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Bardo: Interval of Possibility
Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche gives an exceptionally clear explanation of Aspiration for the Bardo, graciously elucidating its more obscure points. His commentary instructs on what to practice and how to train ourselves at every point of opportunity, in this very life, “whether in the waking state or the dream state,” and even within the bardo experience itself.
Finding Genuine Practice
The Eight Verses of Training the Mind
The Gyalwang Karmapa has taught Geshe Langri Thangpa’s Eight Verses of Training the Mind on several occasions. Though short, this text gets to the core of Mahayana practice, and each time he teaches it, he emphasizes different themes. In this particular teaching, he stressed how we need to bring our practice to bear on the difficulties that face us in our life and our dharma practice — an issue that all practitioners must face if their practice is to be effective.
Jewels from the Treasury
ཆོས་མངོན་པ་མཛོད་དང་། དེའི་འགྲེལ་པ་གཞོན་ནུ་རྣམ་རོལ།
This book contains a translation of one of the greatest presentations of abhidharma in any tradition: Vasubandhu’s Verses on the Treasury of Abhidharma, along with the 9th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje’s clear and concise explanation of it, Youthful Play, translated by David Karma Choephel.
Nurturing Compassion
Teachings from the First Visit to Europe
In this series of teachings given during his first-ever visit to Europe, His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, provided a stunning demonstration of what it means to live and teach with an open heart. The Karmapa shared his own life experiences and the feelings they awakened in him, reflecting on his own process of finding meaning in life. Even though he was addressing massive audiences in convention centres, the youthful Buddhist leader spoke as if conversing with close friends. The result is heart-based and comes direct with the freshness of experience.
A Deep Blue Stream. A Sadhana of Medicine Buddha
དགོངས་གཏེར་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་ཀློང་གསལ་གྱི་ཟུར་རྒྱན་གནམ་ཆོས་ཉིད་ནས་ཟུར་དུ་བསྒྲིགས་པ་སྨན་བླའི་ཆོ་ག་བཻཌཱུརྱའི་ཆུ་རྒྱུན།
A Sadhana of Medicine Buddha Compiled from the Luminous Expanse of Mind Treasures, Found within the Sky Dharma This practice of Medicine Buddha comes from the mind treasures of the terton Namchö Mingyur Dorje (1645–1667) and belongs to his Sky Dharma (namchö) treasury. It was Karma Chakmé (1616–1678) who compiled the present practice from these texts. It comes from these two master’s combined Dharma and is filled with their blessing. The text is concise while encompassing all that is needed to bring spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being. As other yidam deity practices, it can lead to full awakening.
Chariot of the Fortunate
The Life of the First Yongey Mingyur Dorje
This ebook includes a brief biography of Mingyur Dorje by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, extracted from his The Hundred Tertöns (གཏེར་སྟོན་བརྒྱ་རྩའི་རྣམ་ཐར།), and the biography of Mingyur Dorje called Chariot of the Fortunate. The latter was begun by Dzigar Tukyi Dorje and completed by Surmang Tendzin Rinpoche. Its first ebook edition was enriched with an up-to-date biography of the current Seventh Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and information about his activities and centers worldwide.
A Guru Yoga of the 16th Lord, Rigpe Dorje
རྗེ་བཅུ་དྲུག་པ་རིག་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་བླ་མའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྐུ་བཞིའི་མྱུ་གུ་སྐྱེད་བྱེད་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཆར་རྒྱུན།
With Recitation by the Seventeenth Karmapa
The Continuous Rain of Nectar that Nurtures the Sprouting of the Four Kayas: A Guru Yoga of the Sixteenth Lord, Rigpe Dorje. As the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa wrote in the foreword to the commentary on the guru yoga by H.E. Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche, The Means to Attain the Four Kayas: “This guru yoga of the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, is special and of particular significance because it was composed by the Sixteenth Karmapa himself, and to this day it remains as the daily guru yoga practice for many of his students.”
The Means to Attain the Four Kayas
སྐུ་བཞིའི་གོ་འཕང་འཐོབ་བྱེད། །
The Means to Attain the Four Kayas is H.E. Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche’s commentary on A Guru Yoga of the 16th Lord, Rigpe Dorje (སྐུ་བཞིའི་མྱུ་གུ་སྐྱེད་བྱེད་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཆར་རྒྱུན།). As the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa wrote in his foreword: “Because Rinpoche received the transmission of this guru yoga and the practice instructions directly from the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa himself, his commentary is authoritative and of great value.”
The Seventy-Two Exhortations
ཁ་རག་སྒོམ་ཆུང་གིས་མཛད་པའི་བློ་སྦྱོང་ཨང་ཡིག་བདུན་ཅུ་རྩ་གཉིས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ། །
Teachings on mind training are pith instructions on practicing bodhichitta and taming one’s own being. Mind Training: The Seventy-Two Exhortations is an experiential teaching by Kharak Gomchung on taking suffering as the path and recognizing and abandoning one’s own faults. It advises us on the stages of the path, refuge and bodhichitta, and how to engage in meditation and post-meditation. These are points that all individuals who want the calm of peace and happiness must know and certainly must put into practice.
The Hundred Tertöns: A Garland of Beryl
གཏེར་སྟོན་བརྒྱ་རྩའི་རྣམ་ཐར།
The Hundred Tertons is Jamgon Kongtrul’s history of the visionary men and women who have, again and again, renewed the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition of Padmasambhava. Kongtrul’s book includes biographies of Padmasambhava, his twenty-five disciples, Longchenpa, Jikme Lingpa, Chokgyur Lingpa, and many others. Considered a seminal work of Tibetan Buddhist history, The Hundred Tertons for the first time available in English translation was printed by KTD Publications in 2012 and now is available in electronic edition.
A Garland of Jewels: The Eight Great Bodhisattvas
བྱང་སེམས་ཉེ་སྲས་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་རྟོགས་བརྗོད་ནོར་བུའི་ཕྲེང་བ།
A Garland of Jewels: The Eight Great Bodhisattvas is a collection of stories about the eight great bodhisattvas. These stories are all taken from sutras and tantras taught by the Buddha, such as the Avatamsaka and the Lotus Sutras. They were collected and edited by the great Buddhist teacher Mipham Namgyal (1846-1912).
Verses for Celebrating Birthdays
འཁྲུངས་སྐར་ཞལ་འདོན།
This new text by Khenpo Ghawang can be recited to celebrate the birthday of both exalted teachers and ordinary beings. To facilitate using these prayers to commemorate the birthday of one’s teacher, this ebook contains an appendix of long life prayers for many prominent Karma Kagyu masters.
Shower of Blessings with Commentary
Based on a seminar he gave at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, Lama Yeshe Gyamtso’s commentary explains the meaning and practice of Shower of Blessings: A Guruyoga Based on the Seven-Line Prayer, composed by Jamgön Mipham (1846-1912) and connected with Guru Rinpoche, Guru Padmasambhava, also called Padmakara. Published in print by KTD Publications in 2015 the book features the root text and explanations. The whole practice text of the guruyoga with tsok offering in pecha format is also published as a separate ebook in the link shown above.
Shower of Blessings
ཚིག་བདུན་གསོལ་འདེབས་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་བླ་མའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་བྱིན་རླབས་ཆར་འབེབས།
Shower of Blessings is a guruyoga practice and tsok offering connected with Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava, Padmakara). The practice was composed by Khenchen Mipham (1846-1912), a great master of the Nyingma tradition who also had great influence on the Karma Kagyu tradition. The Shower of Blessings is a simple liturgy, which can be easily performed even by students who have little experience with Tibetan liturgy practices. It is recommended for those students who wish to observe the 10th day of the Tibetan lunar calendar.
Compassion NOW!
Compassion NOW! exhorts us to translate compassionate feeling into positive action in the world. From a teaching given in India in 2010, the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa asserts that having compassion for oneself is a necessary starting point. From there we can expand compassion to include those beings with whom we have a close connection, and from there expand it even further to develop immeasurable compassion for all sentient beings. We accomplish this through the mahayana practice of mind training, which the Karmapa discusses here with great clarity and insight. An overview of the vajrayana method of meditation on Chenrezik, the bodhisattva of compassion, is also included.
The First Karmapa
The Life and Teachings of Dusum Khyenpa
Compiled by the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, this first English translation of the teachings and biographies of the First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa enables contemporary readers to fully receive the transmission of this peerless spiritual being, who brought perfect benefit to himself and others.
The Torch of True Meaning
ཕྱག་ཆེན་སྔོན་འགྲོ་བཞི་སྦྱོར་དང་དངོས་གཞིའི་ཁྲིད་རིམ་མདོར་བསྡུས་ངེས་དོན་སྒྲོན་མེ།
This new translation of the classic text, The Torch of True Meaning, by the great master and scholar Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye gives clear and concise instructions on the preliminary and main practices of mahamudra meditation. But it does not only teach mahamudra: this book describes vividly what is necessary for any meditation practice. It is presented here in a new translation that includes the previously unpublished final chapter of Jamgön Kongtrul’s work, a brief yet inspiring description of the actual practice of mahamudra.
The Chariot that Travels the Noble Path
སྒྲུབ་བརྒྱུད་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ཀརྨ་ཀཾ་ཚང་རྟོགས་པའི་དོན་རྒྱུད་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་གསུང་དྲི་མ་མེད་པ་རྣམས་བཀོད་ནས་ཞལ་འདོན་རྒྱུན་ཁྱེར་གྱི་རིམ་པ་འཕགས་ལམ་འགྲོད་པའི་ཤིང་རྟ།
The Chariot that Travels the Noble Path is the standard practice text for the mahamudra preliminaries in the Karma Kamtsang tradition, composed by the Ninth Gyalwang Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje. Presented here is a new edition prepared by the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who wrote a new lineage supplication and made other edits in the guru yoga practice to bring it closer to the original sources. The commentary for the ngondro practices featured in this ebook is published seperately as The Torch of True Meaning. Ngondro for Our Current Day also gives instructions on the short ngondro practice by the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa. Though the visualizations are slightly different, the general principals are the same as for this practice.
Chenrezik: For the Benefit of All Beings
One of the most highly revered living masters of the Karma Kagyu lineage, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche offers here a detailed explanation of the Chenrezik practice, based on For the Benefit of All Beings as Vast as the Sky (Drodon khakhyabma), a text composed by Thangtong Gyalpo. Drawing on decades of experience guiding Western students and with the sparkling clarity that is so typical of his teachings, in this book Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche offers students all that they need to plant their own seeds of awakening.
Sadhana of Chenrezik
ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྒོམ་བཟླས་འགྲོ་དོན་མཁའ་ཁྱབ་མ་བཞུགས་སོ།།
The Chenrezik practice, For the Benefit of All Beings as Vast as the Sky, composed by Thangtong Gyalpo.
See also: The Chenrezik: For the Benefit of All Beings by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche
Ngondro for Our Current Day
The 17th Gyalwang Karmapa compiled a condensed ngondro text especially for those who wish to complete their preliminary practices in the context of busy work lives. It was published earlier as a seperate ebook: Brief Recitations for the Four Preliminary Practices.
In this succinct teaching presented in 2006 by the Gyalwang Karmapa in Bodhgaya, India, he guides students through the details of the visualizations of Refuge, Vajrasattva purification, and Mandala offerings.
A Collection of Commentaries on the Four-Session Guru Yoga
Guru yoga is essential for the realization of mahamudra, and in the Karma Kagyu lineage, the primary guru yoga practiced is the Four-Session Guru Yoga by the Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje. This volume presents newly rediscovered instructions for this practice by the Fifth Shamar Könchok Yenlak and the Ninth Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje along with the more well-known commentaries by Karma Chakme, Karmay Khenchen Rinchen Dargye, and the Fifteenth Karmapa Khakhyap Dorje. These texts give clear guidance that, when accompanied by instruction from a qualified master, will help practitioners develop the profound realization of devotion mahamudra.
The Seven Points of Mind Training
ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་གདམས་ངག་བློ་སྦྱོང་དོན་བདུན་མ།
Though from beginningless samsara, all beings have assiduously chased after outer objects to procure happiness and remove suffering, these hopes remain unfulfilled. Knowing that one’s mind is the real source of all happiness and suffering, the Buddha taught countless means to tame one’s mind. With the Mind Training instructions, one uses any and all tribulations as means to gather the accumulations and remove obscurations. Merely adopting these mental attitudes allows one to use negativities for enrichment. They are pith instructions of the Mahayana.
The Ganges Mahamudra
ཕྱག་ཆེན་གངྒཱ་མ།
The glorious Naropa was an eminent scholar who had consummated his understanding of the oceans of inner and outer philosophical tenets. Still, with no concern for his body or life, he endured intense hardships in order to receive introduction to the naked nature of mind, free of obscurations, which is the basis for all of samsara and nirvana. This pleased his master, Jetsun Tilopa, who sang him a song of mahamudra, an introduction to the essence of mind itself. This song became known as The Ganges Mahamudra (ཕྱག་ཆེན་གངྒཱ་མ།) and should be cherished by all beings who wish to avoid suffering and obtain happiness. This is the version of the root text referenced by Shamar Konchok Yenlak in his commentary on the text.
