To realise the beginningless purity and perfection of all reality as an indivisible unity of emptiness and appearance is to realise Dzog-ch’en, the Great Perfection. The lineage of this Mahayana meditation system comes directly from Shakyamuni Buddha and was carried from India to Tibet by masters such as Guru Rinpoche – Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra. It was transmitted mainly through the Nying-ma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and its oral teachings preserved uninterruptedly to the present day.
This text, The Four Themed Precious Garland An Introduction to Dzog-ch’en, by Long-ch’en Ram-jam-pa (1303-1363), one of the greatest codifiers of Dzog-ch’en’s teachings, as witnessed by his trilogy Kindly Bent to Ease Us, is an exposition of the “Four Themes of Gampopa”, the author of The Jewel Ornament of Liberation. It includes an analysis of the nine vehicles to Enlightenment as it progressively travels through the sutra, tantra and Dzog-ch’en modes of approach, as well as a description of the goal. This is done primarily by exposing the techniques used at each of these stages to eliminate confusion about the persistent nature of reality.
The commentary to this text was provided orally by His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, the current head of the Nying-ma Tradition, and supplemented by Beru Khyentze Rinpoche.
Author: Long-ch’en Ram-jam-pa
Language: English
Publisher: LTW
Binding: Soft Cover
Pages: 46
Really happy to find this text.