The Brilliantly Illuminating Lamp of the Five Stages

Tsong Khapa, Robert Thurman

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781949163087
• eBook ISBN:
  9781949163094
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

The most important commentary on Vajrayana from the founder of the Dalai Lama's school of Buddhism.

The Brilliantly Illuminating Lamp of the Five Stages (rim lnga rab tu gsal ba’i sgron me) is Tsong Khapa’s most important commentary on the perfection stage practices of the Esoteric Community (Guhyasamaja), the tantra he considered fundamental for the practice of the “father tantra” class of unexcelled yoga tantras. It draws heavily on Nagarjuna’s Five Stages (Pañcakrama) and Aryadeva’s Lamp that Integrates the Practices (Carya­melapaka­pradipa), as well as a vast range of perfection stage works included in the Tibetan canonical (Kangyur and Tengyur) collections. It is an important work for both scholars and practitioners. A reader of this work will find in it convincing evidence for Tsong Khapa’s own yogic experience and attainment, in coordination with his better-known philosophical and scholarly achievements.

The present revised edition of the work is a cornerstone of the Complete Works of Jey Tsong Khapa and Sons collection, a subset of the Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences series. Comprised of the collected works of Tsong Khapa (1357–1419) and his spiritual sons, Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen (1364–1432) and Khedrup Gelek Pelsang (1385–1438), the numerous works in this set of Tibetan treatises and supercommentaries are based on the thousands of works in the Tibetan Buddhist canon.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Series Editor’s/Author’s Preface
• Sources, Conventions, and Abbreviations
• Part One
• Part Two: Annotated English Translation
• Appendix: Topical Outline (sa bcad) of Tsong Khapa’s Brilliantly Illuminating Lamp
• Glossaries
• Bibliographies
• Indexes
• Copyright