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

Koppl, Heidi I.; Zangpo, Rongzom Chok

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1559394196 ISBN 13: 9781559394192

Publisher: Shambhala, 2013

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Esoteric Tibetan Buddhist scriptures teach practitioners to visualize themselves as deities residing within a mandala. By doing so, they assert, the practitioner will eventually become the deity itself. But are sentient beings intrinsically pure, or does visualization practice and contemplation of the deity qualities make them pure? In this eleventh-century commentary, the renowned Nyingma (Ancient School) scholar Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo sets out his analysis of the nature of purity. This penetrating study, directed towards scholars and serious practitioners, contains Koppl's English-language translation of Rongzom's original text and her explication of his views.

Koppl's incisive analysis offers a description of Rongzom's career and works and gives special attention to his critique of Madhyamaka philosophy, comparing his position to the work of his Nyingma successors. Some of Rongzom's approaches, Koppl shows, are unconventional even in a Nyingma context.

Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo is considered the greatest Nyingma scholar of the eleventh century.

Heidi Koppl is a translator and scholar of Tibetan Buddhist texts associated with the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. She lives in Kathmandu, Nepal.

About the Author:

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Shambhala
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1559394196
• ISBN 13: 9781559394192
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160