Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava's Teachings on the Six Bardos

Wonderful read so far

This book is a good follow-up to Gyatrul Rinpoche's commentary on portions of Karma Chagme's 17th century text, "The Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen." The 2 volumes are entitled: "Naked Awareness" and "A Spacious Path to Freedom." All 3 are translated by B. Alan Wallace and, I believe that, the introductions make the connection between the two original texts. "Natural Liberation" and is attributed to the earlier master Padmasambhava. However, even the 3 together are not a complete exposition of the Union. Chokyi Rinpoche also wrote a small commentary on Karma Chagme's text entitled: "The Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen." All 4 of these books are well worth reading. They are among the clearest and pithiest of currently available English translations of Mahamudra and Dzogchen texts and help one to not only understand their relationships, but more importantly to understand the underlying truths within them. They also provide considerable practical guidance for the practitioner. Mahamudra is contended to be the highest teaching within the Kagyu tradition (among the 4 Tibetan Buddhist traditions). Dzogchen is similarly regarded for the Nyingma tradition. Thus, such original works can be said to address the very highest Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhist) teachings. It is obvious (even in translation) that both Karma Chagme and (the much celebrated and revered) Padmasambhava were great, enlightened masters. This volume contains a wealth of valuable material and is highly recommended.

I read other people’s reviews and someone was complaining about the author saying what type of person should read the book. I can understand why someone reading this book could feel that way, but at the same time it is for the good of the readers Gyatrul said such a thing. Not for his own personal gain or opinion. Starting to learn the dharma & then abandoning it can be bad for your future. Don’t let that sway you from reading this book. But, I agree with Gyatrul that you should not read just out of curiosity. Most likely, if you understand at least a good portion of the dharma you will want to continue practicing and bettering yourself for the sake of others. It is more than safe to say that Gyatrul is more than qualified to give and explain these teachings. This book of Padmakara’s teachings has already become an invaluable part of my practice and will no doubt continue to be so.

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This book transcends much of what you've been told. This is about abandoning the normal, conventional path through life and freeing oneself from bondage. It is a precious treasure and a deep secret.

This is a very well written and complete teaching from the basics all the way to the most advanced levels with thorough commentary by one of the most highly respected lamas in Tibetan Buddhism today. The author gives permission for those who are sincere to actually implement the teachings as well. This in itself is rare. I highly recommend this book if you are considering implementing such teachings.

Amazing text and one we're lucky to have access to in this day and age. Gyatrul Rinpoche's commentary is clear and full of wisdom. An excellent text for the practitioner of one of the Tibetan lineages of Buddhism and perhaps very inspiring reading for the layman.

I haven't seen the original text that is translated here, I'd like to think there'd be some dating and critical edition of the text to follow up on but unfortunately no citation was found.The first two sections are commentaries from prominent Tibetan Lamas, the first (By Gyatrul Rinpoche) insists on a "as a matter of fact" over simplification of the problems faced by the colonization of Native American Indians as well as the Chinese occupation of Tibet as a product of the collective bad karmas of the past lives of the victims. I make no over-simplification or out of context extraction of the above assertions and personally found this to be quite disturbing. Sutras of the Mahayana canon are loosely quoted, many not being cited or referred to.The second section concentrates on a Nyingma Vajrasattva Practice and I assume the liturgical elements of the passages, with additional re-enforcement of the notion of samsara.Finally from Section 3 there is a translation of the original text which I originally sought to read. This is a treasure trove - sort of a blend of the Mulamadhyamakarika style philosophy with some practical meditation advice similar to that found in the Vigyana Bhairava. The commentaries in their instructive context are at times instrumental and at other times a distraction from the original text.The formatting of the text is quite vague, it can be difficult to follow what the primary text is (which is often italicized, concatenated..etc) and the commentary. This drives some of the original canonical text of Padmasambhava to follow an out of context tangent given that at times there is a bifurcation in the primary idea driven by Padmasambhava and the emphasis placed in the commentary.The text is an exercise in syncretism of traditional canonical meditational texts similar to early Madhyamika philosophy and modern over-simplified Buddhist commentary. While I dont want this review to seem like a polemic of the text, its hard to draw relevance from it. It isnt critically edited for it to serve an academic purpose, the commentary is quite modern for it to be wholly consistent with traditional corpora of this school and there is some identifiable mismatch between what is recognized as the original canonical text and its encompassing commentary.

I have MANY Tibetan Buddhist books, and Padmasambhava is my yidam diety. This is a wonderful book!

here is Wisdom. deep and (I would say) just what the world is needing right now. The straightforward faith is what appeals to me the mostSandhu Sandhu sadhu

Best buy...

Das Buch beschreibt den Weg zu Buddha - oder auch den Weg zur Erleuchtung.Es werden umfangreiche Anweisungen zum Ziel gegeben. Jedoch kann man diesen Weg nur mit einem entsprechenden Meister gehen.Ähnlich einem Studium an der Uni, auch da gibt es verschiedene Schwerpunkte.Für uns Europäer ist ein Blick auf diesen östlichen Weg informativ, da ich keinen westlichen Weg zur Meisterschaft kenne.Einen Stern habe ich abgezogen, da dieser Weg schon recht alt ist.Der Buddhismus ist eine lebendige Philosophiedie ihre Grundlagen zeitgemäß aufarbeitet.

Excellent