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Tantric Practice in Nying-ma

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Jeffrey Hopkins & Anne Klein's trans. of Ba-drul Jik-bzang bla ma'I Zhal lung's "Instructions on the Preliminaries to the Great Perfection Teaching Called `Heart Essence of Vast Openness,' the Sacred Word of Lama Gun-Sang" plus Jik-may-ling-ba's "Recitation oof the Preliminaries to the Heart Essence of Vast Openness, Illuminating the Good Path to Omniscience." This is basically a ngondro book-one of a great many now available-though this one was published long before most of them. As a medieval Tibetan work, it has the usual introductory material--lots of numbered lists & definitions, obsessive-legends as scare tactics, dogma & mythology (e.g. multiple hells in great detail=fire & brimstone=negative motivation, & sensate (detailed). It does cover the basics pretty completely with tons of stories. My favorite is Tilopa's fish-eating one (p. 105) which reminds me of the Kabbalistic practice of raising the sparks of animals to a higher plane of existence-by eating them with the proper intention (kavannah). But the typesetting is poor in my copy, the translators chose to use unusual spellings (e.g. Mil-la-re-ba vs. Milarepa), p. 187: the author only addresses sudden & gradual approaches (ignores the evanescent), & the text is mostly religious vs. psychological or philosophical. On the other hand, the author provides some interesting comments & observations such as p. 221: that the Vinaya is Hinayana, p. 166: Ma-ji-lap-dr?n (Machig Labdr?n) developed a female version of Ch?d-the only teaching spread from Tibet to India, p. 29: the unfortunate realms can be here & now, p. 34: "Pride causes contempt of the lower, jealousy of the higher, & competitiveness with the equal," & my favorite in the book--pp. 103-4: "You should rely on your teacher the way a bee receives honey from a flower, taking the best that there is, taking just what it needs & then returning to its home. The bee does not become involved with other aspects of the flower. You should learn to take from the lama those qualities which he or she has as if they were being poured from one vessel into another. Once you have received these good qualities of mind, return to your own place. We have a saying that when it comes to incense or a lama, one should keep one's distance. Incense smells very pleasant from a little way off, but if you get too close, the smoke will enter your nose & make your eyes water. If you stay with your lama day in & day out, you will inevitably begin to find fault with him & by so doing become incapable of receiving his blessings and help." Very pragmatic. This is a good starter book for basic Vajrayana-including detailed Vajrasattva & generation stage practices. It has a very short, disappointing IMHO, chapter on Dzogchen.

Pacifying! Great workbook! Changed my life's thinkng and pushed me to exert myself to go towards the good causes generating good results. I am back on amazon looking for more books the Rinpoche may have available online. His talks in relation to the ultimate truth of reality and his words cuts right through my bad behaviors. He brings to light clearly I need to change and go towards the good. I am more conscious now after having read this book than all my years of studying buddhism. It has escalated my understanding and given me the rightfold path back into my life that I apparently have forgotten along life's journey.