As It Is, Vol. 2

Excellent resource for those who don't have the opportunity to meet with a master due to life's situations. I will continually refer to this wonderful teaching.

Beyond words, it is an amazing book to read for the rest of your life I guess; both volumes. After finishing the second I may started to understand some things of the first volume.

I have learned so much in reading both volumes, one and two. If you want to learn Dzogchen, this series "As It Is" is for you. I would suggest that the student of Buddhism or the reader have a strong background in Buddhism, particularly Tibetan Buddhism. I have been a Zen practitioner for many years, since 1999. As a Southern Baptist minister, I had an NDE in 1989. This old Tulku was able to show me what happened during that experience. These beautiful and masterful works explained it. This is the teaching of Buddha Wisdom that is the goal of all sincere practitioners. For me, Buddha Wisdom was simply explained and easily understood in the treatise. I highly recommend these works. I am presently on my second reading of the series. Thanks to all who put these teachings together. OM MANI PADME HUM!!!

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche is a master on whom one can rely with total trust.When I was a newer Buddhist student I read this book more cognitively....and it stayed just at the level of information.Now, having had many direct teachings from authentic teachers in the same lineage, including my main teacher Sogyal Rinpoche and three of the sons of Tulku Urgyen, it speaks to me at a much deeper level, reminding me of what I have experienced in those special moments of blessing by my masters. I tend no longer to read books like this - they are too rich - but just to dip into them and to savour small sections eg a particular instruction, for inspiration or as a reminder and clarification and deepening. For me it is a must-have book and so I now also have it on my Kindle so I can search it and underline....but I still love most the printed copy.

I first bought, and read, Urgyen Rinpoche's As It Is, in 2009. And, honestly, I didn't get it. His instructions seemed a little too simple and yet often completely opaque. Six years later, after a lot of time practicing, it is clear that any opacity was on my side. Rinpoche's instructions are straightforward and incredibly helpful in guiding and supporting Dzogchen meditation and, critically, for understanding how one infuses Mahayana and Vajrayana practice with Dzogchen view. One caveat, these teachings are not likely to be helpful if you have not received pointing out instructions from an authentic master in the tradition. But if you have, and you are practicing diligently, these two volumes will be a valuable support.

If you are a person actively practicing Dzogchen meditation or strongly drawn to it, this is a great book. It is not a introductory book to Buddhism or an academic book. It is a book based on a meditation masters direct instruction. Those instructions will be useful for only the person who really has a heartfelt connection and wants to practice. If this is you, it is an amazing book.

Like the first volume, I believe that this is a hugely importan book. I don't normally use Kindle, so I downloaded the app to my Android. I have to say, it is a very intelligently designed app, and the book is a pleasure to read this way and take notes from.

This book was not written for the novice or the merely curious. I would guess that it will go right over the head of, and could be easily misunderstood by, those checking out Buddhism for the first time. Hard for me to say enough good things about this book. I read through it very slowly to try to fully absorb it and will certainly reread it. To me the book was one nugget of gold after another and was an overview of the basic underlying fundamentals of practice, but not presented in a dumbed down elementary way.

It’s as if Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche was there. And his teachings on the nature of mind is so clear! His two books (volume 1 & 2) are part of my top 5 in all Dharma books.

Also Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche has passed away some years ago - here his clear pointing-out-instructions about Nature of Mind become alive by reading this excellent teachings.

One of the most lucid, simple & powerful teachings on the essential nature of the mind available in English. A wonderful, luminous book.