- FOREWORD by Khenchen Thrangu xi
- PREFACE xiii
- INTRODUCTION xv
PART ONE:
FUNDAMENTALS
- 1 What Is Mahamudra? 3
- 2 The Importance of Correct View 22
- 3 The Spiritual Path 32
- 4 Deluded Mind, Enlightened Mind 51
- 5 The Four Preliminaries 60
- 6 The Four Immeasurables 92
PART TWO
GROUND MAHAMUDRA
PART THREE:
PATH MAHAMUDRA
- 8 Tranquillity Meditation143
- 9 Insight Meditation168
PART FOUR:
FRUITION MAHAMUDRA
- 10 The Four Yogas of Mahamudra209
- 11 On the Spiritual journey225
- APPENDIX: "PRECIOUS SUN"229
- NOTES236
- GLOSSARY239
- RECOMMENDED READING247
- TRALEG KYABGON'S CENTERS250
- INDEX251
In this book the author explains. spiritual cultivation from the Vajrayana perspective on the common preliminaries, the four immeasurables, tranquillity meditation, and insight meditation. In particular, he elucidates the need to develop the correct view.
The author of this text is Kyabje Traleg Rinpoche, the emanation of Saltong Shogam, one of the three principal disciples of the physician Gampopa, who is the common lineage forefather of the Kagyu tradition. This line of tulkus successively reincarnated, with each bearing the name Nyima. The ninth one, whose name is Karma Tenpa Rabgye Thinley Nyima Gocha Pal Zangpo, was recognized by the glorious sixteenth Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. Through his vision and faculty of foreknowledge, one year prior to conception, in the year of the Snake, a prediction letter was given with the instruction that this letter should remained sealed for a period of one year arid opened only on the tenth day of the first month of the Wood Sheep year. From the central part of Tibet a search was launched to eastern Tibet, where the Traleg tulkus had their seat at Thrangu Monastery. Upon opening the letter at the appointed time, the search party was led to the home of his parents: his father, Gyurme Lodro, and his mother, Pema Zung. The house was located west of Thrangu Monastery, three days journey by horse, where Traleg Rinpoche had just taken birth in the year of the Sheep, thus confirming the prediction letter to the amazement of all.
Rinpoche is exceptionally learned and demonstrates marked and genuine spiritual activity. He has undergone extensive study and experience in the traditional Buddhist training as well as having studied the contemporary mind sciences. His book is bound to generate both certainty and ease of understanding and will, with its many outstanding qualities, bring tremendous benefit to all spiritual seekers in the West. Please, students of the Dharma, take this to heart.
KHENCHEN THRANGU RINPOCHE,
tutor to His Holiness seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa,
Urgyen Thinley Dorje, at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra,
Woodstock, New York, 2 August 2003.
