Approaching the Great Perfection: Simultaneous and Gradual Methods of Dzogchen Practice in the Longchen Nyingtig (Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism) - Softcover

Sam Van Schaik

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0861713702 ISBN 13: 9780861713707

Publisher: Wisdom Publications,U.S., 2003

Synopsis

Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, is the highest meditative practice of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Approaching the Great Perfection looks at a seminal figure of this lineage, Jigme Lingpa, an eighteenth-century scholar and meditation master whose cycle of teachings, the Longchen Nyingtig, has been handed down through generations as a complete path to enlightenment. Ten of Jigme Lingpa's texts are presented here, along with extensive analysis by van Schaik of a core tension within Buddhism: Does enlightenment develop gradually, or does it come all at once? Though these two positions are often portrayed by modern scholars as entrenched polemical views, van Schaik explains that both tendencies are present within each of the Tibetan Buddhist schools. He demonstrates how Jigme Lingpa is a great illustration of this balancing act, using the rhetoric of both sides to propel his students along the path of the Great Perfection.

About this title

About the Author

Sam van Schaik received his PhD in Tibetan Buddhist Literature from the University of Manchester, England. He currently works at the British Library's international Dunhuang Project in London, researching early Tibetan manuscripts, and is the author of Tibet: A History (Yale 2011).

Edition details

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications,U.S.
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0861713702
• ISBN 13: 9780861713707
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448