The Vajra Essence

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The third in a three-volume set presents the revelations of Düdjom Lingpa, a highly influential mystic of 19th century Tibet. It is translated by B. Alan Wallace, widely respected for his lucid and readable translations of Tibetan Buddhism. 
 
“Superb...we are indebted to Wallace, and to those who inspired and assisted him, for providing us with such a rich and vital resource for coming to terms with the profundities and puzzles of the Great Perfection.”—Buddhadharma

THE VAJRA ESSENCE

B. Alan Wallace

Düdjom Lingpa (1835–1904) was one of the foremost tantric masters of nineteenth-century Tibet, and his powerful voice resonates strongly among Buddhist practitioners today. The Vajra Essence is Düdjom Lingpa’s most extended meditation on the path of Great Perfection, in many senses a commentary on all his other Dzogchen works. Dzogchen, the pinnacle of practice in the Nyingma school, is a radical revelation of the pure nature of consciousness that is delivered from master to disciple and perfected in a meditation that permeates every moment of our experience.

Revealed to Düdjom Lingpa as a visionary “treasure” text in 1862, the Vajra Essence takes the reader through seven stages of progressively deeper practice, from “taking the impure mind as the path” up to the practice of “direct crossing over” (tögal). The longest of Düdjom Lingpa’s five visionary works on Dzogchen, readers will find this a rich and masterful evocation of the enlightened experience. This is the first translation of this seminal work in any Western language, and Lama Alan Wallace, with his forty-five-plus years of extensive learning and deep meditative experience, is one of the most accomplished translators of Tibetan texts into English.

book information
  • Paperback
  • 360 pages, 6.00 x 9.00 inches
  • $19.95
  • ISBN 9781614293477
  • ebook
  • 360 pages
  • $11.99
  • ISBN 9781614292760
about the author
The Vajra Essence

B. Alan Wallace is president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. He trained for many years as a monk in Buddhist monasteries in India and Switzerland. He has taught Buddhist theory and practice in Europe and America since 1976 and has served as interpreter for numerous Tibetan scholars and contemplatives, including H. H. the Dalai Lama. After graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College, where he studied physics and the philosophy of science, he earned his MA and PhD in religious studies at Stanford University. He has edited, translated, authored, and contributed to more than forty books on Tibetan Buddhism, medicine, language, and culture, and the interface between science and religion.

Alan is also the founder of the Center for Contemplative Research (CCR), which now has retreat center locations in Crestone, Colorado, and in Castellina Marittima, Italy. A new center is also being established in New Zealand. The CCR is dedicated to researching the role and methods of the ancient contemplative practices of Shamatha and Vipashyana, and their involvement in mental health and wellbeing, as well as their role in fathoming the nature and origins of human consciousness.

The CCR vision builds on the results of the Shamatha Project. It is guided by a Scientific Advisory Board that includes the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and biologist Steven Chu (Stanford University), neuroscientist and clinical psychologist David Presti (UC Berkeley), theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser (Director of the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth College), and philosopher Michel Bitbol (Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). Cognitive scientists at the University of Pisa, the University of Trent, and the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa are committed to conducting research in collaboration with the CCR.

For an introduction, listen to The Nature of Reality: A Dialogue Between a Buddhist Scholar and a Theoretical Physicist. In this public dialogue, Alan Wallace and Sean Carroll, a world-renowned theoretical physicist and best-selling author, discussed the nature of reality from spiritual and scientific viewpoints.

Other books by B. Alan Wallace:
The Attention Revolution
Fathoming the Mind
Open Mind
Heart of the Great Perfection
Buddhahood Without Meditation
Dudjom Lingpa’s Visions of the Great Perfection
Natural Liberation
Transcending Time
Stilling the Mind
Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up

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