The Lamp for the Eye of Contemplation: The Samten Migdron by Nubchen Sangye Yeshe, a 10th-century Tibetan Buddhist Text on Meditation

This book presents an English translation of the Samten Migdron (Lamp for the Eye of Contemplation) by Nubchen Sangye Yeshe, a seminal 10th-century Tibetan Buddhist work on contemplation. This treatise is one of the most important sources for the study of the various meditative currents that were transmitted to Tibet from India and China during the early dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet. Written from the vantage point of the Great Completeness (Dzogchen) and its vehicle of effortless spontaneity, it discusses, in the manner of a doxography, both sutra-based-including Chan-and tantric approaches to meditation.

The unabridged, annotated English translation of this Tibetan treatise is preceded by a general introduction situating the author-a pivotal figure in what would become the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism-and his work in historical and doctrinal context. The detailed annotations provide elucidating comments as well as crucial references to the numerous texts quoted by the Tibetan author. This book makes this groundbreaking Tibetan work on meditation accessible in English and opens fascinating windows on early forms of contemplative practice in Tibet.

Dylan Esler is a scholar and translator of Tibetan Buddhist texts. He holds a PhD from the University of Louvain and an MA in Buddhist Studies from SOAS, University of London. He works for 84000, an organization devoted to the translation into English of the Tibetan Buddhist canon. Previously, he was a researcher at the Center for Religious Studies (CERES) of the Ruhr University Bochum. He is affiliated with the Institut Orientaliste de Louvain (CIOL), where he has held the Satsuma Chair, and has also taught at the Inalco in Paris. His research interests focus on early Nyingma expositions of Dzogchen and Tantra.