This book presents the practice and theory of Tibetan Buddhism. First is a meditation manual written by the Fourth Pan-chen Lama (1781–1852), based on Tsongkhapa's Three Principal Aspects of the Path, which covers the daily practice of Tibetan monks and yogis. It details how to properly conduct a meditation session that contains the entire scope of the Buddhist path. Next is the Presentation of Tenets, written by Gon-chok-jik-may-wang-bo. It covers Indian Buddhist schools, as viewed in Tibet, and provides a solid introduction to the Buddhist theory animating the practice. Topics include the two truths, consciousness, hindrances to enlightenment, paths to freedom, and fruits of practice.

A clear and thorough exposition of the practice and theory of Buddhist logix and epistemology.

Derived from a Buddhist funerary text, this famous volume's timeless wisdom includes instructions for attaining enlightenment, preparing for the process of dying, and moving through the various stages of rebirth.

Dzogchen, a tradition of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, is considered by many to be an extremely powerful path to enlightenment. This ground-breaking book offers translations of four sacred texts of the Dzogchen tradition: Secret Instruction in a Garland of Vision, The Flight of the Garuda, Emptying the Depths of Hell, and the Wish-Granting Prayer of Kuntu Zangpo. With an informative introduction by the translator, Flight of the Garuda is an invaluable resource for both practice and scholarship. Flight of the Garuda conveys the heart advice of one of the most beloved nonsectarian masters of Tibet. Ordained as a Gelug monk, the itinerant yogi Shabkar was renowned for his teachings on Dzogchen, the heart practice of the Nyingma lineage. He wandered the countryside of Tibet and Nepal, turning many minds toward the Dharma through his ability to communicate the essence of the teachings in a poetic and crystal-clear way. Buddhists of all stripes, including practitioners of Zen and Vipassana, will find ample sustenance within the pages of this book, and be thrilled by the lyrical insights conveyed in Shabkar's words. Along with the song by Shabkar, translator Keith Dowman includes several other seminal Dzogchen texts. Dzogchen practice brings us into direct communion with the subtlemost nature of our experience, the unity of samsara in nirvana as experienced within our own consciousness. Within the Nyingma school, it is held higher than even the practices of tantra for bringing the meditator face to face with the nature of reality.

In 1988, many of the world's leading theologians gathered at Maryknoll to honor Gustavo GutiŽrrez, the father of liberation theology. The occasion marked the twentieth anniversary of the Medell'n conference, GutiŽrrez's sixtieth birthday, and publication of a new edition of his enduring classic, A Theology of Liberation. The resulting volume, The Future of Liberation Theology, included over fifty papers presented at that historic gathering. Expanding the View takes key essays from that landmark volume and makes them available for the first time in paperback. From the wealth of material, essays were selected to provide the most comprehensive overview of critical thinking on liberation theology--both its past developments and the challenges it faces in the future. Among the issues addressed: the ways liberation theology has grown and developed in its treatment of popular religion, Marxism, and women's issues, and the contribution of liberation theology to interreligious dialogue, Catholic social teaching, and the struggle for human rights. Critical questions are raised about the future possibilities of liberation theology. Above all, many of the contributors assess the significance of this theology from the Third World for Christians living in the affluent First World. Ideal for classroom use, and essential reading for everyone interested in this vital movement, this volume includes GutiŽrrez's own Expanding the View, which introduces the fifteenth anniversary edition of A Theology of Liberation. Contributors include: Elisabeth Schÿssler Fiorenza, Aloysius Pieris, Arthur McGovern, Franiois Houtart, Harvey Cox, Edward Schillebeeckx, Rosemary Ruether, Penny Lernoux, Leonardo Boff, Johann Baptist Metz, Gregory Baum, JosŽ M'guez Bonino, Pablo Richard, Robert McAfee Brown, and Maria Clara Bingemer.

Through engaging, contemporary examples, Making Sense of Mind Only reveals the Yogacara school of Indian Buddhism as a coherent system of ideas and practices for the path to liberation, contextualizing its key texts and rendering them accessible and relevant. The Yogacara, or Yoga Practice, school is one of the two schools of Mahayana Buddhism that developed in the early centuries of the common era. Though it arose in India, Mahayana Buddhism now flourishes in China, Tibet, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. While the other major Mahayana tradition, the Madhyamaka (Middle Way), focuses on the concept of emptiness—that all phenomena lack an intrinsic essence—the Yogacara school focuses on the cognitive processes whereby we impute such essences. Through everyday examples and analogues in cognitive science, author William Waldron makes Yogacara’s core teachings—on the three turnings of the Dharma wheel, the three natures, the storehouse consciousness, and mere perception—accessible to a broad audience. In contrast to the common characterization of Yogacara as philosophical idealism, Waldron presents Yogacara Buddhism on its own terms, as a coherent system of ideas and practices, with dependent arising its guiding principle. The first half of Making Sense of Mind Only explores the historical context for Yogacara’s development. Waldron examines early Buddhist texts that show how our affective and cognitive processes shape the way objects and worlds appear to us, and how we erroneously grasp onto them as essentially real—perpetuating the habits that bind us to samsara. He then analyzes the early Madhyamaka critique of essences. This context sets the stage for the book’s second half, an examination of how Yogacara texts such as the Samdhinirmocana Sutra and Asanga’s Stages of Yogic Practice (Yogacarabhumi) build upon these earlier ideas by arguing that our constructive processes also occur unconsciously. Not only do we collectively, yet mostly unknowingly, construct shared realities or cultures, our shared worlds are also mediated through the storehouse consciousness (alayavijñana) functioning as a cultural unconscious. Vasubandhu’s Twenty Verses argues that we can learn to recognize such objects and worlds as “mere perceptions” (vijñaptimatra) and thereby abandon our enchantment with the products of our own cognitive processes. Finally, Maitreya’s Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Ultimate Nature (Dharmadharmatavibhaga) elegantly lays out the Mahayana path to this transformation.