The first volume in an historic and noteworthy 6-volume series containing many of the first English translations of the classic mahamudra literature compiled by the Seventh Karmapa.
Sounds of Innate Freedom: The Indian Texts of Mahamudra is an historic six-volume series containing many of the first English translations of classic Mahamudra literature. The texts and songs in these volumes constitute the large compendium called The Indian Texts of the Mahamudra of Definitive Meaning, compiled by the Seventh Karmapa, Chötra Gyatso (1456–1539). Mahamudra refers to perfect buddhahood in a single instant, the omnipresent essence of mind, nondual and free of obscuration. This collection offers a brilliant window into the richness of the vast ocean of Indian Mahamudra texts, many cherished in all Tibetan lineages, particularly in the Kagyü tradition, giving us a clear view of the sources of one of the world’s great contemplative traditions.
This first volume in publication contains the majority of songs of realization, consisting of dohas (couplets), vajragitis (vajra songs), and caryagitis (conduct songs), all lucidly expressing the inexpressible. These songs offer readers a feast of profound and powerful pith instructions uttered by numerous male and female mahasiddhas, yogis, and dakinis, often in the context of ritual ganacakras and initially kept in their secret treasury. Displaying a vast range of themes, styles, and metaphors , they all point to the single true nature of the mind—mahamudra—in inspiring ways and from different angles, using a dazzling array of skillful means to penetrate the sole vital point of buddhahood being found nowhere but within our own mind.
The beautifully translated texts brilliantly capture the wordplay, mystical wonder, bliss, and ecstatic sense of freedom expressed by awakened Mahamudra masters of India. It includes works by Saraha, Mitrayogi, Virupa, Tilopa, Naropa, Maitripa, Nagarjuna, the female mahasiddhas princess Laksmimkara and Dombiyogini, and otherwise unknown awakened figures of this rich tradition. Reading and singing these songs that convey the inconceivable and contemplating their meaning in meditation will open doors to spiritual experience for us today just as it has for countless practitioners in the past.
- 768 pages
- English
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- Available on iOS & Android
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Topic
Theology & ReligionSubtopic
Eastern PhilosophyTable of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Publisher’s Acknowledgment
- Contents
- Foreword by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- (91) A Commentary on “Four and a Half Stanzas”
- (92) A Pith Instruction on the Four Mudrās
- (93)–(94) Two Vajra Songs by Nāropa
- (95)–(96) Two Vajra Songs by Kṛṣṇa
- (97) A Song on the Connate
- (98) A Song on Abandoning Thoughts
- (99) A Dohā Treasure Song on Karmacaṇḍālikā
- (100) A Dohā Treasure Song on the Ornament of Spring
- (101) An Instruction on the Connate
- (102) The Stages of Unsurpassable Universal Purity
- (103) Familiarizing with the True Reality of View and Conduct Being Unborn
- (104) The Stages of Familiarizing with the Nāḍī of Nonduality
- (105) The Subtle Yoga
- (106) A Dohā Treasure Song on the View of the Nature of True Reality
- (107) A Dohā Song on View, Meditation, Conduct, and Fruition
- (108) A Song on True Reality That Is a Dohā Treasure
- (109) A Dohā Treasure Song on Conduct
- (110) The View in a Dohā Treasure Song of Connate Ecstasy
- (111) A Song on the View of the Sugatas
- (112) A Dohā Song on the True Reality of the Vāyus
- (113) A Song on the Four Vajras
- (114) A Song by Guru Maitrīpa
- (115)–(116) Two Songs by Saraha
- (117) A Vajra Song by Virūkara
- (118) A Song by Kāṇhapa
- (119)–(121) Songs of Guru Dhiṣṭijñāna
- (122) A Song by Karṇari
- (123) A Song by Mātṛceṭa
- (124)–(125) Two Songs of Bada
- (126) A Song by Ācārya Vīravairocana
- (127) A Song by Paṇḍita Nāropa
- (128) A Song by Lūhipa
- (129) A Song by Ḍombipa
- (130) A Song by Virūpa
- (131) A Song by Lavapa
- (132) A Song by Mahāsukhatā
- (133) A Song by the Yogī Prasara
- (134) A Song by Nāgārjuna
- (135)–(136) Two Dharma Songs by Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna
- (137) The View in a Conduct Song Dohā
- (138) The View of Emptiness
- (139) The View of Being Free of the Duality of Happiness and Suffering
- (140) The View of Nonconnection
- (141) The View of Being Unbound and Letting Go
- (142) The View of Emptiness and Compassion
- (143) The View of the Jewel of Mind
- (144) The View of True Reality in Eight Stanzas
- (145) The View of Overcoming Mind’s Thoughts
- (146) The View of Driving Away Misery
- (147) The View of Mere Mind
- (148) The View of the Skull of Compassionate Conduct
- (149) The View of Being Unbound
- (150) The View of Suchness
- (151) A Conduct Song
- (152) A Commentary on “A Conduct Song”
- (153) A Song on Beholding the Dharmadhātu
- (154) A Vajra Song on the Vajra Seat
- (155) A Commentary on “A Vajra Song on the Vajra Seat”
- (156) A Dhyāna Song
- (157) A Meditation on the Sixteen Bindus
- (158) A Pith Instruction on Binding Inner and Outer Bodhicitta
- (159) A Pith Instruction on Familiarizing with the True Reality of the Vāyus
- (160) Cultivating the Four Yogas
- (161) Familiarizing with the True Reality of the Vāyus
- (162) The Perfection Process of the Vajraḍākinī
- (163) A Synopsis of Ascertaining Prajñā and Means
- (164) A Pith Instruction Called “Nonestablishment of a Nature”
- (165) The Jewel Garland
- (166) The Blessing of Cultivating Compassion
- (167) Ascertaining the Basic Nature of the Mahāyāna
- (168) Offering a Piece of Advice for the Mind
- (169) A Mahāmudrā Practice of Familiarizing with the Guru of Ground, Path, and Fruition
- (170) Yoginī Conduct by Way of Nāḍī and Bindu
- (171) A Pith Instruction in Two Syllables
- (172) A Pith Instruction on Cultivating the Yoga That Accords with Cultivating the Bliss of True Reality
- (173) The Means to Calm Mind and Thinking
- (174) The Path of the Perfection Process of All Deities
- (175) Cultivating the Inconceivable
- (176) A Pith Instruction on the View of Self-Aware Wisdom
- (177) The Heart of the Realizations of the Eighty-Four Mahāsiddhas
- (178) Dohās of the Secret of Mind
- (179) Vajra Songs by Forty Siddhas, Called “A Garland of Gold”
- (180) The Expressions of Realization of Thirty-Five Wisdom Ḍākinīs
- (181) The All-Encompassing Song of the Ḍākinīs
- (182) The Vajra Songs of All Siddhas, Called “The Light of the True Reality of All Yogīs”
- (183) A Golden Garland of Mahāmudrā
- (184) A Letter to Prajñā
- (185) Dispelling the Obstacles of the Thoughts of Yogīs
- (186) The Inconceivable and Supremely Secret Hidden Path of the Five Poisons
- (187) The Reality of the Characteristics of Yoga
- (188) A Timely Discourse on Making Effort in Prajñā
- (189) A Chapter on Samādhi Equipment
- (190) The Supramundane Ritual of the Seven Branches
- (191) The Ship of the Precious Teachings of the Sugata
- (192) A Treatise on the Glorious Liberation from Bondage
- (193) A Pith Instruction on Pure View and Conduct
- (194) The Path and Fruition of Purifying the Jewel of the Mind
- (195) A Pith Instruction on the Liberation of Bondage
- (196) Certainty about the Genuine Path to Accomplishment
- (197) A Pith Instruction on Untying the Knots in the Yogī’s Own Mind
- (198) The Empowerment of Samādhi
- (199) A Commentary on “Namo Buddhāya”
- (200) The Accomplishment of Glorious Great Bliss
- (201) Twenty-Five Stanzas of Pith Instructions on Letting Your Own Mind Take a Rest
- (202) An Expression of Realization in Thirty Stanzas
- Appendix: Jamyang Kyentsé Wangpo’s and Jamyang Kyentsé Wangchug’s Commentaries on Mitrayogī’s Letting Your Own Mind Take a Rest (Text 201) and Pith Instructions on Threefold Essential Reality
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- About the Translator
- What to Read Next from Wisdom Publications
- About Wisdom Publications
- Copyright
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Yes, you can access Sounds of Innate Freedom by Karl Brunnhölzl in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Eastern Philosophy. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.