Tsongkhapa was born in 1357 in the Tsongkha valley of Amdo province in northeast Tibet. The miraculous events that occurred at his birth aroused the interest of the master Chöje Döndrup Rinchen (Chos rje Don grub rin chen), who had studied and lived in central Tibet and who founded two monasteries in Amdo after his

from Melong Gendun Chopel contributed both poetry and essays to Melong (“Mirror”), the Tibetan-language newspaper published in Kalimpong by the Tibetan Christian from Khunnu, Dorje Tharchin, also known as Tharchin Babu. Its full title in Tibetan was Mirror of the News from Various Regions. In the June 28, 1938, issue, Gendun Chopel published an essay

The Seven-Line prayer to Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava, is one of the most ubiquitous and important prayers, performed across lineages and in particular the Nyingma tradition who commence nearly every practice with it.  What follows is a brief introduction and Reader’s Guide to this short but extremely profound verse. The Padmakra Translation Group has provided some

Prologue Homage to you, O glorious Samantabhadra! Your nature is the ultimate expanse, Primordial and perfect peace. Though free of all conceptual constructs, It is yet embellished by the kāyas and the wisdoms Present of themselves. From this there radiates a myriad rays of light Performing every kind of action In the field of those

An excerpt from the introduction to the Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa, Volume Five.  Selections from the sadhana itself are included in this volume. The Background   Next in Volume Five are the excerpt from The Sadhana of Mahamudra and an article about the meaning of the text. The sadhana, which Trungpa Rinpoche "discovered" in

A Commentary on The Way of the Bodhisattva by H. H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Many Kinds of Wisdom   1. All these branches of the Doctrine The Enlightened Sage expounded for the sake of wisdom. Therefore they must cultivate this wisdom Who wish to have an end of suffering.   There are many kinds

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s impact on the transmission of Buddhism to the West cannot be overstated. In the quarter century he spent in the West, he taught tens of thousands of students, in many cases introducing them to Buddhism for the first time. His legacy is nearly impossible to measure, but one gauge is his literary

The Anatomy of a Common Tibetan Ritual: The Lhasang The lhasang—literally ‘‘higher purification offering,’’ which may be glossed as ‘‘invocation of the higher beings’’—is one of the most common rituals in traditional Tibet. While some rituals are performed strictly for temporal ends and others for spiritual ends, the lhasang is interesting because it is performed

The Essence of Wisdom: How to Sustain the Face of Rigpa by Jamgön Mipham To the glorious primordial protector, I pay homage! There are three stages to sustaining the essence of rigpa: (1) recognition, (2) perfecting the strength, and (3) gaining stability. At first, refine your understanding until, through the guru’s instructions, you come to see

Kalu Rinpoche and the Translation of The Treasury of Knowledge Below Sarah Harding shares the story of how Kalu Rinpoche came to take on the task of translating Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye's The Treasury of Knowledge, an immense feat that took the skills and dedication of many that will be treasured by all who are