Dzogchen:

This generously-sized, reader-friendly handbook, lists the deities, teachers and principal ideas we first meet when we receive Dzogchen teachings. Designed for those new to the teachings and those who want to go deeper, it also provides: a time-line for Indian and Tibetan Buddhism; an extensive wordlist that translates Tibetan phonetics into English; and a list of resources to continue study. Much more than a simple glossary, it contains over 400 comprehensive entries that include:

• The principal Dzogchen deities, lineage masters and guardians
• Taking refuge. The lineage of teachers. The guru. Faith: the direct introduction to intrinsic awareness. Rigpa. Guru yoga. Devotion. The samaya, our tantric vow.
• Practising meditation. The Nyingma nine vehicle system. Preliminary practices. Generation and completion stages in the tantric sadhana. The Yidam and pure vision. Lojong, trulkhor, rushen, semzin, trekchö and tögal, the rites of the bardo. Rigpa, self-liberation and the Three Words of Garab Dorje. The Rainbow Body.
• Describing the nature of reality. Buddhist philosophy – Early Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism and the Vajrayana. The three turnings of the wheel of the Dharma. Dzogchen’s understanding of the Ground, Path and Fruition, mind and the nature of mind, the unity of emptiness and clarity and the Three Kayas.
• The history of the Dzogchen the Nyingma Tradition. Its transmission through the spoken lineage, revealed treasures and direct visions. Its tulkus and tertöns. Its relationship to the New Translation Schools and practices, Chö, Mahamudra and the Rimé movement.

‘An exacting and highly intelligent reference work for Dzogchen teachings – the only one available – written in a readable style for both practitioners and scholars.’ – Keith Dowman