The Crystal and the Way of Light: Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen (Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy) - Softcover

Chogyal Namkhai Norbu

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1559391359 ISBN 13: 9781559391351

Publisher: Snow Lion, 1999

Synopsis

In The Crystal and the Way of Light, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu examines the spiritual path from the viewpoint of Dzogchen. He discusses the base path and fruit of Dzogchen practice, and describes his education and how he met his principal master who showed him the real meaning of direct introduction to Dzogchen. By interweaving his life story with the teachings, he both sets Dzogchen in its traditional context and reveals its powerful contemporary relevance. The book is richly illustrated with photos of Buddhist masters, meditational deities, and Dzogchen symbols.

About this title

Review

Within Tibetan Buddhism, there is a little-known discipline called Dzogchen, the turbo path to liberation. In some traditions, the path to liberation extends over lifetimes of diligent practice, but Dzogchen is an accelerated way to achieve self-perfection. After many years of formal study, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu was initiated into this less-formal practice, which is one of the highest yet most accessible of Tibetan Buddhist teachings. Namkhai Norbu eventually made his way to Italy to teach, where John Shane transcribed and translated Namkhai Norbu's lectures, putting together what is now one of the most popular books on Dzogchen. Namkhai Norbu makes it clear that these teachings are not a handbook for practice but rather an overview of Dzogchen, notably its three divisions: the base, the path, and the fruit. The ultimate and immediate goal is to achieve the primordial state of non-dual awareness, the one taste, and to maintain it. With colorful anecdotes from his own experience (finding an ancient text manifested in a dream, for example, and visiting eccentric cave yogis), Namkhai Norbu's teachings illustrate that Dzogchen is not just theory but the way to a new, and almost incomprehensible, way of being. --Brian Bruya

From the Back Cover

Chogyal Namkhai Norbu examines the spiritual path from the viewpoint of Dzogchen. He interweaves his life story with Dzogchen teachings, making them accessible through his living example. He discusses his education and how he met his principal master who showed him the real meaning of "direct introduction to Dzogchen."

"One of the most significant contributions to the understanding of Tibetan Buddhism to have appeared in recent years."--The Middle Way, Journal of the Buddhist Society, London

Namkhai Norbu was born in eastern Tibet in 1938, and at the age of three was recognized as the incarnation of a great Dzogchen master. He received the full traditional education of a "tulku" or reincarnate lama, and went on to study and practice with several great masters in Tibet.

"The author distinguished between Dzogchen exposition and instruction; the former is what books do; the latter requires the direct teaching of a master. Instruction entails actual transmission of the primordial state from the master to the student. The student's task is then to engage in practices that enable direct access to that state -- and eventually to abide uninterruptedly in the primoridial state, even while living an ordinary life."-- The Quest

About this edition

• Publisher: Snow Lion
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1559391359
• ISBN 13: 9781559391351
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216
• Editor: John Shane