Saturday, August 11, 2012


Groundless Paths: The Prajaparamita Sutras, the Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Nyingma Tradition (Tsadra Foundation)


현관장엄론....
닝마 전승자..빠뛸 린포체의 주석


The Abhisamayalamkara summarizes all the topics in the vast body of the prajnaparamita sutras. Resembling a zip-file, it only comes to life through its Indian and Tibetan commentaries. Together, these texts not only discuss the "hidden meaning" of the prajnaparamita sutrasthe paths and bhumis of sravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas, but also serve as contemplative manuals for the explicit topic of these sutrasemptinessand how it is to be understood on the progressive levels of realization of bodhisattvas. Thus, these texts describe what happens in the mind of a bodhisattva who meditates on emptiness, making it a living experience from the beginner's stage up through buddhahood.

Groundless Paths contains the first in-depth study of the Abhisamayalamkara (the text studied most extensively in higher Tibetan Buddhist education) and its commentaries from the perspective of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. This study consists mainly of translations of Maitreya's famous text and two commentaries on it by Patrul Rinpoche. These are supplemented by three short texts on the paths and bhumis by the same author as well as extensive excerpts from commentaries by six other Nyingma masters, including Mipham Rinpoche. Thus, this book helps close a long-standing gap in the modern scholarship on the prajnaparamita sutras and the literature on paths and bhumis in mahayana Buddhism.


"Groundless Paths contains Dza Patrul Rinpoche's brilliant commentaries on the Abhisamayalamkara, masterfully translated and annotated by Karl Brunnhölzl. This third volume completes the presentation of the major Kagyü and Nyingma works on the prajñaparamita literature in English for the first time."-Elizabeth Callahan, translator of The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six, Part Three: Frameworks of Buddhist Philosophy...

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