Padma Karpo Translation Committee

03/07/2022

We are pleased to announce our latest publication "Teachings of the Hermit of Mandong". It explains taking refuge in the Three Jewels and arousing and developing enlightenment mind (bodhichitta) according to the Kadampa tradition of Atisha and also the Kagyu lineage. The text has the particular feature of being truly heartfelt and not just another dry exposition. It forms an excellent companion to our last publication "Shantideva's Entering the Conduct of a Bodhisatva".
The explanation on our web-site gives all the details, so I'll not say more here:

Taking Refuge and Arousing Bodhichitta Explained According to Atisha's Lineage. This book contains two teachings, one on taking refuge in the Three Jewels and one on the development of bodhichitta or enlightenment mind.

12/18/2021

I have some news. For the last year and a half I've been translating Shantideva's very famous text "Entering the Conduct of a Bodhisatva". It has already been done, you might think. Well yes, but not quite like this.

There have been a few translations of the basic text into English over the last several decades. They have their shortcomings and, especially, all of them stumble over the ninth chapter, on prajna, which is so difficult that even very learned Tibetans find it incomprehensible and even great masters have been known to balk at explaining the chapter.

Therefore, we did not simply produce another translation, but made a book that is an especially rich resource for reading and studying Shantideva's text. It features a long introduction that explains many key points about the text, points that are essential to know but are not usually known to the average reader. That is followed by a plain translation of the text, without any of the usual apparatus such as footnotes, end-notes and all of the other paraphernalia that detracts from the text itself. This plain translation is perfect for those wanting simply to read or recite the text. That is followed by another complete rendition of the text but this time with a very extensive and insightful commentary woven into it. This commentary comes from one of Tibet's greatest authors, the fourth head of the Drukpa Kagyu, Padma Karpo.

This commentary will give anyone who wants to know more about Shantideva's famous but rather terse text extraordinary insights into all sorts of meanings that are often unclear in the plain text itself. Especially, it clarifies many points in the ninth chapter, giving insights into the chapter which are not readily or usually understood. To give you a further idea of just how much material is included in this new book, note that it is 450 pages long.

The book is available through our shop at https://www.pktcshop.com/product-p/shan.htm

The book came about because I needed a text to teach the Great Vehicle to my own students and in the end benefitted greatly from our group readings of the text, which helped to get the translations involved into English that really worked. Therefore, it is not just advertising hype if I say that the book will prove to be enormously beneficial for anyone wanting to recite or study the text. Therefore, I have a request. Please share this post with as many people as possible. Please tell your circle of Buddhist friends about it. It will be of benefit! Thank you for your attention and consideration.

The Bodhisatvacaryavatara or Entering the Bodhisatva's Conduct by Shantideva is one of the favourite books for followers of Tibetan Buddhism.

06/21/2020

Gampopa's Five-Part Mahamudra teaching

We have just sold our last copy of a book called "Gampopa's Five-Part Mahamudra". I am in the process of re-editing and re-publishing it. The Five-Part Mahamudra is one of the most important Mahamudra teachings of the Kagyu lineage in general.

Doing the work of re-editing it brought up many memories. It reminded me of how I went off to Asia after Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche died, specifically to learn everything I could about Mahamudra and Dzogchen, not to mention the Buddha's teachings in general. A dharma book usually presents perhaps one text but this one is very unusual in that it contains several texts by different authors during a span of 900 years of Buddhist teachings in Tibet.

In the 1990's I travelled India and Nepal to get the complete teachings of Five-Part Mahamudra. With a note of humour, I found myself doing what Marpa had done, travelling to the homeland of the Buddha's teachings, meeting with the best lineage holders and then translating the materials I'd received from them. Re-editing the book made me remember walking the dusty roads of hot North India on the journey to get all the teachings on Five-Part Mahamudra. I received teachings from Situ Rinpoche and many others.

The book that resulted is unusual in that it has several texts on the subject, each one carefully chosen to give the reader not only the teachings but a sense of the different styles of the really great authors of the Kagyu lineage. The book is capped by a long explanation given by Bengchen Tenga Rinpoche of a key text by the first head of the Drigung Kagyu, Jigten Sumgon. That text is also included in the book. Moreover, these writings span nine hundred years, so that the reader gets a very intimate sense of how writing and teaching styles of the Kagyu developed during that long period. And, the book's introduction has detailed information about the various authors in the book and their styles of writing and teaching.

The text starts with excerpts from Gampopa's Collected Works in which he explains the Five-Part method of Mahamudra practice for the first time. He gives the explanation to one of his three great yogi disciples, Phagmo Drupa, who you might know of through his appearance in the Rain of Wisdom book.

The texts in the book have some serious teachings on Mahamudra, including explicit instructions on Mahamudra itself, dealing with topics such as introduction to the nature of mind and the practices that go with that. It is an amazing collection of teachings of the lineage, with nothing held back. You might not be a Kagyu type of person, but if you are interested at all in the fourth empowerment teachings of Mahamudra (and by extension of Thorough Cut in Dzogchen), you will find many explanations of these systems.

This is getting long already and I don't want to bore you. Mainly I wanted to let you know a little about this publication which has somewhat been overlooked as everyone chases after Dzogchen teachings. You can read more about the book and make a purchase of it here (paper and PDF are both available). The page shown has all of our books connected with the Kagyu and it is on that page:

Tibetan Buddhist texts, English translations, Tibetan dictionaries, Tibetan software, and Tibetan fonts

03/03/2020

NEW BOOK on DZOGCHEN. We recently published a particularly important book on Nyingthig (Quintessence) Dzogchen. It is a complete presentation of a prayer of the Longchen Nyingthig tradition that is recited every day by Tibetan practitioners. It comes with a lengthy introduction that provides necessary context, followed by the prayer itself and then three, increasingly detailed commentaries that elucidate the meaning of the prayer.

The prayer was received by Jigmey Lingpa from Longchen Rabjam as part of the transmission of Longchen Rabjam's realization to Jigmey Lingpa. Jigmey Lingpa then passed it on to one of his disciples. Since then, the prayer has become very popular amongst Tibetans and is recited every day by many practitioners. However, it has not been translated into other languages until now, so has not become popular amongst Westerners.

The prayer is only nine four-line verses long, but contains the essence of Longchenpa's realization. As you can imagine then, the prayer is very terse and almost impossible to understand without explanation. There are very few commentaries to the prayer, but I obtained the three main ones and arranged them in appropriate order following the prayer itself.

The third commentary is the largest by far and has significant explanations of both Thregcho and Thogal in relation to the prayer. It is by the first Getse Mahapandita, who was one of the great scholar-practitioners of Kathog Monastery in East Tibet. It is regarded as especially important because of its complete explanation of the prayer, including explanations of how the meanings of Thregcho and Thogal are contained within the prayer.

Finally, I put some effort into making the translation of the prayer so that it works not only as a translation of the prayer but as something suitable for recitation in English. You can purchase the book either as a paper book or a PDF e-book or both (purchasing both comes with a significant discount) here: https://www.pktcshop.com/product-p/lngnygptgpf.htm
And you can see a listing of our newest books here: https://www.pktcshop.com/category-s/196.htm

Tibetan Buddhist texts, English translations, Tibetan dictionaries, Tibetan software, and Tibetan fonts

12/31/2019

Ken McLeod recently gave a very good explanation of the intent of Sending and Taking, which is one of the key practices in Atisha's mind training system. I appreciated Ken's explanation very much because he set straight several major misunderstandings that have now become pervasive about what the practice is and how it is supposed to work. Very briefly stated, one of the biggest misunderstandings regarding Sending and Taking is that it has become a cure-all for other's problems when in fact it is meant for the purpose of developing one's own bodhichitta. I do not wish to get into a protracted discussion of this here, but the mis-understandings of the practice have become pervasive. Therefore, I would like to point out that there is a very nice explanation of the two systems for developing bodhichitta that came into Tibet from India (one of which is Atisha's Mind Training, the other of which is Maitreya's system). The explanation, which supports what Ken had to say, can be found in my book "A Complete Session of Meditation":

Tibetan Buddhist texts, English translations, Tibetan dictionaries, Tibetan software, and Tibetan fonts

03/24/2019

Tibetan pronunciation... A friend in the US called me some days ago, asking for help with the correct pronunciation of Tibetan language. So, I taught him the basics over Skype. Over the years he had tried to teach himself Tibetan pronunciation using the publications on the subject that are available in English. He expressed considerable surprise when he found out what the actual Tibetan system is for pronouncing letters and then words. He was surprised because what is written in those publications is not anything like the actual Tibetan system. What is written in them is very mis-leading, in fact. So I spent an hour with him, taking him through the actual Tibetan system of pronunciation. After an hour there was still a long way to go, but his Tibetan pronunciation had changed and now was beginning to sound like Tibetan. I've sometimes thought of putting on some classes on this subject for the sake of people who are trying to learn Tibetan language but who can't get the hang of it using what is currently available. If enough people asked, I'd be willing to do something on Skype. There would be a fee, as this sort of work is part of my livelihood.
In the meantime, or as a support for that, there is a very long chapter in one of our Tibetan grammar books that has a complete treatment of the system of pronunciation, including the translation of a Tibetan grammar text that deals specifically with that. The book is the standard reference to Tibetan grammar, volume one. A complete listing of all our Tibetan grammar works, including that one, is available here:
http://www.pktc.org/pktc/grammar.htm
If you are genuinely interested in learning correct Tibetan pronunciation, contact me at [email protected] . I *do not* respond to Facebook messenger. If enough people are interested, the classes will be done by Skype.

01/07/2019

Greetings friends! Samantabhadra's Prayer is one of the most popular prayers from the sutras. Some translations of it into English have been available for a while. We published one a couple of years ago that went much further than the previous ones. For example, the translation was done based on my reading all 20 of the commentaries by Indian masters, such as Nagarjuna, that were preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist Canon.

When I did the translation, I was very hopeful that it might become a basis for all-day readings of the prayer in English. I know of some Westerners who have done that privately, but recently one of my friends organized an all-day reading using our translation at his Tibetan Buddhist temple in Sacramento, California. When I heard about this, I was truly delighted to have my prayers at the time of the translation fulfilled. Here is his report, unedited. I hope it might enthuse others to do the same:

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I led the Samantabhadra Prayer practice on New Year's Day. We began at 10:00 a.m. with the usual Refuge, Bodhicitta, 7-Branches, and Mandala Offering text with which we begin everything at the Temple. Then I talked a bit about the context of the prayer, your Dzogchen Monastery experience, your return to the Indian commentaries, and your translation. Then we read your translation of the Sutra portion, after which we read the prayer aloud together until 6 p.m. We wound up doing about 4 recitations per hour, about 28 all together. We paused for a couple of minutes between recitations. This was my idea to give people a chance to catch up to the recitation mentally. But we didn't stop for anything else. At about 4 p.m. we took a 30 minute break.

About eight people stayed for the entire recitation, but about another 20 people came in and recited with us for a period of time and left, which is what I encouraged people to do because I wanted as many people as possible to participate at least a little bit.

There was a lot of positive feedback, both from all-day participants and from drop-in participants. I think we can make it an annual tradition and grow and enhance the actual practice. Regarding your kind offer of a translation of a Tibetan liturgy for the all-day practice, I'll need to discuss that with more people and see if we can get that going with appropriate donations. I know of at least one person who bought the book already as a direct result of the recitation practice and I'm reasonably certain that several people will buy it, though exactly when they will is impossible to determine.
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Wonder of wonders! My prayer was fulfilled! May there be more of the same! May there be! May there be!
Here's a link to the two volumes of the prayer and commentaries on it:
https://www.pktcshop.com/product-p/samantaprayervi.htm
https://www.pktcshop.com/product-p/samantaprayervii.htm

Tibetan Buddhist texts, English translations, Tibetan dictionaries, Tibetan software, and Tibetan fonts