Fletcher, W.

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Wulstan Fletcher

Wulstan Fletcher holds degrees in Modern Languages and Theology (Oxford and Rome) and is a teacher of modern languages. He completed a three-year retreat at Chanteloube France from 1986–1989. He is a member of the Padmakara Translation Group and has been a Tsadra Foundation Fellow since 2001.


Current Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow (with Helena Blankleder):

  • Lion Speech, The Life of Jamgön Mipham, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche


Completed Projects as a Tsadra Foundation Fellow (with Helena Blankleder):

  • Treasury of Precious Qualities (Sutra Section), Jigme Lingpa, commentary by Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kangyur Rinpoche
  • Counsels from My Heart, Dudjom Rinpoche
  • Introduction to the Middle Way, Chandrakirti, commentary by Jamgön Mipham
  • The Adornment of the Middle Way, Shantarakshita, commentary by Jamgön Mipham
  • Food of Bodhisattvas: Buddhist Teachings on Abstaining from Meat, Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol
  • The Way of the Bodhisattva, Shantideva (rev. ed.)
  • The Nectar of Manjushri’s Speech: A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva’s "Way of the Bodhisattva," Kunzang Pelden
  • The Root Stanzas on the Middle Way, Nagarjuna
  • White Lotus: An Explanation of the Seven-line Prayer to Guru Padmasambhava, Jamgön Mipham
  • Treasury of Precious Qualities (Tantra Section), Jigme Lingpa, commentary by Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kangyur Rinpoche
  • The Purifying Jewel and Light of the Day Star by Mipham Rinpoche
  • Trilogy of Resting at Ease, Longchenpa

(Source: Tsadra.org)

Library Items

Book
A Gathering of Brilliant Moons
A collection of essays and translations featuring advice and instructions of prominent 18-19th century Tibetan masters.
Gayley, Holly, and Joshua Schapiro, eds. A Gathering of Brilliant Moons: Practice Advice from the Rimé Masters of Tibet. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2017.
Book
Counsels from My Heart
Counsels from My Heart is one of the few volumes of teachings by Dudjom Rinpoche, a legendary meditation master of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, to become available in English. It features talks given in 1962, the 1970's and 80's, presented in Dudjom Rinpoche's characteristically incisive and direct style, bringing the timeless heart-counsels of this great teacher vividly to life. (Source: Shambhala Publications). The Padmakara Translation Group gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Tsadra Foundation in sponsoring the translation of this book.
Fletcher, Wulstan, and Helena Blankleder (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. Counsels from My Heart. By Dudjom Rinpoche. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2003.
Book
Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind
Longchenpa’s classic Buddhist manual for attaining liberation teaches us how to familiarize ourselves with our most basic nature—the clear, pristine, and aware mind. Written in the fourteenth century, this text is the first volume of Longchenpa’s Trilogy of Rest, a work of the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition. This profound and comprehensive presentation of the Buddhist view and path combines the scholastic expository method with direct pith instructions designed for yogi practitioners.

This first part of the Trilogy of Rest sets the foundation for the following two volumes: Finding Rest in Meditation, which focuses on Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice, and Finding Rest in Illusion, which focuses on post-meditation yogic conduct. The Padmakara Translation Group has provided us with a clear and fluid new translation to Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind along with selections from its autocommentary, The Great Chariot, which will serve as a genuine aid to study and meditation.

Here, we find essential instructions on the need to turn away from materialism, how to find a qualified guide, how to develop boundless compassion for all beings, along with the view of tantra and associated meditation techniques. The work culminates with pointing out the result of practice as presented from the Dzogchen perspective, providing us with all the tools necessary to traverse the Tibetan Buddhist path of finding rest.

Shambhala Publications
Fletcher, Wulstan, and Helena Blankleder (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind. Volume 1 of The Trilogy of Rest. By Longchenpa (klong chen rab 'byams pa dri med 'od zer). Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 2017.
Book
Lion of Speech
A traditional biography on the life of Mipham Rinpoche—one of the greatest 19th-century masters—from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche—one of the greatest 20th–century masters.

Lion of Speech: The Life of Mipham Rinpoche offers a translation of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s biography of Mipham Rinpoche, left behind in Tibet when Khyentse Rinpoche went into exile in 1959 and lost for eighty years before its discovery by an extraordinary stroke of good fortune. The biography is written as a traditional namthar, an account of the “life and liberation” of a man who is widely considered to be among the greatest scholars and accomplished masters in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. One of the striking features of Khyentse Rinpoche’s account is that it downplays the “miraculous” aspects of Mipham’s life and activities—perhaps as a means of bringing into sharper focus the effect that Mipham had on his contemporaries as a spiritual master, scholar, and teacher.

The second half of the book offers selected translations of Mipham Rinpoche’s works that provide readers with a taste of his enormous and extremely varied output. The translations are from his works on Madhyamaka, buddha-nature, tantra, and the Great Perfection. Some are new translations and some are striking passages from works that have already been published, including passages from Guide to the Wheel of Analytical Meditation, The Adornment of the Middle Way, The Wisdom Chapter, The Lion’s Roar, and White Lotus. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Fletcher, Wulstan, and Helena Blankleder (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. Lion of Speech: The Life of Mipham Rinpoche. By Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 2020.
Video
Longchenpa's View of Buddha-Nature by Wulstan Fletcher
Wulstan Fletcher discusses the unique way in which Longchenpa (1308-1364) approaches the topic of buddha-nature in his writings. Here he describes Longchenpa's language as somewhat difficult to understand, given his often poetic manner of expression. Furthermore, he also talks about the manner in which Longchenpa combines the second and third turning of the wheel of the Dharma and how he sees them as inseparable. Always speaking from the point of view of the Great Perfection (Dzogchen), Lonchenpa's approach was one that would influence later Nyingmapa thinkers such as Mipham Rinpoche.
Fletcher, Wulstan. “Longchenpa's View of Buddha-Nature.” Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, November 9, 2019. Video, 7:06. https://youtu.be/JOTrcR3gndI.
Video
On His Personal Encounter with Buddha-Nature Teachings by Wulstan Fletcher
Wulstan Fletcher describes his own experience with the teachings of buddha-nature. In particular he speaks about how his study of the emptiness teachings of Madhyamaka has been essential to his understanding of buddha-nature. He goes on to discuss how practice is a means of developing the recognition of the buddha-nature within.
Fletcher, Wulstan. “On His Personal Encounter with Buddha-Nature Teachings.” Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, November 9, 2019. Video, 7:39. https://youtu.be/IqAWmB_nDRM.
Video
On Mipham and the Nyingma Approach to Buddha-Nature by Wulstan Fletcher
Wulstan Fletcher discusses Mipham's view of buddha-nature. He describes how he was influenced by Longchenpa's view of the inseparability of the second and third turnings of the wheel of the Dharma. He goes on to discuss Mipham's approach to the two truths (conventional and ultimate), in particular the way in which ultimate reality is described as the union of the two truths. Buddha-nature, he explains, is that which transcends the duality of permanence and impermanence. It is a permanence that transcends this binary. However, for Mipham, and more generally for the Nyingma, buddha-nature is not to be understood as a "real" substantive thing. Nor is it to be understood as a nonaffirming negation, as a mere emptiness.
Fletcher, Wulstan. “On Mipham and the Nyingma Approach to Buddha-Nature.” Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, November 9, 2019. Video, 19:04. https://youtu.be/ZUquZdCSXA8.
Book
The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind (Padmakara 2024)
The Dzogchen tantra titled The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind teaches the advanced practices of trekchö, thögal, and bardo. Deshek Lingpa’s root text and Khangsar Tenpa’i Wangchuk’s commentary.
Gethin, Stephen, Helena Blankleder and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind: A Treasure Tantra of the Great Perfection. By Deshek Lingpa with a commentary by Khangsar Tenpa'i Wangchuk. Boulder: Shambhala Publications, 2024.
Book
The Treasury of Precious Qualities Called The Rain of Joy
Rigzin Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798) was one of the most important masters of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He and the great fourteenth century master Longchen Rabjam (1308–1363), with whom he was closely linked through visionary experience, are known as the "two omniscient masters, father and son." The root of the Khyentse lineage, Jigme Lingpa was a tertön, or discoverer of treasure teachings, and revealed the Longchen Nyingtik, one of the most important cycles of meditative practice in the Nyingma school. The Treasury of Precious Qualities is one of his universally respected scholarly compositions. (Source: Back Cover)
Fletcher, Wulstan, and Helena Blankleder (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Treasury of Precious Qualities Called The Rain of Joy. By Jigme Lingpa ('jigs med gling pa). New Delhi: Shechen Publications, 2018.
Book
Treasury of Precious Qualities: Book One (2010)
This book is a translation of the first part of Jigme Lingpa's Treasury of Precious Qualities, which in a slender volume of elegant verses sets out briefly but comprehensively the Buddhist path according to the Nyingma school. The concision of the root text and its use of elaborate poetic language, rich in metaphor, require extensive explanation, amply supplied here by the commentary of Kangyur Rinpoche. The present volume lays out the teachings of the sutras in gradual stages according to the traditional three levels, or scopes, of spiritual endeavor. It begins with essential teachings on impermanence, karma, and ethics. Then, from the Hinayana standpoint, it describes the essential Buddhist teachings of the four noble truths and the twelve links of dependent arising. Moving on, finally, to the Mahayana perspective, it expounds fully the teachings on bodhichitta and the path of the six paramitas, and gives an unusually detailed exposition of Buddhist vows. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Fletcher, Wulstan, and Helena Blankleder (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. Treasury of Precious Qualities: The Rain of Joy; Book One. By Jigme Lingpa ('jigs med gling pa). With The Quintessence of the Three Paths, a commentary by Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kangyur Rinpoche (klong chen ye shes rdo rje, bka' 'gyur rin po che). Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2010.
Book
Treasury of Precious Qualities: Book Two
This second and concluding volume of Jigme Lingpa’s classic Treasury of Precious Qualities is presented together with a detailed commentary by Kangyur Rinpoche. Composed in the form of a lamrim, or presentation of the stages of the path, the first volume set out the teachings of the sutras. The present volume continues this same structure and is a general description of the tantra teachings followed by an exposition of the Great Perfection, which in the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism is regarded as the summit of all vehicles and the final stage of the path of spiritual training. The section on the tantras is a compendious presentation of all important issues: lineage, empowerment, the generation and perfection stages, and samaya. The section on the Great Perfection is arranged according to the classification of Ground, Path, and Result and gives an extremely clear introduction to the doctrinal background that underpins the practice of this unique system. (Source Accessed Nov 9, 2020)
Fletcher, Wulstan, and Helena Blankleder (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. Treasury of Precious Qualities: The Rain of Joy; Book Two: Vajrayana and the Great Perfection. By Jigme Lingpa ('jigs med gling pa). With The Quintessence of the Three Paths, a commentary by Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kangyur Rinpoche (klong chen ye shes rdo rje, bka' 'gyur rin po che). Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2013.
Video
What Is Buddha-Nature? by Wulstan Fletcher
Wulstan Fletcher explains buddha-nature as the deepest aspect of oneself, a wellspring of goodness and wisdom that is always present. One only needs to uncover it in order to experience true happiness. He describes it as something that can be relied upon in times of great suffering, as it can remind one that the suffering that is experienced is impermanent and is something that can be removed.
Fletcher, Wulstan. “What Is Buddha-Nature?” Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, November 9, 2019. Video, 4:36. https://youtu.be/1XmwW45aGio.
Interview
Wulstan Fletcher Interview on Buddha-Nature
Wulstan Fletcher discusses buddha-nature and it's related concepts in an interview with Marcus Perman of Tsadra Foundation.

Affiliations & relations

  • Padmakara Translation Group · workplace affiliation
  • Tsadra Foundation · workplace affiliation
  • Songtsen · secondary affiliation
  • Tsadra Advisory Board Member · secondary affiliation
  • Chanteloube, France · religious affiliation
  • Dalai Lama, 14th · religious affiliation
  • Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche · teacher
  • Tsetrul Pema Wangyal Rinpoche · teacher
  • Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche · teacher
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