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Zurchungpa's Testament

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Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche teaching on Zurchungpa's Eighty Chapters of Personal Advice was his last communication with the public before he left planet Earth. The eighty Chapters are broken into the following categories:

1. Faith
2. Discipline
3. Concentration
4. Wisdom
5. Conclusion

There are precious gems on every page and the 17 page Glossary is very helpful. If this is your first book by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche then you are in for a pleasant surprise. This book is easy to read but the 400 pages will take some time to read, think and assimilate the information. A great experience - a blessing just to read the words. I highly recommend this book. PKC.

if you were ever looking for answers to your questions about Buddhist practice, or, if you wanted to know how to think about things in a way that would reduce harm and suffering, this ancient text with modern commentary by the great master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche is outstanding. the breadth of knowledge, scholarly and practical, that he displays is so inspiring. the translation by Padmakara Translation Group is commendable. makes one want to be a better person just by reading it.

Zurchungpa's Testament is easily one of the best books on Tibetan Buddhism I have ever read! The root text is accompanied by two brilliant commentaries that make the path of Tibetan Buddhism accessible and practical. If you are interested in Tibetan Buddhism you should read it and if you are a practitioner it should be required reading.

I almost abandoned this book prematurely, as possibly too technical, too much concerned with a particular approach to awareness and meditation. But I managed to arrive at the chapter on "Discipline", which fills almost 100 pages. To be reminded deeply about matters of discipline tends to create remorse about wasting time, wasting life, but also hopefully helps us to try harder.

STRUCTURE: Well formatted with original Zurchung Sherab Trakpa's ("The Little Zur," 1014-1074) text "80 Chapters of Personal Advice" in bold, Shechen Gyaltsen Pema Gyurme Namgyal's (SG; 1871-1926) annotated text commenting on it entitled "A Necklace of Jewels" in italics, & Dilgo Khyentse's (DK; 1910-91) commentary on 2 in regular typeface. DK's integrated part, with the other 2 embedded, is 274 pages. But, the book also includes SG's text (w/o DK's but w/Zur's)=total 72 pp. as well as a separate Zur's original 38 pp. text. Thus, SG added 34 pp. about doubling the length & DK added >200 pp. =3x SG's. The Padmakara Translation Group produced a smooth, easily read text using simple, standard languaging for Vajrayana texts (e.g. emptiness). There is great value in the structure of this book. Each of the 3 main sections has its own appeal. There's poetry in Zur's original text as a standalone, but it has many cultural & time-dependent allusions unfamiliar to contemporary Westerners. SG's commentary has its own beauty & power, but it too requires explaining--provided by DK in his overarching text, the endnotes, & glossary. Each follows a 4-fold breakdown: per p. 316: Faith=the gateway; discipline=the basis; concentration=the means; wisdom=the essence.

CONTENT: The 1st 100 pp. are rather elementary IMHO but worth your time. For example, p. 71: DK provides fine descriptions of the 4 Immeasurables, why they are so named, & relation to bodhichitta & p. 94: SG says: "It is important, rather, to integrate everything you know with your being & put it into practice." Overall, this is a pretty advanced text--in a class with many of Longchenpa's works (e.g. a Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission: A Commentary on the Precious Treasure of the Basic Space of Phenomena). Indeed, except for The Supreme Source: The Fundamental Tantra of the Dzogchen Semde, there are few Dzogchen books in English in this lofty class. Each of the 3 writers makes wonderful contributions to one's understanding. Zur--p. 140: "If you are going to be unkind, be unkind to your negative actions, p. 334: Do not be distracted from the radiant deep," & he explains p. 285: that If you can view things correctly, rules/means are subservient to actions/ends] as demonstrated on p. 299: in a series of oxymorons reminiscent of Jungian enantiadromia. SG--p. 234: "Phenomena do not fall into ontological extremes...as existent, non existent or whatever by intellectual analysis & p. 353: Distracting objects have never been extraneous to the absolute nature." DK--p. 184: "We must not stray from the absolute space, which is free from thoughts. `Thoughts' here refers to the constant alternation of likes & dislikes, being pleased with favorable situations & upset by unfavorable ones, [i.e. value judgments], p. 219: While there is attachment, there is no view, & attachment is the cause of Samsara, & p. 392 n. 53: No point in sweet words if you are self-centered."

COMMENT: I had numerous, spontaneous, graphic, Western-oriented "visions" such as: Buddha stepping out of illusion into reality like the character in Woody Allen's "Purple Rose of Cairo" who stepped out of the movie & into the theater; that reincarnation resembles a computer program (karma) loaded onto a CD (human body) both of which change over time--but neither is real or self-determining; that emptiness means "not self-sustaining" (=entropic energy in physics), etc. This book is definitely food for thought.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's prose and explanations are always supremely clear, and here, in his elaboration of the great Zurchungpa's parting words to his students, he covers the View and practice in a very compelling and easy-to-follow manner. I find myself inspired every time I read it. One of my favorite books on the Path.