Sounds of Innate Freedom

The Indian Texts of Mahamudra, Volume 4

Karl Brunnhölzl

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN:
  9781614297161
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

The second 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 as well as extensive commentary that brilliantly unravels enigmas and clarifies cryptic verses.

Sounds of Innate Freedom: The Indian Texts of Mahamudra are historic volumes 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). The collection offers a brilliant window into the richness of the vast ocean of Indian mahamudra texts 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.

Besides the individual dohas (couplets), vajragitis (vajra songs), and caryagitis (conduct songs) in this second volume in publication, the three extensive commentaries it contains brilliantly unravel enigmas and bring clarity not only to the specific songs they comment on but to many other, often cryptic, songs of realization in this collection. These expressive songs of the inexpressible 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. Reading and singing these songs of mystical wonder, bliss, and ecstatic freedom, and contemplating their meaning, will open doors to spiritual experience for us today just as it has for countless practitioners in the past.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• (70) A Commentary Elucidating Native True Reality on “A Song That Is a Completely Filled Dohā Treasure Store”
• (71) A Dohā Treasure
• (72) A Dohā Treasure
• (73) A Commentary on Half a Stanza on True Reality Teaching That All Phenomena Are Utterly Nonabiding
• (74) The Purification of Being
• (75) A Discussion of Nonconceptuality
• (76) The Means to Realize the Unrealized
• (77) A Discussion That Is a Synopsis of the Essence in Its Entirety
• (78) The Root of the Accomplishment of Immortality
• (79) A Pith Instruction on Mahāmudrā
• (80) A Synopsis of Mahāmudrā
• (81) The Stages of Self-Blessing
• (82) Twelve Stanzas of Pith Instructions
• (83) An Investigation of the Mind
• (84) Familiarizing with the Basic Nature of the True State
• (85) A Dohā Treasure
• (86) A Song in Five Stanzas
• (87) A Glorious Vajra Song
• (88) The Samādhi of Yoga Conduct
• (89) Eighty-Four Lines by Śrī Virūpa
• (90) A Commentary on the Treasury of Conduct Songs
• Appendix 1: A Paracanonical Version of Tilopa’s Dohā Treasure (Text 72) and His Six Nails That Are the Essential Points
• Appendix 2: Marpa Lotsāwa’s Translation of a Paracanonical Version of Tilopa’s Pith Instruction on Mahāmudra (Text 79) with the Third Karmapa’s Outline and Commentary
• Appendix 3: Tāranātha’s Commentary on Kṛṣṇa’s Song in Five Stanzas (Text 86)
• Appendix 4: A List of Potential Quotes from Other Songs from the Caryāgītikoṣa in Text 90
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• About the Translator
• Copyright