Practicing the Great Perfection: Instructions on the Crucial Points

"After Shechen Gyaltsap's death, many claimed that his relics had the power to protect them from all external dangers. His wealth of realization overflowed into literary composition, and he is said to have left four or five volumes of writings. These unfortunately were never properly assembled and published, and were eventually lost. It is said that even in the time when Khyentse Rinpoche was still in Tibet, only one short collection of songs of realization and practice instructions had survived; and perhaps by now these too have vanished into oblivion. The texts quoted by Shechen Gyaltsap in the present book may therefore be the only surviving compositions of that great Dzogchen yogi"--

A collection of essential instructions on the practice of Dzogchen, or The Great Perfection, from one of the great early 20th century Buddhist masters.Shechen Gyaltsap (1871-1926) was widely recognized as one of the greatest meditation masters and most compassionate bodhisattvas in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. He lived a life of complete devotion and commitment to monastic discipline and study, and became the root teacher of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who said of Shechen Gyaltsap's teachings that they were "worth more than all the gold in the entire world."This collection, intended for the advanced Buddhist practitioner who has received initiation from a qualified master, provides the essential instructions of Dzogchen, or Great Perfection, practice. Written with a clear simplicity that belies their profundity, the teachings give practical and pointed advice on how students should meditate and behave in ordinary life. The work begins with an extensive reflection on the problem of self-clinging and the analytical meditation designed to uproot it, and proceeds to more specific instructions for the mind practice itself.