The Precious Treasury of the Fundamental Nature

Description

The first and only commentary on the Buddhist master Longchenpa's essential text on Dzogchen by modern scholar and Nyingma master, Khangsar Khenpo Tenpa'i Wangchuk. Longchen Rabjam (1308-1363), also known as Longchenpa, is a great luminary of Tibetan Buddhism. Regarded as a master of Dzogchen, or Great Perfection, Longchenpa's prolific writings have made him one of Tibet's most renowned and precious teachers. In clear and elegant verse, Longchenpa's Precious Treasury of the Fundamental Nature establishes the definitive view of the ultimate nature of mind according to the secret class of pith instructions of the Great Perfection. Aside from the auto-commentary composed by Longchenpa himself in the fourteenth century, the first and only commentary ever to have been written on this work was composed in the twentieth century by Khangsar Khenpo Tenpa'i Wangchuk, a teacher, scholar, and preserver of Buddhist monastic and scholarly culture in Tibet. This work marks the first step in translating the collected works of this modern Nyingma master. In this commentary, Khangsar Khenpo guides Dzogchen practitioners to experience and understand the phenomena of the outer world detected by the senses as well as the subjective mental and emotional states that apprehend them in order to bring the student to a recognition and stabilized experience of ultimate truth.

LONGCHEN RABJAM (1308-1363) is Tibet's most famous master of the Dzogchen tradition. He was a prolific scholar and poet and an accomplished spiritual practitioner. He authored hundreds of seminal texts that make up the core of Nyingma traditional instructions. KHANGSAR KEHNPO TENPA'I WANGCHUK (1938-2014) was born in Golok, Tibet. Khangsar Khenpo began his Buddhist study at eight years old, became a monk at fourteen, and began teaching at fifteen. A Nyingma practitioner, Khangsar Khenpo was both a tert n, or treasure revealer, and a scholar of the rigorous scholastic curriculum of the Geluk tradition. During the later years of the Cultural Revolution, he was sentenced to twelve years in prison, where he continued his dedicated practice alongside other great masters, from whom he received pith instructions and transmissions. In the later part of his life, he focused on teaching, writing commentaries on seminal texts, and restoring and enlarging monasteries in his home villages of Khangsar Taklung and Payak in the region of Golok. The PADMAKARA TRANSLATION GROUP, based in France, has a distinguished reputation for its translations of Tibetan texts and teachings. Its work has been published in several languages and is renowned for its clear and accurate literary style.

"Tenpa'i Wangchuk Rinpoche's commentary on the four profound principles of the three divisions of the Great Perfection that the Omniscient Longchenpa revealed in his Precious Treasury of the Fundamental Nature is here meticulously translated with great dedication. Merely reading this sacred treatise with devotion could fully awaken the enlightened nature of the mind as it is."-Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, author of The Heart of Unconditional Love "For those who are inspired to embrace and practice the Great Perfection, even one verse of this text can unfold its depth as a lifelong, self-revealing inner practice. These translations will change the landscape of the understanding of the Great Perfection in the Western world for those inspired to follow such a path. I am therefore ecstatically joyful for what the Padmakara Translation Group has accomplished as a gift to all of us and humanity at large."-Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, author of Training in Tenderness "This is a Dharma treasury by Longchenpa, containing the essential details of Trekchoe and Toegal practices within the Dzogchen tradition. May every reader's mind bloom with the wisdom flower of realization. May they recognize their own awareness and openness and go beyond all limitations."-Yingrik Drubpa Rinpoche, founder of Gankyil Organization