The Precious Treasury of The Way of Abiding [Hardcover]

Longchen Rabjam (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 298 pages
• Publisher: Padma; First Edition edition (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1881847098
• ISBN-13: 978-1881847090
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #399,377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep, advanced Dzogchen by its great master, April 14, 2008

By 

Neal J. Pollock (VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Precious Treasury of The Way of Abiding (Hardcover)

This is the 1st of Longchenpa's 7 Treasuries (reputed to be the finest Dzogchen books ever written) translated by Richard Barron who intends to translate all 7 (he says he likes this one the best, but I like The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena better). Interestingly, Dowman translated it also 8 years later as Old Man Basking in the Sun: Longchen Rabjampa's Treasury of Natural Perfection. But I like Barron's version better: IMHO less literal but more poetic and, perhaps, closer to the meaning. It's 1st 4 chapters address the main themes of the Dzogchen view: Ineffability, Openness, Spontaneous Presence, & Oneness. The final chapter describes "The Individuals to Whom These Teachings May Be Entrusted." This is an advanced Dzogchen text, difficult for newbies to grasp--yet continual exposure to such texts can enable one's subconscious to absorb much more than is apparent to the outer consciousness or ego--much like Jung's studies in alchemical symbolism (e.g. ASIN:0691097666 "Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy" CW14) & Psychology and Alchemy (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.12)). Longchenpa interlaces many excerpts from numerous Tantras in his works esp. The All-Creating Monarch (published in English as The Supreme Source: The Fundamental Tantra of the Dzogchen Semde). The actual text is only 200 pages but it covers a lot of Ground. A few of the main points are:

What appears as movement is actually static (like a movie which is created by quickly changing still pictures), cause-effect-karma is reliable but not valid, openness is the opposite of reification, value judgments must be transcended, the natural state is effortless & spacious, outer & inner [transcendent & immanent] are of one taste, the Ground of Being has no context or frame of reference--it is non-conceptual, the two main approaches of Dzogchen are p. 252: `Cutting through solidity' [trekcho] & `making the quantum leap' [tögal], these involve avoiding fixation & reification, and

pp. 199-200: "The All-Illuminating Sphere" Tantra--In unobstructed space, artificial boundaries are imposed by the construction of a building, the space within the building divided from the naturally pure space. Undifferentiated through an open doorway, these 2 `spaces' are clearly without separation. In being connected by the doorway of timeless awareness, the 2 aspects--awareness as it is hemmed in by habitual patterns & awareness as it abides in space--abide in supreme & unobstructed non-duality [open systems] when the physical body that results from habitual patterns has been removed as a hindrance.

For the serious Dzogchen scholar and/or practitioner, this is a must-read (if not must-have) book. Others available in the series: The Precious Treasury of Pith Instructions (The Seven Treasuries Series), The Precious Treasury of Philosophical Systems, and the self-commentary on the Basic Space of Phenomena=a Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission: A Commentary on the Precious Treasure of the Basic Space of Phenomena(also translated by Schmidt as The Scriptural Treasury. This is the Commentary on the First Chapter of "The Precious Treasury of Dharmadhaatu"). Longchenpa also wrote 3 trilogies but only one is presently available in English: Kindly Bent to Ease Us: Wonderment (Tibetan Translation, ) & Kindly bent to ease us: From the Trilogy of finding comfort and ease (Tibetan translation series).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure inspiration, March 7, 2010

By 

Jonathan Harrison (Israel) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Precious Treasury of The Way of Abiding (Hardcover)

Twelve years ago, during an alpine retreat on nondual wisdom, I asked my main teacher Dr. Peter Fenner for books worth reading. He quoted this as one of the the two books that most inspired him. The other was Lex Hixon's "Mother of the Buddhas." For me, as a nondual meditation and Buddhist psychology teacher, Longchenpa's "The Precious Treasury" is pure inspiration, pure Dzogchen nondual poetry. Each line has identical import, each line is totally different. It is absolutely accurate, completely rigorous and as one might expect carries no intrinsic meaning. This is pure heart, not a meditation manual. It deals neither with meditation nor non-meditation, but indicates the substance of all meditation and non-meditation. It carries the fundamental essence that many books attempt to express. I can not recommend it too highly.