Old Man Basking in the Sun: Longchenpa's Treasury of Natural Perfection
Author: Translation and Commentary by Keith Dowman
Category: Buddhism   
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The Book

(Foreword by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu)
Dzogchen is the apotheosis of Tibetan Buddhism and Longchenpa is the
pre-eminent master of Dzogchen and one of Tibet's greatest mystical poets.
The verses of his Treasury of Natural Perfection (Gnas lugs mdzod) written
in the fourteenth century encompass and epitomize the radical precepts of
Dzogchen while his auto-commentary elaborates their meaning through a
concise prose paraphrase and with illustrative quotations from the
Collection of Tantras of the Ancients (Rnying ma rgyud 'bum). Transcending
the Tibetan context, Longchenpa delivers a manual of wisdom for all people
at all times and shows why the western world has turned to Tibet for its
mystical inspiration during the last half century. This transmission of
timeless wisdom of the Ancients of Tibet should take its place amongst the
world's religious classics. Through the precept 'nonaction' - which is
savoured like 'an old man basking in the sun' - Dzogchen teaches the natural
perfection of all our experience, and all our lives, just as it is, without
need of any alteration. This discipline provides the key not only to our
inner enlightenment but to the health and survival of our planet.
>From the Foreword by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
'Now that Ati Dzogchen is spreading in the West, we need a popular
translation of this extraordinary text...and the benefit will be seen as
direct experience of the nature of mind. Keith Dowman, the translator, who
has spent many years in communion with many great masters and fortuitously
absorbed the realization of Ati Dzogchen, has overcome the deep problems of
translation and produced a straight-forward English rendition. I hope that
this text may bring realization of the nature of things just as they are, to
all beings.'