Source Literature

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Vidyaraja
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Source Literature

Post by Vidyaraja »

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could point me to a list or give me some suggestions of some good literature of Tibetan Buddhism from prior to the 20th century, preferably medieval works. I asked a similar question before regarding literature on Dzogchen actually, but now I am looking more broadly in scope. To give a good example of what I am talking about, it could be actual scriptural sources, commentaries on scripture, or works by Tibetan masters, such as Longchenpa or Dolpopa for example. Anything you can suggest (in English of course) would be greatly appreciated as I need to expand my knowledge on Tibetan Buddhism and am looking for some new reading material. While I have nothing against modern literature or masters, I can always find sources on such material, whereas hearing recommendations about older literature isn't as easy to come by.

Thanks!
dakini_boi
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Re: Source Literature

Post by dakini_boi »

Words of My Perfect Teacher by Paltrul Rinpoche (19th C.) is a classic and pretty entertaining too.
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heart
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Re: Source Literature

Post by heart »

Vidyaraja wrote:Hello, I was wondering if anyone could point me to a list or give me some suggestions of some good literature of Tibetan Buddhism from prior to the 20th century, preferably medieval works. I asked a similar question before regarding literature on Dzogchen actually, but now I am looking more broadly in scope. To give a good example of what I am talking about, it could be actual scriptural sources, commentaries on scripture, or works by Tibetan masters, such as Longchenpa or Dolpopa for example. Anything you can suggest (in English of course) would be greatly appreciated as I need to expand my knowledge on Tibetan Buddhism and am looking for some new reading material. While I have nothing against modern literature or masters, I can always find sources on such material, whereas hearing recommendations about older literature isn't as easy to come by.

Thanks!
Tulku Thondrups "Dzogchen practice" is both practice texts and philosophical texts by Longchenpa, and Rickard Barron's translations of Longchenpas's seven treasuries should keep you busy for a while. Milarepa's songs also comes highly recommended.

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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conebeckham
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Re: Source Literature

Post by conebeckham »

I strongly recommend the translations of Jamgon Kongtrul's "Encyclodpedia of Knowledge," which is huge in scope and pretty nonsectarian in outlook.

I can't even recall how many volumes there are, but here are a few off the top of my head:
"Myriad Worlds"
"Buddhist Ethics"
"Systems of Buddhist Tantra"
"Esoteric Instructions"

There are many more.....I think the whole project is now complete.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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