One of the highest attainments of Dzogchen, an ancient spiritual path recognized as the supreme vehicle of Tibetan Buddhism, the rainbow body is the transmutation of the physical constituents of the body into the essence of the five elements. This book traces the life story of a twentieth century Tibetan yogin, Togden Ugyen Tendzin (1888-1962), whose amazing realization of the rainbow body at his death was witnessed in Eastern Tibet not only by his countrymen, but also, to their confusion and dismay, by the Chinese officers who were responsible for his continuing imprisonment. The author of this fascinating biography is ChÃ¶gyal Namkhai Norbu (b. 1938), one of the great living masters of Dzogchen, and nephew, on the paternal side, of the Togden, a title which means "endowed with realization," an expression accorded to highly realized yogins in Tibet. ChÃ¶gyal Namkhai Norbu, who received profound teachings from his uncle, based his book on extensive notes he took while with Togden in 1954 in Derge, and on information given to him by Sala Kama Samten (1919-1993), also a disciple and nephew of the yogin. Togden's master was Adzom Drugpa, Drodul Pawo Dorje (1842-1924), one of the greatest Dzogchen masters of the last century, renowned for the depth and clarity of his teachings. A short biography of this master is here included, together with a biography of the yogini Lhundrub Tso (1864-1946), also a close student of Adzom Drugpa and grandmother of the Author.

Rainbow Body: The Life and Realization of Togden Ugyen Tendzin

Chogyal Namkhai Norbu

Shang Shung Publications

The Key for Consulting the Tibetan Calendar came out of a course held by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu in Rome at the beginning of the 1980s as part of a seminar on Tibetan Medicine and Astrology. It aims to act as an introduction to the Tibetan astrological universe, so different from ours in its complex and fascinating richness. At the same time, it can serve as a useful instrument to guide those who understand how closely our lives are linked to the warp and weft of the movements of the universe, in the general interdependence of all phenomena. A calendar such as this one uses the knowledge and the synthesis of a thousand years of culture, even if we have forgotten it all. It is a tool which enables us to rediscover, at least in part, how we fit in with that universal energy and with that cosmos of which we are the living image and a part, a more intense and more intimate part than we are usually prepared to believe. If all days are not the same, then it is important and useful to recognise the flavour, colour and cadence with which each day manifests. What you have in your hands is a key, a precious key for the interpretation and reading of temporal and cosmic cycles, but the only person who can open and close the door of your actions is yourself.

Key for Consulting the Tibetan Calendar

Religion & Spirituality

Norbu, Chögyal Namkhai

New Age & Spirituality

CREATIVE VISION and INNER REALITY is a translation of Easing the Beginner's Way: the Essential Points of Creation and Completion, written in verse at the age of twenty-seven by the amazing nineteenth century realized master and profound scholar Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye. Born in 1813 in Kham in eastern Tibet, Kongtrul offered this advice based on his own experiential understanding of these two basic methods in Tibetan Buddhist tantric meditation. 
 The aspiring practitioner's way is eased by clear and extremely practical explanations of firstly, the phase of "creation," referring to the gradual imaginative process of recreating, with the aid of mantra and mudra, one's self as the deity and the environment as the mandala, while maintaining the awareness of the lack of real existence of these and all appearances; and secondly, the phase of "completion," referring to the dissolution of the visualization until the mind rests in its natural condition, the inseparability of bliss and emptiness, a state accomplished by, among other methods, concentration on one's so-called vajra body and its channels, winds, and vital essences. Thus, in the first phase of this aspect of Vajrayana teaching the goal is imagined, and in the second it is directly experienced. 
 In reality those who have some familiarity with Mahamudra and Dzogchen, the two systems that represent the ultimate sense and final goal of all teachings, will find in the text a subtle guide to deeper knowledge. 
 This volume contains a second text, Jamgön Kongtrul's Advice to Lhawang Trashi, in which the neophyte meditator is instructed in an inspiring and direct manner on how to recognize the landmarks and pitfalls that may be encountered along the path. 
 An Introduction and substantive notes by the translator are included in this useful and beautiful book. 
 The translator Elio Guarisco is a founding member of the International Shang Shung Institute of Tibetan Studies whose goal is to preserve and deepen the knowledge and understanding of Tibetan cultural traditions and has translated many works by the Institute's founder, guide, and inspiration, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.

Creative Vision and Inner Reality

Kongtrul, The Third Jamgon

Buddhism

Beyond Words is an introductory compendium on the Dzogchen teachings written by Judy Allan and Julia Lawless, both long-time students of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. Interwoven with poignant quotes from past and present Dzogchen teachers and commentarial sources, the authors lucidly present a concise overview of the fundamental principles of this inexpressibly profound path. The book is a perceptive distillation of the central points of this extremely simple, but not easy, teaching, making it accessible to readers coming from various perspectives, from inquisitive newcomers to seasoned practitioners. Inspiring anecdotes involving masters of various traditions make Beyond Words both highly readable and insightful, a welcome companion on this journey to inner transformation. "Aimed at the general reader, Beyond Words is a lucid introduction to the profound teachings of the Great Perfection (Dzogchen Atiyoga) - the conclusive spiritual practices of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Drawing on quotations from translated materials and secondary sources, the authors outline the philosophical, historical and practical perspectives of Dzogchen, as presented by their mentor Chögyal Namkhai Norbu." Dr Gyurme Dorje (SOAS), The Centre for Himalayan Studies "Beyond Words is an exceptionally useful and inspiring digest of Dzogchen (Great Perfection) teachings and the teachers associated with them. The ancient prediction that Dzogchen would benefit many during these degenerate times, makes this comprehensive introduction especially relevant. The authors have made these profound teachings accessible and Beyond Words will be useful to both inexperienced and seasoned readers" -- Tsultrim Allione, author of Women of Wisdom "An easily readable introduction to the principles of Dzogchen, as revealed by the renowned contemporary Tibetan master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. The text is enriched with many inspiring anecdotes of various Buddhist masters, which adds a poetic and experiential dimension to this book." Robert Beer, author of The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs

Beyond Words

Lawless, Julia

Allan, Judith

The Cloud of Nectar is Oriol Aguilar's annotated translation of the biography of Nyagla Pema Düdul, a 19th century master, tertön, and well-known exponent of the practice and realization of Total Perfection (Dzogchen) written by Yeshe Dorje. Born in the rugged eastern Tibetan region of Khams, despite an auspicious birth accompanied by miraculous signs and prognostications, like the great 11th century mystic Milarepa, as a fatherless youth Padma Düdul suffered great personal loss, severe deprivation, and repeated violence. A social outcast, his early attempts to obtain spiritual instruction were cruelly thwarted. Time and again, after a vicious beating as he struggled to avoid the starvation that claimed his brother's life, propelled by empathy even toward his attackers, he would renew his quest for bodily and spiritual sustenance. Increasingly recognized for his spiritual attainments, he sought and exchanged teachings with some of the region's leading figures of Buddhist and Bön learning and practice. Generously sharing his spiritual treasure, he gathered a large number of followers and founded Kalzang monastery, which survives to this day. But despite his fame and spiritual influence, Pema Düdul never held a position in any religious hierarchy, choosing instead the austere yet joyous lifestyle of a wandering yogi and remaining in solitary meditation retreat for extended periods until, upon his passing, he attained the Rainbow Body. In this important scholarly work, through his substantial Introduction Oriol Aguilar precisely places his subject in that fertile time and place in which both the struggle to preserve traditional learning and practice and exceptional spiritual creativity flourished against a backdrop of social and political unrest. Although the biography is filled with descriptions of wondrous visions and dreamlike encounters, its vividly frank presentation of the life of Pema Düdul conveys a sense of proximity and relevance rarely found in works of this genre.

The Cloud of Nectar

Biographies & Memoirs

Yeshe Dorje

Leaders & Notable People

One thousand years ago, Gampopa, the illustrious heart son of Tibet's great yogin Milarepa, essentialized the entire Buddhist path in a concise set of pith instructions that became known as the Four Dharmas of Gampopa. Since that time, this profound teaching has been used by many eminent masters as a vehicle for imparting the key points of Buddhist practice, including, in the fourteenth century, the incomparable Longchenpa, whose brilliant exposition of the Four Dharmas illuminates the culmination of the path from a Dzogchen perspective. The Light of the Sun presents a new translation of Longchenpa's Precious Mala of the Four Dharmas, alongside the original Tibetan text, with the lucid, accessible, and relevant commentary of contemporary Dzogchen master Choegyal Namkhai Norbu. Born in eastern Tibet in 1938, Choegyal Namkhai Norbu is an internationally known Dzogchen teacher and author as well as an eminent scholar of the history and culture of Tibet. He studied with renowned masters of various Tibetan Buddhist traditions at important monasteries and colleges, demonstrating exceptional capacity to learn and receiving degrees in both philosophy and letters and traditional medicine. In 1960, he emigrated to Italy as a professor of Tibetology, where about a decade later he began to give instructions to a growing following of Western students, initially on Yantra Yoga and subsequently on Dzogchen, the Total Perfection teachings of the Tibetan spiritual traditions. He is the founder of the International Dzogchen Community, created to encourage the teaching and practice of the Dzogchen point of view and meditation methods, and travels worldwide giving teachings and speaking at international conferences. A prolific author of books on Dzogchen, Yantra Yoga, and Tibetan history, medicine, and culture, he also founded ASIA and the Shang Shung Institute, two nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting the Tibetan people and preserving Tibetan culture.

The Light of the Sun: Teachings on Longchenpa's Precious Mala of the Four Dharmas

Norbu, Choegyal Namkhai

Rabjam, Longchen

Who was this extraordinary individual with the spiritual signs of a buddha, the Sixteenth Karmapa, Holder of the Black Crown? Norma Levine has travelled to Tibet, India, Europe and North America to record the stories of this memorable man and the impact he had on the people who met him. This book gives us a rare and intimate insight into the personality of the man who was the 16th Karmapa. His mere presence, akin to a powerful force of nature, would deeply affect those around him; his cosmic laughter, like a lion's roar proclaiming supremacy, could be heard streets away. He was able to teach anywhere, at any time, when the moment was right and was followed wherever he went by his beloved entourage of birds who travelled with him and sang his mantra: Karmapa Kyenno, Master of Activity, Be With Me. This book offers the stories of Western students and prominent reincarnate Lamas who had meaningful contact with the 16th Karmapa in both India and the West. In the context of the freedom and spontaneity of Western culture in the 1960s, the profound mind transmission of this remarkable Master transformed the lives of those whom he encountered. Each story is a spiritual adventure; vibrant, authentic, sometimes shocking, but always inspiring. Norma Levine is a lifelong Buddhist practitioner and the author of Blessing Power of the Buddhas: Sacred Objects, Sacred Lands; A Yearbook of Buddhist Wisdom; and Chronicles of Love and Death: My Years with the Lost Spiritual King of Bhutan.

The Miraculous 16th Karmapa

Yangönpa’s Hidden Description of the Vajra Body presents the triad constituting the Vajra Body – the channels, energy-winds, and vital essences – as the basis for the application of experiential yogic techniques. Buddhism often relegates the body to a role subordinate to that of the mind; the focus of Yangönpa’s Hidden Description is the body itself, with its manifold layers – coarse, subtle, and very subtle. In his presentation of the human body’s energetic structure he contends that it is not simply the means to achieve enlightenment, but enlightenment itself, blending the Highest Tantra notion of the body as the method with the Total Perfection (rdzogs chen) principle of inherently present enlightenment as the fundamental nature of all phenomena. Gyalwa Yangönpa realized the nature of mind at the age of eight upon hearing instructions on the Dzogchen mind cycle of teachings. And at age nine he was installed as the abbot of Lhadong monastery, where he gave profound religious discourses, establishing his reputation as an enlightened emanation. During his lifetime, 1213-1258, he was devoted to four precious masters of different lineages. Under the guidance of the first two, he undertook solitary retreat and, following a clear vision of the energetic system of body and mind,came to master this inseparable matrix. An exceptional being gifted with powers, knowledge, and wisdom, Yangönpa led an exemplary life and his spiritual achievements won him a large number of followers. His literary output left a mark in the writings of later masters of all Tibetan schools, including Tsongkhapa, the Eighth Karmapa, Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, Raga Asya, and Jigmed Lingpa.

Secret Map of the Body: Visions of the Human Energy Structure

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Yangönpa, Gyalwa

Alternative Medicine

First Integrative Medicine Conference - Mental Disorders And Dementia: A Dialogue Between Conventional, Homeopathic, Tibetan, And Chinese Medicines Barcelona, Spain, January 2014 The aim of this three-day event, the first Integrative Medicine Conference in Barcelona, Spain, was to find a meeting point between the various medical disciplines present in the cultures of our planet: Western medicine, both homeopathic and allopathic, and Eastern medicine, in particular Tibetan and Chinese medicine. Although their theoretical base and technical tools are different, all of these disciplines have as their common aim the person's health in all its various aspects. A dialogue and comparison without preconceptions should be an enriching encounter for all. 1. Prof. Dr. Namkhai Norbu: Total Integration: Beyond the Relative Health Condition 2. Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo: Bridging Eastern and Western Medicine 3. Dr. Paolo Roberti di Sarsina: Traditional and Nonconventional Medicine: A Multi-Contextual Approach 4. Ms. Pepa Ninou &amp; Dr. Imma Nogués: The Approach to Healthcare within the National Values Plan of Catalonia 5. Dr. Thubten Phuntsok: Introduction to Mental Disorders According to Traditional Tibetan Medicine 6. Dr. Teresa Herrerías: Homeopathic Medicine: Levels of Therapy 7. Dr. Li Qilin: The Influence of Emotions on the Energy of Organs According to Traditional Chinese Medicine 8. Dr. Carlos Enrique Ramos: Psychology and Integral Psychotherapies 9. Dr. Estela Aguirre Beale: Mental Disorders from a Psychiatric Perspective 10. Dr. Ishar Dalmau i Santamaria: Integrative Medicine: An Experience of Research and Education in Barcelona 11. Dr. Herrerías: Homeopathy and Mental Disorders: Personal Clinical Experience 12. Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo: The Treatment of Mental Disorders According to Tibetan Medicine 13. Dr. Sergio Abanades León: Personal Experience of Integrative Medicine in Neuropsychiatric Disorders 14. Ms. Neus Rodríguez: Psychosocial Intervention in Dementia: The Uszhheimer Program. Documentary on Alzheimer's Disease, Winner of the 2013 Solé Tura Award 15. Dr. Guillem Martí: Dementia Spectrum: Dealing with the Ill Person 16. Dr. Lobsang Tenzin: The Traditional Tibetan Medicine Approach to the Western Concept of Dementia 17. Dr. Francisco Barnosell Pi: Differential Diagnosis in Dementia or Schizophrenia by Applying an Integrative Medicine Approach: A Personal View

First Integrative Medicine Conference

Wangmo, Phuntsog

This summa of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu’s researches is dedicated first and foremost to his fellow countrymen and women and to Tibetan youth in particular. The text was originally conceived as a set of university lectures that Chögyal Namkhai Norbu was invited to give at the University of Nationalities in Beijing in 1988, forming a first abridged version of The Light of Kailash subsequently enlarged by the author after further research; the manuscript through meticulous selection and a critical use and analysis of a vast array of literary and frequently unpublished sources became a work of 1,900 pages divided in three volumes. The first volume, “The Early Period, the History of Ancient Zhang Zhung,” considers the rise of early human generations and the Bon lineages of ancient Zhang Zhung, its dynasties, language, and culture. The second volume, “The History of the Intermediate Period: Tibet and Zhang Zhung,” is focused upon human generations, the Bonpo lineages, the spread of Bon during the lifetimes of the first Tibetan monarchs, the dynasties, written language, and civilization of ancient Tibet, as well as upon the reigns of specific kings, the Bon religion, and Bonpo religious figures (Dran-pa Nam-mkha’ in particular) of Zhang Zhung during that period. The third volume, “The History of the Later Period: Tibet,” is concerned with an assessment of the genealogies, Bonpo lineages, royal dynasties (from the first monarch gNya’-khri bTsan-po until the forty-fifth monarch Khri-dar-ma ’U-dum-btsan), language, and civilization of Tibet. This amazing trilogy, aptly named The Light of Kailash, offers an open, daring, holistic, unbiased approach to the study of the cultural and spiritual heritage of Tibet and to the understanding of the origin of this fascinating and endangered civilization.

The Light of Kailash. A History of Zhang Zhung and Tibet: Volume Three. Later Period: Tibet

History

Asia

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