a lifetime devoted to her spiritual path—she became a spiritual master, a revealer of ancient hidden teachings, a mystic, a visionary, a writer, a mother, and a vagabond. Her written works and spiritual lineage have been preserved and are now cherished worldwide.
Christina Monson (1969–2023) was a Buddhist practitioner and teacher and Tibetan language translator and interpreter. She had over thirty years of study, translation, and practice experience in Buddhism beginning with an interest in Asian philosophy as an undergraduate student at Brown University. Later, she focused her studies on Tibetan Buddhism while completing a master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She journeyed to Nepal in 1989 where she met her root guru, Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche, under whose guidance she studied and practiced in periods of intensive retreat for the next twenty-seven years. Chatral Rinpoche first introduced her to the person and treasure lineage of Sera Khandro Dewai Dorje and conferred empowerment, reading transmission, and practice instructions. She spent the last several years of her life translating Sera Khandro’s sheldam (instructions) into English as a Tsadra Foundation translator and scholar, along with teaching and practicing the Dharma.
Sera Khandro Dewai Dorje was a modern Tibetan Buddhist teacher who single-pointedly pursued a life of Dharma while balancing family life and public teaching. This collection of her advice, prayers, dreams, prophecies, and treasures (terma) is both biographical and instructional. It comes from within the tradition of Dzogchen, replete with practices for resting in the nature of mind. This lineage forms the bedrock of Christina Monson’s own spiritual path, lending a deep intimacy to the translations, which serve as a window into Sera Khandro’s life, teachings, and rich inner experience.
$26.95 - Paperback
Heart Advice Chapter 8, page 341-350
For Buddhist practitioners, death is an extraordinary opportunity. For it is that moment, when consciousness separates from the confines of physical form, that luminosity dawns and blazes as never before. Those who can seize the moment, by recognizing what is, are liberated on the spot. For others, subsequent events present further portals for recognition as the phenomena of the bardo unfold. Given the potency of the death experience for awakening, the Tibetan tradition as a whole, and especially the Dzogchen tradition, offer a plethora of skillful supports for the dying.
It is a natural inclination for those sensing into their own deaths, whether imminent or not, to want to say what is most important before the opportunity to do so is gone. To fully internalize the truth of death leads to speaking the truth, however and whatever that may entail for an individual. In this context, the tradition of final testaments (zhal chems), teachings and advice offered as the most essential by masters to disciples, enriches Tibetan Buddhism as a whole and especially the world of shaldam. Dewai Dorje’s writings contain several such selections, two of which conclude this final chapter.
“Heart Advice, A Final Testament,” written for Drime Ozer, covers with deeply felt earnestness crucial instructions on practicing most aspects of the path. Combining spiritual and practical advice, Dewai Dorje holds nothing back in telling her beloved exactly what she thinks he should and shouldn’t do. The intimacy between them is revealed in the moving and genuine pronouncements of what she sees would be dangerous for him. This degree of comfort and familiarity speaks to a relationship between heart Dharma friends, stripped of the formalities that otherwise could color communication between individuals of differing status within the tradition. Dewai Dorje taught Drime Ozer as an equal in a relationship of loving mutuality.
The final piece, “A Beggar Lady’s Final Testament,” combines the highest Dzogchen instructions with foundational Dharma advice. Written for monastics, it synthesizes Dewai Dorje’s indispensable counsel. For those who need something concise and easy to implement, this can be taken everywhere. It is as relevant for Dharma practitioners today as it was for her community one hundred years ago.
While neither of these final testaments is dated, Dewai Dorje might have written them at any time over her decades of life in eastern Tibet. From its language, the first likely was written before the passing of Drime Ozer in 1924. It’s not unusual for teachings labeled as final testaments to be composed well before a master’s actual passing. Genuine practitioners are steeped with the truth of impermanence and know that death can arrive at any moment. The urgency therefore to say what is most crucial is always upon them. What would be possible if such were the case for all of us?
Heart Advice, A Final Testament
How wondrous! Superb Heir of All Victorious Buddhas, gone before, present now, and still to come, Secret Consort throughout All Lifetimes, Great Hero—please, hear me.
I have little freedom, since my past accumulation of merit and wisdom was weak. I have fallen under the control of others, and as I am forced to wander in faraway places, my despair never lifts.
I have no desire to leave you, dearest partner, equal to my heart, eyes, and very life. But when negativity forces us apart for a little bit, please, listen to this heart advice, a final testament of what I am thinking.
Transmitting the mani mantra to the Great Compassionate One, or teaching sentient beings in the presence of Buddha— this is not what I am doing. Since our hearts are harmoniously intertwined and we have great love and pure samaya between us, I am just telling you what I think, without hiding or changing anything.
Visualize your father and lama, the actual buddha of triple time, Dudjom Dorje Drolo Tsal [Dudjom Lingpa] constantly upon your crown. Since he’s unrivaled among hundreds of lamas, you don’t need to rely on others, as there is the danger of breaking samaya.
Yidam deities, empty in their appearing, arise as the lama and are perfected as an expanse of self-arisen supports and supported manifestations. You don’t need development practice that fixates on these appearances. This brings the danger of falling into perpetual reification.
Mantra’s speech is the language of the unborn, emptiness. Breathing in and out is the wheel of mantra. You don’t need to count mantra recitation conceptually. You risk breaking its continuity with pointless chatter.
Self-arisen mind, beyond causes and conditions, is spontaneously present as an exalted state of primordial perfection. You don’t need to use antidotes of accepting and rejecting. These carry the danger of obscuring the twofold radiance of wisdom.
Present in and of itself and uncompounded, the dynamic energy of space and awareness appears as kayas and orbs of five-colored light. This is the actualization of the natural radiance of the four visions and six lamps. You don’t need to rely upon mere relative interdependencies. These bring the danger of temporary visual experiences of light rays.
In the illusory displays of dakinis, mind’s magical manifestations, connate primordial wisdom arises as the dakinis’ creative power. You don’t need to hold these as separate and distinct. Doing so risks inviting unwanted punishment.
The miraculous display of the haughty protectors’ wrath steals the life force of any enemy that is visualized. Killing for meat and beating drums is pointless. Misunderstanding the messengers risks harming yourself.
Wrathful, supreme method, the body of the vajra king penetrates the bhaga of the queen of unchanging space. You don’t need beautiful human seductresses. They bring the danger of losing the potency of your channels, winds, and vital essences.
Supreme accomplishment is evidenced by the power to reveal profound treasures, which are to be held as precious as life itself without any disrespect. You don’t need to compose teachings using the conventional language of intellectuals. Doing so risks profound teachings falling into the hands of transgressors.
Upon the face of the clear mirror of self-arisen phenomenal existence, the symbolic writing of the mother-dakinis appears in images. Practice these, the dakinis’ oral instructions, precisely as they should be. You don’t need to seek divination about the chaotic appearances of delusion. That brings the danger of being deceived by evil spirits.
Through powerful and persistent prayers, genuine Dharma holders, endowed with spiritual wealth yet humble in appearance, will come to your door. View them wisely, protect them, and give them ripening and liberating instructions. You don’t need to live according to others’ ethics. Doing so puts you in danger of wrong intentions, obstacles, and negative circumstances.
The spread and supervision of profound Dharma teachings are controlled by the dakinis of ultimate reality. You don’t need to cater to the wishes of ordinary humans. That carries the danger of mistaking the timing of Dharma teachings.
When the father’s riches are mined by the son, empty awareness, the best wisdom-dakini partner, is taken as the siddhi beyond method and wisdom. You don’t need human ladies as consorts. This risks entanglement with one who isn’t your destined partner.
The sole heart son Natsok Rangdrol will rely on only you as refuge, now and in the future. Protect him lovingly, and kindly give him the profound teachings. You don’t need to go to Gangri Tokar.4 There’s the danger of getting sick and dying.
When you instruct students in both worldly and spiritual matters, some cannot be tamed by gentleness and need wrath, and some cannot be tamed by wrath and need gentleness. Care for all beings with fearless conduct. You don’t need to hope, fear, or pretend anything. Pandering to others risks giving them control of your mind.
For transgressors untamed by either wrath or gentleness, incite the powerful display of the haughty protectors as opponents who will wipe them out until nothing, not even their names, remain. You don’t need to talk idly with transgressors. Doing so risks getting lost in their wildness.
Food taken and clothing worn are the wheel of the two accumulations, enjoyments to be invested as ornaments. Don yourself with nice clothing and enjoy special foods! You don’t need to eat and dress like a beggar. Doing so risks offending the wisdom deities in your body’s mandala.
When enacting great deeds for the teachings of the Buddha and beings, if you stay in retreat, you will accomplish benefit for self and other. You don’t need to run around on horseback doing village rituals. Doing so risks being affected by obscurations of ripened karma.
Trust only yourself. You don’t need the competition and conflict of friends and enemies. Sweet talkers with hearts of black smoke bring the danger of losing your freedom to others.
Without feeling discouraged by all these faults, focus on serving the Buddha’s teachings and sentient beings. The word death is just a bubble. Your own perception will dawn as a buddha field, present in and of itself.
Sera Khandro (1892–1940) was one of the most prolific Tibetan female authors of the past several centuries. At the age of fifteen, she left her home in Lhasa for eastern Tibet, embarking on a lifetime devoted to her spiritual path—she became a spiritual master, a revealer of ancient hidden teachings, a mystic, a visionary, a writer, a mother, and a vagabond. Her written works and spiritual lineage have been preserved and are now cherished worldwide.
Christina Monson (1969–2023) was a Buddhist practitioner and teacher and Tibetan language translator and interpreter. She had over thirty years of study, translation, and practice experience in Buddhism beginning with an interest in Asian philosophy as an undergraduate student at Brown University. Later, she focused her studies on Tibetan Buddhism while completing a master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She journeyed to Nepal in 1989 where she met her root guru, Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche, under whose guidance she studied and practiced in periods of intensive retreat for the next twenty-seven years. Chatral Rinpoche first introduced her to the person and treasure lineage of Sera Khandro Dewai Dorje and conferred empowerment, reading transmission, and practice instructions. She spent the last several years of her life translating Sera Khandro’s sheldam (instructions) into English as a Tsadra Foundation translator and scholar, along with teaching and practicing the Dharma.
Throughout history women have played a vital role in the preservation and presentation of Buddhism. The Buddha himself expressed deep respect for his mother and as several contemporary Buddhist scholars have pointed out, women have played a significant role in helping to shape and preserve Buddhism. That is certainly true for Buddhism in today's world.
Today, contemporary Buddhism is largely shaped by a number of women who play vital roles from translation to teaching, to holding highly influential seats in Buddhist sanghas around the world. We are happy to publish a wide range of Buddhist authors from diverse traditions. This guide is certainly not complete in the sense of presenting each and every example of women in Buddhism today, but hopefully it will give readers a place to begin learning from and celebrating the many women who make Buddhism possible today.
The lives and writings of six leading Black Buddhist women—Jan Willis, bell hooks, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, angel Kyodo williams, Spring Washam, and Faith Adiele—reveal new expressions of Buddhism rooted in ancestry, love, and collective liberation.
Lifting as They Climb is a love letter of freedom and self-expression from six Black women Buddhist teachers, conveyed through the voice of author Toni Pressley-Sanon, one of the innumerable people who have benefitted from their wisdom. She explores their remarkable lives and undertakes deep readings of their work, weaving them into the broader tapestry of the African diaspora and the historical struggle for Black liberation.
Dr. Toni Pressley-Sanonis an associate professor in the Department of Africology & African American Studies at Eastern Michigan University, having previously held positions at the University of Buffalo and Pennsylvania State University. Her work dwells on the intersections of memory, history, and culture in both Africa and the African diaspora. She is the author of four books and numerous journal articles and book chapters on these subjects. Toni has practiced Buddhist meditation and mindfulness for the past ten years.
Available 05/21/2024
$26.95 - Paperback
A Dakini's Counsel Sera Khandro's Spiritual Advice and Dzogchen Instructions
Sera Khandro Dewai Dorje was a modern Tibetan Buddhist teacher who single-pointedly pursued a life of Dharma while balancing family life and public teaching. This collection of her advice, prayers, dreams, prophecies, and treasures (terma) is both biographical and instructional. It comes from within the tradition of Dzogchen, replete with practices for resting in the nature of mind. This lineage forms the bedrock of Christina Monson’s own spiritual path, lending a deep intimacy to the translations, which serve as a window into Sera Khandro’s life, teachings, and rich inner experience.
Sera Khandro (1892–1940) was one of the most prolific Tibetan female authors of the past several centuries. At the age of fifteen, she left her home in Lhasa for eastern Tibet, embarking on a lifetime devoted to her spiritual path—she became a spiritual master, a revealer of ancient hidden teachings, a mystic, a visionary, a writer, a mother, and a vagabond. Her written works and spiritual lineage have been preserved and are now cherished worldwide.
Christina Monson (1969–2023) was a Buddhist practitioner and teacher and Tibetan language translator and interpreter. She had over thirty years of study, translation, and practice experience in Buddhism beginning with an interest in Asian philosophy as an undergraduate student at Brown University.
$22.95 - Paperback
Embodying Tara Twenty-One Manifestations to Awaken Your Innate Wisdom
Tara, the Buddhist goddess of compassion, can manifest within all of us. In this illustrated introduction to Tara's twenty-one forms, respected female Buddhist teacher and practitioner Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton shows you how to invite Tara’s awakened energy to come alive in yourself through:
insight into core Buddhist concepts and teachings;
meditations;
mantra recitations; and
journal exercises.
The relatable stories from Buddhist history and the author’s personal reflections will give you the tools to live a more compassionate life, befriend your fears, and overcome everyday challenges.
Chandra Easton is a Dharma teacher, author, and translator of Tibetan Buddhist texts. She has taught Buddhism and Hatha Yoga since 2001. In 2015, she was given the title of Vajra Teacher, Dorje Lopön, for Tara Mandala Retreat Center by Lama Tsultrim Allione and H. E. Gochen Sang Ngag Rinpoche. Lopön Chandra studied Buddhism and Tibetan language in Dharamsala, India, and at UCSB’s religious studies department. During her studies, she cotranslated with her mentor, B. Alan Wallace, Sublime Dharma: A Compilation of Two Texts on the Great Perfection (Vimala Publishing, 2012).
$21.95 - Paperback
The Buddhist and the Ethicist Conversations on Effective Altruism, Engaged Buddhism, and How to Build a Better World
An unlikely duo—Professor Peter Singer, a preeminent philosopher and professor of bioethics, and Venerable Shih Chao-Hwei, a Taiwanese Buddhist monastic and social activist—join forces to talk ethics in lively conversations that cross oceans, overcome language barriers, and bridge philosophies. The eye-opening dialogues collected here share unique perspectives on contemporary issues like animal welfare, gender equality, the death penalty, and more. Together, these two deep thinkers explore the foundation of ethics and key Buddhist concepts, and ultimately reveal how we can all move toward making the world a better place.
Shih Chao-Hwei is a Buddhist monastic, social activist, scholar, and recent winner of the Niwano Peace Prize. A leading advocate for animal rights, a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage, and a key figure in the Buddhist gender equality movement, she is also a professor at Hsuan Chuang University and the founder of Hong Shih Buddhist College.
Peter Singer, the “father of the modern animal welfare movement,” was named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine. An Australian philosopher and professor of bioethics, he has contributed to more than 50 books in over 30 languages. Singer is founder of The Life You Can Save nonprofit and a professor of bioethics at Princeton University.
This is the second of two volumes that present teachings and practices from the Shangpa Kagyu practice lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. This tradition derives from two Indian yoginīs, the dākinīs Niguma and Sukhasiddhi, and their disciple, the eleventh-century Tibetan yogi Khyungpo Naljor Tsultrim Gönpo of the Shang region of Tibet. There are forty texts in this volume, beginning with Jonang Tāranātha’s classic commentary and its supplement expounding the Six Dharmas of Niguma. It includes the definitive collection of the tantric bases of the Shangpa Kagyu—the five principal deities of the new translation (sarma) traditions and the Five-Deity Cakrasamvara practice. The source scriptures, liturgies, supplications, empowerment texts, instructions, and practice manuals were composed by Tangtong Gyalpo, Tāranātha, Jamgön Kongtrul, and others.
The first part of this series is also available now.
Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye (1813–1900) was a versatile and prolific scholar and one of the most outstanding writers and teachers of his time in Tibet. He was a pivotal figure in eastern Tibet’s nonsectarian movement and made major contributions to education, politics, and medicine.
Sarah Harding has been a Buddhist practitioner since 1974 and has been teaching and translating since completing a three year retreat in 1980 under the guidance of Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche. Her publications include Zhije and Chöd, respectively the thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of The Treasury of Precious Instructions series. She was an associate professor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, starting in 1992, and has been a fellow of the Tsadra Foundation since 2000.
Mahaprajapati was the only mother the Buddha ever knew. His birth mother, Maya, died shortly after childbirth, and her sister Mahaprajapati took the infant to her breast, nurturing and raising him into adulthood. In this first full biography of Mahaprajapati, Wendy Garling presents her life story, with attention to her early years as sister, queen, matriarch, and mother, as well as her later years as a nun. Garling reveals just how exceptional Mahaprajapati’s role was as leader of the first generation of Buddhist women, helping the Buddha establish an equal community of lay and monastic women and men. Mother to the Buddha, mother to early Buddhist women, mother to the Buddhist faith, Mahaprajapati’s journey is finally presented as one interwoven with the founding of Buddhism.
$18.95 - Paperback
Wendy Garlingis a writer, mother, gardener, independent scholar, and authorized dharma teacher with a BA from Wellesley College and MA in Sanskrit language and literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha’s Life (2016, Shambhala Publications), a groundbreaking new biography of the Buddha that relates his journey to awakening through the stories of Buddhism’s first women.
Illumination A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No-Method
A modern guide to the transformative practice of silent illumination from Chan Buddhist teacher Rebecca Li.
Silent illumination, a way of penetrating the mind through curious inquiry, is an especially potent, accessible, and portable meditation practice perfectly suited for a time when there is so much fear, upheaval, and sorrow in our world. It is a method of reconnecting with our true nature, which encompasses all that exists and where suffering cannot touch us.
$21.95 - Paperback
Rebecca Li, PhD, is a meditation and Dharma teacher in the lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen and founder and guiding teacher of Chan Dharma Community. She gives Dharma talks and leads Chan retreats in North America and Europe. She is also a sociology professor and lives with her husband in New Jersey. Her talks, writings, and schedule can be found at rebeccali.org.
The fifteenth-century Himalayan saint Drukpa Kunley is a beloved figure throughout Tibet, Bhutan, and Nepal, known both for his profound mastery of Buddhist practice as well as his highly unconventional and often humorous behavior. Ever the proverbial trickster and “crazy wisdom” yogi, his outward appearance and conduct of carousing, philandering, and breaking social norms is understood to be a means to rouse ordinary people out of habitual ways of thinking that leads them toward spiritual awakening.
Elizabeth Monson has spent decades traveling throughout the Himalayas, retracing Drukpa Kunley’s steps and translating his works. In this creative telling, she has reimagined his life based on historical accounts, autobiographical sketches, folktales, and first-hand ethnographic research. The result, with flourishes of magical encounters and references to his superhuman capacities, is a poignant narrative of Kunley’s life, revealing to the reader the quintessential example of the capacity of Buddhism to skillfully bring people to liberation.
$19.95 - Paperback
ElizabethMonson, PhD, is the spiritual codirector of Natural Dharma Fellowship and the managing teacher at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge. She is a Dharma teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, has lectured at the Harvard Divinity School, and teaches meditation throughout New England.
Living Theravada Demystifying the People, Places, and Practices of a Buddhist Tradition
An illuminating introduction to the contemporary world of Theravada Buddhism and its rich culture and practices in modern mainland Southeast Asia.
Theravada translates as “the way of the Elders,” indicating that this Buddhist tradition considers itself to be the most authoritative and pure. Tracing all the way back to the time of the Buddha, Theravada Buddhism is distinguished by canonical literature preserved in the Pali language, beliefs, and practices—and this literature is often specialized and academic in tone. By contrast, this book will serve as a foundational and accessible resource on Theravada Buddhism and the contemporary, lived world of its enduring tradition.
$24.95 - Paperback
Brooke Schedneck, PhD, is an assistant professor in the department of religious studies at Rhodes College. Her work focuses on contemporary Buddhism in Thailand, and she spent years teaching and conducting research in Chiang Mai. She has presented her research internationally, and her work has been featured in academic journals and publications such as Tricycle, Aeon, and The Conversation.
An inspiring and intimate tale set against the turmoil of recent Tibetan history, Inseparable across Lifetimes offers for the first time the translations of love letters between two modern Buddhist visionaries. The letters are poetic, affectionate, and prophetic, articulating a hopeful vision of renewal that drew on their past lives together and led to their twenty-year partnership. This couple played a significant role in restoring Buddhism in the region of Golok once China’s revolutionary fervor gave way to reform. Holly Gayley, who was given their correspondence by Namtrul Rinpoche himself, has translated their lives and letters in order to share their remarkable story with the world.
$24.95 - Paperback
Holly Gayley, Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies, is a scholar and translator of contemporary Buddhist literature in Tibet. She is author of Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet, co-editor of A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from the Rime Masters of Tibet, and translator of Inseparable Across Lifetimes: The Lives and Love Letters of Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo.
Black and Buddhist What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom
Leading African American Buddhist teachers offer lessons on racism, resilience, spiritual freedom, and the possibility of a truly representative American Buddhism.
What does it mean to be Black and Buddhist? In this powerful collection of writings, African American teachers from all the major Buddhist traditions tell their stories of how race and Buddhist practice have intersected in their lives. The resulting explorations display not only the promise of Buddhist teachings to empower those facing racial discrimination but also the way that Black Buddhist voices are enriching the Dharma for all practitioners. As the first anthology comprised solely of writings by African-descended Buddhist practitioners, this book is an important contribution to the development of the Dharma in the West.
With contributions by Acharya Gaylon Ferguson, Cheryl A. Giles, Gyōzan Royce Andrew Johnson, Ruth King, Kamilah Majied, Lama Rod Owens, Lama Dawa Tarchin Phillips, Sebene Selassie, and Pamela Ayo Yetunde.
$19.95 - Paperback
Cheryl A. Giles, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Francis Greenwood Peabody Senior Lecturer on Pastoral Care and Counseling at the Harvard Divinity School. Giles is the author of several articles and co-editor of The Arts of Contemplative Care (Wisdom, 2012).
Pamela Ayo Yetunde, J.D., Th.D. is a Community Dharma Leader in the Insight Meditation tradition. She teaches pastoral care and counseling and has taught at University of the West, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, and Upaya Institute and Zen Center. Ayo has written for Buddhadharma, Lion’s Roar, Religions, and Buddhist-Christian Studies. She is the author of Object Relations, Buddhism and Relationality in Womanist Practical Theology and Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, U.S. Law, and Womanist Theology for Transgender Spiritual Care.
Tara is one of the most celebrated goddesses in the Buddhist world, representing enlightened activity in the form of the divine feminine. She protects, nurtures, and helps practitioners on the path to enlightenment. Manifesting in many forms and in many colors to help beings, Tara’s red form represents her powers of magnetization, subjugation, and the transformation of desire into enlightened activity. She is considered to be particularly powerful in times of plague and disharmony.
This comprehensive overview focuses on the origins, forms, and practices of Tara, providing the reader with insightful information and inspirations relating to the goddess. Its second part focuses on Red Tara, a powerful and liberating form of Tara that is particularly important to connect with in a time of crisis. These chapters cover various forms of Red Tara found throughout the Tibetan Buddhist world, the particular qualities she represents, and how through prayers and meditation we can embody her principles and truly benefit beings.
$29.95 - Paperback
Rachael Stevensholds a doctorate from Oxford University, is an early education teacher, and is a long-term Buddhist practitioner. Rachael’s research focuses on Red Tara, and she has studied and practiced with Buddhist communities in Europe, Asia, North America, and Brazil.
The primary emblem of the feminine in Tibetan Buddhism is the dakini, or "sky-dancer," a semi-wrathful spirit-woman who manifests in visions, dreams, and meditation experiences. Western scholars and interpreters of the dakini, influenced by Jungian psychology and feminist goddess theology, have shaped a contemporary critique of Tibetan Buddhism in which the dakini is seen as a psychological "shadow," a feminine savior, or an objectified product of patriarchal fantasy. According to Judith Simmer-Brown—who writes from the point of view of an experienced practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism—such interpretations are inadequate.
$39.95 - Paperback
Judith Simmer-Brown, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the religious studies department at Naropa University (formerly the Naropa Institute), where she has taught since 1978. She has authored numerous articles on Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist-Christian dialogue, and Buddhism in America. She is an Acharya (senior teacher) in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa. A practicing Buddhist since 1971, she lives in Boulder, Colorado.
The Dīghanikāya or Long Discourses of the Buddha is one of the four major collections of teachings from the early period of Buddhism. Its thirty-four suttas (in Sanskrit, sutras) demonstrate remarkable breadth in both content and style, forming a comprehensive collection. The Art of Listening gives an introduction to the Dīghanikāya and demonstrates the historical, cultural, and spiritual insights that emerge when we view the Buddhist suttas as oral literature.
Each sutta of the Dīghanikāya is a paced, rhythmic composition that evolved and passed intergenerationally through chanting. For hundreds of years, these timeless teachings were never written down. Examining twelve suttas of the Dīghanikāya, scholar Sarah Shaw combines a literary approach and a personal one, based on her experiences carefully studying, hearing, and chanting the texts. At once sophisticated and companionable, The Art of Listening will introduce you to the diversity and beauty of the early Buddhist suttas.
$18.95 - Paperback
Sarah Shaw is a faculty member and lecturer at the University of Oxford. She has published numerous works on the history and practices of Buddhism, including Mindfulness and The Art of Listening.
Women in Tibetan Buddhism
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmowas raised in London and became a Buddhist while still in her teens. At the age of twenty she traveled to India, becoming one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Buddhist nun. The international bestseller Cave in the Snow chronicles her twelve years of seclusion in a remote cave. Deeply concerned with the plight of Buddhist nuns, she established Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in India. In 2008 His Holiness the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa, head of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage, gave her the rare title of Jetsunma (Venerable Master).
$21.95 - Paperback
Khandro Rinpoche - Born in India in 1967, Khandro Rinpoche is the daughter of Tibetan meditation master His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen and is herself a renowned teacher in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. She is the head of a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in India and divides her time between teaching in the West, running the nunnery, and supporting charity projects for Tibetan refugees in India.
$22.95 - Paperback
Pema Chödron served as the director of Karma Dzong in Boulder, Colorado, until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche gave her explicit instructions on establishing this monastery for Western monks and nuns. She currently teaches in the United States and Canada and plans for an increased amount of time in solitary retreat under the guidance of Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. She is interested in helping to establish Tibetan Buddhist monasticism in the West, as well as continuing her work with Western Buddhists of all traditions, sharing ideas and teachings.
$24.95 - Hardcover
Thubten Chodron - Ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun in 1977, Venerable Thubten Chodron is an author, teacher, and the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey. Sravasti Abbey is the only Tibetan Buddhist training monastery for Westerners in the US and holds gender equality, social engagement, and care for the environment amongst its core values. Ven. Chodron teaches worldwide and is known for her practical (and humorous!) explanations of how to apply Buddhist teachings in daily life.
$19.95 - Paperback
Lama Tsultrim Allione is an author, internationally known Buddhist teacher, and the founder and resident lama of Tara Mandala Retreat Center. She is the author of Women of Wisdom, the national best-seller Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict, which has been translated into seventeen languages, and Wisdom Rising: Journey into the Mandala of the Empowered Feminine.
$29.95 - Paperback
Elizabeth Mattis Namgyelhas studied and practiced Mahayana Buddhism, as well as the Vajrayana tradition of the Longchen Nyingthik, for over 30 years under the guidance of her teacher and husband, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. She has been intimately involved with Rinpoche’s work in bringing Buddhist wisdom to the West, in particular the development of Mangala Shri Bhuti, an organization dedicated to the study and practice of the Longchen Nyingthik lineage.
$16.95 - Paperback
Anne Carolyn Klein is Professor and a former Chair of the Department of Religion at Rice University. She is also a cofounding director of the Dawn Mountain Tibetan Temple, Community Center, and Research Institute. Her publications include Path to the Middle (SUNY Press), Unbounded Wholeness, coauthored with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (Oxford University Press), and Knowledge and Liberation (Snow Lion Publications).
$29.95 - Paperback
Sangye Khandro is an American woman who studied Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan language with Tibetan masters in India and Nepal. She has studied and translated many important Tibetan Buddhist texts. She is a cofounder of Light of Berotsana, a nonprofit organization for translators of Tibetan texts.
Carolyn Rose Gimian is a teacher of meditation, mindfulness, and Buddhism, as well as a writer, book editor, and archivist. She edited Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior in close cooperation with Chögyam Trungpa. After his death, she compiled and edited two additional books of his Shambhala teachings: Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala and Smile at Fear: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery. She is also the editor of the ten-volume Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa, Mindfulness in Action, and many other volumes of his work.
"By being keen observers of our planet, we are more connected to the world around us and in a better position to prevent harm and improve the health of the earth." —Stephanie Kaza, Mindfully Green
Joanna Macy, PhD, teacher and author, is a scholar of Buddhism, systems thinking, and deep ecology. As the root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, Macy has created a groundbreaking framework for personal and social change that brings a new way of seeing the world as our larger body. Her many books include World as Lover, World as Self; Widening Circles, A Memoir; Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy; and Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects.
$27.95 - Paperback
Stephanie Kaza is Professor Emerita of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont. A leading voice in Buddhism and ecology, her most recent book is Green Buddhism: Practice and Compassionate Action in Uncertain Times.
$18.95 - Paperback
Joan Halifax, PhD, is a Zen priest and anthropologist who has served on the faculty of Columbia University and the University of Miami School of Medicine. For the past thirty years she has worked with dying people and has lectured on the subject of death and dying at Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, and many other academic institutions. In 1990, she founded Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist study and social action center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1994, she founded the Project on Being with Dying, which has trained hundreds of healthcare professionals in the contemplative care of dying people.
$27.95 - MixedMedia
Natalie Goldbergis the author of fifteen books. Writing Down the Bones, her first, has been translated into nineteen languages. Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku is her latest book. For the last forty years she has practiced Zen and taught seminars in writing as a spiritual practice. She lives in northern New Mexico.
$16.95 - Paperback
Paula Arai was raised in Detroit by a Japanese mother and did Zen training in Japan. She obtained her Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Harvard University in 1993 and is now the Eshinni & Kakushinni Professor of Women and Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California. She is the author of Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Heart of Japanese Women’s Rituals, Women Living Zen: Japanese Soto Buddhist Nuns, and Painting Enlightenment: Healing Visions of the Heart Sutra.
$19.95 - Hardcover
Jan Chozen Bays, MD, is an ordained Zen teacher and a pediatrician who specializes in the evaluation of children for abuse and neglect. She has trained in Zen for forty-five years with Roshis Taizan Maezumi and Shodo Harada. With her husband she serves as co-abbot of Great Vow Zen Monastery, a residential center for intensive Zen training in Oregon.
$16.95 - Paperback
Zenju Earthlyn Manuelis an author, poet, and ordained Zen Buddhist priest. She is the author of Deepest Peace, Sanctuary, The Way of Tenderness, Tell Me Something About Buddhism, and Black Angel Cards: 36 Oracles and Messages for Divining Your Life. She compiled and edited Seeds for a Boundless Life: Zen Teachings from the Heart by Zenkei Blanche Hartmann and is a contributing author in Dharma, Color, Culture and The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women.
$18.95 - Paperback
Laura Burges(Ryuko Eitai) is a lay entrusted Buddhist teacher in the Soto Zen tradition. She lectures, offers classes, and leads retreats at the San Francisco Zen Center and at other practice places in Northern California. She is the abiding teacher at Lenox House Meditation Group in Oakland. Laura taught children for 35 years and now mentors other teachers.
$21.95 - Paperback
Susan Moonis a writer, editor, and Buddhist teacher in the Soto Zen tradition. For many years she has taught and led Zen retreats nationally and internationally. Her books include This Is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity; the groundbreaking collection, The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women, with Florence Caplow; and What Is Zen? with Norman Fischer.
$17.95 - Paperback
Women in the Insight and Theravada Tradition
Ven. Ayya Khema was born into a Jewish family in Berlin in 1923 and escaped the Nazi regime in 1938. She was ordained a Theravadin Buddhist nun in 1979 and established a forest monastery near Sidney, Australia; a training center for nuns in Colombo, Sri Lanka; and, later, Buddha-Haus, a meditation center in the Allgäu, Germany. Among her books are When the Iron Eagle Flies; Being Nobody, Going Nowhere; Who Is My Self?; and an autobiography, I Give You My Life. She passed away in 1997.
$18.95 - Paperback
Sharon Salzbergis one of America's leading spiritual teachers and authors. A practitioner of Buddhist meditation for over thirty years, she is a co-founder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and the Insight Meditation Society, and she directs meditation retreats throughout the United States and abroad.
$16.95 - Paperback
Christina Feldman - In the early 1970s, Christina Feldman spent several years in Asia, studying and training in the Buddhist meditation tradition. She has led insight meditation retreats in the West since 1974. A cofounder of Gaia House, in Devon, England, she is a regular teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts and at Spirit Rock in Woodacre, California. In addition, she leads retreats in Europe.
Sera Khandro (1892 - 1940), also known as Kunzang Dekyong Wagmo, was one of the great masters of the early 20th century and the English speaking world is fortunate now that both her story and her writings have been emerging more and more over the past few years. Her story is at once fascinating, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting. Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, in his remarkable Incarnation: The History and Mysticism of the Tulku Tradition of Tibet gives a superb overview: "This...
This series of blog posts are meant to be resources guides to complement the biographies of the great masters and scholars on the Treasury of Lives site. Mandarava Mandarava Mandarava was one of the great 8th century adepts and was one of the main consorts of Guru Rinpoche. As such a central figure at the time of Guru Rinpoche, she is a focus of many works. A wonderful complete biography was published by our friends at Wisdom Publications as The...
On Translation: Sarah Harding and Larry MermelsteinIn our second On Translation video series cosponsored with the Tsadra Foundation, we are pleased to share this recording of Sarah Harding (Naropa University and the Tsadra Foundation) & Larry Mermelstein (Nalanda Translation Committee). This session is for any student, practitioner, or translator of Tibetan Buddhism and is an opportunity to enter the world of translators of the Buddhadharma with two of the most experienced Tibetan translators. Most people encounter the Buddhist teachings through translations of texts, so like...
We are deeply saddened to share the news that Christina Monson—teacher, translator, and disciple of Chatral Rinpoche among others—passed away November 19, 2023.
All of us at Shambhala Publications have our palms together to Christina for her ceaseless contributions to the Dharma generally, the Nyingma tradition, the Dudjom and Sera Khandro lineages specifically.
In addition to receiving teachings, abhishekas, and guidance from many great Mahasandhi masters—for example, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche—Christina Monson also received decades of teachings from Kyabje Chatral Rinpoche. Therefore, I do not think of her as yet another mildly curious Dharma student but as a seeker after the truth who has been blessed and strongly influenced by many great masters, Chatral Rinpoche in particular. As such, I have no doubt that Christina made many good aspirations as she translated Sera Khandro’s words, and, as a result, now that this great lady’s words are being made available in English, there is far less chance of the meaning getting lost in translation. For this reason, my aspiration for this translation is that it will be widely read. May those who read this book not only come to know Sera Khandro and her teachings but may the reach of her buddha activities extend to infinity.
There have been an outpouring of appreciation for Christina as she was a mentor, friend, and dharma sister to so many.
Sogan Rinpoche (Sogan Tulku Pema Lodoe) composed "A Panacea for the Heart: An Incitement to Virtue Through Reflection on Impermanence" upon learning of Christina's passing. It includes the following verse:
And when my Dharma siblings who I wished to remain here with me inseparably Are led away without hope of intervening, by the Lord of Death himself, I feel sad But sadness and grief don’t help; let us rouse strength of heart And spurn ourselves to practice virtue and dedicate it with aspirations.
"She was a great practitioner during her lifetime and she was an example of how to be a Vajrayana student. She kept her samaya and bodhicitta mind throughout her life excellently. She was so kind and her teachings were immensely beneficial to the members of the Padmasambhava Meditation Center and many other sanghas. I am very grateful for everything she has done.
I have no doubt that Christina is in a very good place and I personally witnessed a rainbow around the sun on the day that she passed. I am personally sponsoring many practices for her.
I would request that everyone do prayers for her. Please recite Vajrasattava, Chenrezig, Guru Yoga and whatever practice you do and dedicate it to Christina's full enlightenment."
Lama Tsultrim Allione wrote,
"It’s hard to write this but important. As we were receiving the Kudong of Wangdu Rinpoche at Tara Mandala November 19, 2023, the great Yogini and Translator Sangye Gyalmo, Christina Monson integrated her consciousness into the Dharmakaya and passed from this world. I last met her in July and we spent ten days together. I really wanted her to live, she had so much more to give and to translate. I wanted her to come out from the role of translator and teach and she would have, but sadly for us this was not to be in this life… but let us pray for her rapid rebirth. A great Yogini has departed from this world and she should be honored as such. One of the last things she said to me as she was dying was
'Your personal practice is all that matters in the end.'
She remained in tugdam 3 days in Oakland and left a trail of rainbows.
Her book “A Dakini’s Counsel” will come out next spring and she sent me the manuscript to write an endorsement, which I happily did. Here is a fragment from it, it is a poem from her consort Drimé Ozer about Sera Khandro. I pulled it spontaneously from the manuscript and I think it applies to Christina as well.
From "An Offering from the Vulture to the Cuckoo" by Drime Ozer:
Reflecting on all your noble qualities deepens my faith.
Seemingly I’m lost, an ordinary person controlled by the five poisons.7 But the manifestative potency of your great bliss wisdom automatically connects my body, speech, and mind to their vajra essences and introduces me to undistracted luminosity, my true dharmakaya nature. Extraordinary is your great kindness, Noble Lady, my Wish-Fulfilling Jewel.
The ultimate expanse is definitely devoid of characteristics to fixate upon. Yet, from the perspective of disciples who are training, teacher and retinue seemingly appear.
The fundamental nature of reality is but a single indivisible sphere. Yet, those with impure perception see it as distinct from confusion.
In essence, awareness transcends fears about birth and death, but for those who cleave to permanence, dying and becoming seemingly appear.
Most certainly you have mastery over the phenomena of samsara and nirvana, yet you continuously practice the two stages of development and completion.
Christina Monson on the Naturalness of Illness, Dakini Guidance, and Chatral Rinpoche
Christina also translated many privately published translations, as well as contributed to Lotsawa House. which includes ten of her translations of Sera Khandro and Chatral Rinpoche.
A Dakini's Counsel$26.95- Paperback
Holly Gayley, Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies, is a scholar and translator of contemporary Buddhist literature in Tibet. She is author of Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet, co-editor of A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from the Rime Masters of Tibet, and translator of Inseparable Across Lifetimes: The Lives and Love Letters of Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo.
Cheryl A. Giles, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Francis Greenwood Peabody Senior Lecturer on Pastoral Care and Counseling at the Harvard Divinity School. Giles is the author of several articles and co-editor of The Arts of Contemplative Care (Wisdom, 2012).
Judith Simmer-Brown, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the religious studies department at Naropa University (formerly the Naropa Institute), where she has taught since 1978. She has authored numerous articles on Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist-Christian dialogue, and Buddhism in America. She is an Acharya (senior teacher) in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa. A practicing Buddhist since 1971, she lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Lama Tsultrim Allione is an author, internationally known Buddhist teacher, and the founder and resident lama of Tara Mandala Retreat Center. She is the author of Women of Wisdom, the national best-seller Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict, which has been translated into seventeen languages, and Wisdom Rising: Journey into the Mandala of the Empowered Feminine.
Joanna Macy, PhD, teacher and author, is a scholar of Buddhism, systems thinking, and deep ecology. As the root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, Macy has created a groundbreaking framework for personal and social change that brings a new way of seeing the world as our larger body. Her many books include World as Lover, World as Self; Widening Circles, A Memoir; Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy; and Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects.
Stephanie Kaza is Professor Emerita of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont. A leading voice in Buddhism and ecology, her most recent book is Green Buddhism: Practice and Compassionate Action in Uncertain Times.
Joan Halifax, PhD, is a Zen priest and anthropologist who has served on the faculty of Columbia University and the University of Miami School of Medicine. For the past thirty years she has worked with dying people and has lectured on the subject of death and dying at Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, and many other academic institutions. In 1990, she founded Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist study and social action center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1994, she founded the Project on Being with Dying, which has trained hundreds of healthcare professionals in the contemplative care of dying people.
Natalie Goldbergis the author of fifteen books. Writing Down the Bones, her first, has been translated into nineteen languages. Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku is her latest book. For the last forty years she has practiced Zen and taught seminars in writing as a spiritual practice. She lives in northern New Mexico.
Sharon Salzberg is one of America's leading spiritual teachers and authors. A practitioner of Buddhist meditation for over thirty years, she is a co-founder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and the Insight Meditation Society, and she directs meditation retreats throughout the United States and abroad.
Sera Khandro (1892 - 1940), also known as Kunzang Dekyong Wagmo, was one of the great masters of the early 20th century and the English speaking world is fortunate now that both her story and her writings have been emerging more and more over the past few years. Her story is at once fascinating, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting. Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, in his remarkable Incarnation: The History and Mysticism of the Tulku Tradition of Tibet gives a superb overview: "This...
This series of blog posts are meant to be resources guides to complement the biographies of the great masters and scholars on the Treasury of Lives site. Mandarava Mandarava Mandarava was one of the great 8th century adepts and was one of the main consorts of Guru Rinpoche. As such a central figure at the time of Guru Rinpoche, she is a focus of many works. A wonderful complete biography was published by our friends at Wisdom Publications as The...
In our second On Translation video series cosponsored with the Tsadra Foundation, we are pleased to share this recording of Sarah Harding (Naropa University and the Tsadra Foundation) & Larry Mermelstein (Nalanda Translation Committee). This session is for any student, practitioner, or translator of Tibetan Buddhism and is an opportunity to enter the world of translators of the Buddhadharma with two of the most experienced Tibetan translators. Most people encounter the Buddhist teachings through translations of texts, so like...
