Complete instructions on how to practice the generation stage of Guhyasamaja from a contemporary Tibetan Buddhist master, with a new English translation of the self-generation ritual.
The Guhyasamāja Tantra is one of the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras of Vajrayana Buddhism. In the initial, generation-stage practice, one engages in a prescribed sequence of visualizations of oneself as an enlightened being in a purified environment in order to prepare one’s mind and body to engage in the second stage: the completion stage. The latter works directly with the subtle energies of one’s mind and body and transforms them into the enlightened mind and body of a buddha. In this book, Gyumé Khensur Lobsang Jampa, a former abbot of Gyumé Tantric College, provides complete instructions on how to practice the generation stage of Guhyasamāja, explaining the visualizations, offerings, and mantras involved, what they symbolize, and the purpose they serve. These instructions, which are usually imparted only orally from master to student after the student has been initiated into the Guhyasamāja mandala, are now being published in English for the first time and are supplemented by extracts from key written commentaries in the footnotes to support practitioners who have received the required transmissions from a holder of this lineage. The complete self-generation ritual is included in the second part of the book, with the Tibetan on facing pages, which can be used by those who read Tibetan and want to recite the ritual in Tibetan.
“The Guhyasamāja Tantra is one of the most important practices in the Gelukpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and Lama Tsongkhapa himself has spent tremendous effort in explaining, clarifying, and giving instruction on this practice. Gyumé Khensur Lobsang Jampa holds the uninterrupted lineage of this practice coming from Lama Tsongkhapa himself. Making such an explication available to advanced, sincere Western Dharma students is a great gift and opportunity.”—Yangsi Rinpoche, president of Maitripa College
“Artemus Engle deserves our great thanks and hearty congratulations for his heroic effort in studying the Guhyasamāja generation-stage practices and in achieving a lucid English translation of this exceptional teaching by the highly respected expert practitioner/scholar, the retired abbot of the Gyumé Lower Tantric College in South India, Khensur Lobsang Jampa Rinpoche. This detailed exposition of the sophisticated creative yoga of the advanced tantric monk-practitioners will finally help scholars, who are just beginning to go beyond the sensationalism attached to this field, to undertake the serious exploration of the original texts—the software of the yogis. It will also become an important source for practitioners who aim for a taste of the extraordinary possible attainments, for which these time-tested Indian and Tibetan traditions provide an amazingly well-developed set of key insights and techniques.”—Robert A. F. Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor Emeritus of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Columbia University
Gyumé Khensur Lobsang Jampa was born in Lhasa, Tibet, in 1937. He entered the Mey College of Sera Monastery at the age of ten and studied in Tibet until 1959, when he fled to India after the Chinese occupation of Tibet. After completing the final Geshe exam, he was awarded the title of Geshe Lharampa, and later, after entering the Gyumé Tantric College, he was awarded the degree of Ngagrampa (the highest Tantric degree in the Gelukpa tradition). The Dalai Lama appointed him as the abbot of Gyumé, a position which he filled for a term of three years. He currently teaches throughout the US, Canada, and Asia.
Artemus B. Engle studied Buddhism with the late Sera Mey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche for more than thirty years. Over much of the past decade, he has continued his studies as a student of Gyumé Khensur Lobsang Jampa Rinpoche. In 1983, he earned a doctorate in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin and is currently a fellow with the Tsadra Foundation. His previous translations include The Inner Science of Buddhist Practice and The Bodhisattva Path to Unsurpassed Enlightenment.
Complete instructions on how to practice the generation stage of Guhyasamaja from a contemporary Tibetan Buddhist master, with a new English translation of the self-generation ritual.
The Guhyasamāja Tantra is one of the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras of Vajrayana Buddhism. In the initial, generation-stage practice, one engages in a prescribed sequence of visualizations of oneself as an enlightened being in a purified environment in order to prepare one’s mind and body to engage in the second stage: the completion stage. The latter works directly with the subtle energies of one’s mind and body and transforms them into the enlightened mind and body of a buddha. In this book, Gyumé Khensur Lobsang Jampa, a former abbot of Gyumé Tantric College, provides complete instructions on how to practice the generation stage of Guhyasamāja, explaining the visualizations, offerings, and mantras involved, what they symbolize, and the purpose they serve. These instructions, which are usually imparted only orally from master to student after the student has been initiated into the Guhyasamāja mandala, are now being published in English for the first time and are supplemented by extracts from key written commentaries in the footnotes to support practitioners who have received the required transmissions from a holder of this lineage. The complete self-generation ritual is included in the second part of the book, with the Tibetan on facing pages, which can be used by those who read Tibetan and want to recite the ritual in Tibetan.
Reviews
“The Guhyasamāja Tantra is one of the most important practices in the Gelukpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and Lama Tsongkhapa himself has spent tremendous effort in explaining, clarifying, and giving instruction on this practice. Gyumé Khensur Lobsang Jampa holds the uninterrupted lineage of this practice coming from Lama Tsongkhapa himself. Making such an explication available to advanced, sincere Western Dharma students is a great gift and opportunity.”—Yangsi Rinpoche, president of Maitripa College
“Artemus Engle deserves our great thanks and hearty congratulations for his heroic effort in studying the Guhyasamāja generation-stage practices and in achieving a lucid English translation of this exceptional teaching by the highly respected expert practitioner/scholar, the retired abbot of the Gyumé Lower Tantric College in South India, Khensur Lobsang Jampa Rinpoche. This detailed exposition of the sophisticated creative yoga of the advanced tantric monk-practitioners will finally help scholars, who are just beginning to go beyond the sensationalism attached to this field, to undertake the serious exploration of the original texts—the software of the yogis. It will also become an important source for practitioners who aim for a taste of the extraordinary possible attainments, for which these time-tested Indian and Tibetan traditions provide an amazingly well-developed set of key insights and techniques.”—Robert A. F. Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor Emeritus of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Columbia University
Author
Gyumé Khensur Lobsang Jampa was born in Lhasa, Tibet, in 1937. He entered the Mey College of Sera Monastery at the age of ten and studied in Tibet until 1959, when he fled to India after the Chinese occupation of Tibet. After completing the final Geshe exam, he was awarded the title of Geshe Lharampa, and later, after entering the Gyumé Tantric College, he was awarded the degree of Ngagrampa (the highest Tantric degree in the Gelukpa tradition). The Dalai Lama appointed him as the abbot of Gyumé, a position which he filled for a term of three years. He currently teaches throughout the US, Canada, and Asia.
Artemus B. Engle studied Buddhism with the late Sera Mey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche for more than thirty years. Over much of the past decade, he has continued his studies as a student of Gyumé Khensur Lobsang Jampa Rinpoche. In 1983, he earned a doctorate in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin and is currently a fellow with the Tsadra Foundation. His previous translations include The Inner Science of Buddhist Practice and The Bodhisattva Path to Unsurpassed Enlightenment.
