Establishing Appearances as Divine: Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo on Reasoning, Madhyamaka, and Purity

A highly esteemed Buddhist treatise on realizing your divine nature.

This concise treatise by the eleventh-century Tibetan Buddhist philosopher Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo sets out to prove the provocative point that everything that appears is actually deity manifest. Many books on Tibetan Buddhism address the important themes of mind training, compassion, and proper conduct, but this book goes beyond that in its aim to bring the reader face to face with his or her divine and pure nature.

Transformation not only of one's identity but also of one's environment is an important principle in Tantric Buddhist philosophy. In Tantric scriptures one is instructed to visualize oneself as a deity, a divine identity who resides in a perfect sphere. By repeatedly training in this visualization, one perfects the transformation and ultimately becomes the deity itself. Establishing Appearances as Divine seeks to unravel the interplay between rationality, truth, and divinity, bringing to light the view that underlies Tantric Buddhist practices.

RONGZOM CHÖKYI ZANGPO (eleventh century) is among the most celebrated scholars of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Particularly known for his lucid and innovative explanations of Tantra and Dzogchen, his influence on later scholars such as Ju Mipham has been profound.

HEIDI I. KÖPPL has worked as a translator at the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery in Nepal for more than a decade and has been a faculty member at the Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies since the Centre's inception. She is currently doing research for a doctorate degree in Buddhist Studies at the University of Lausanne.