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Samatha and Vipasyana
An Anthology of Pith Instructions
Translated by B. Alan Wallace and Eva Natanya
Published by Wisdom Publications
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
Invaluable instructions on core meditations designed to bring about irreversible spiritual transformation.
For those who aspire to the total enlightenment of a buddha, the practices of samatha and vipasyana play a crucial role from the beginning of the path to its culmination. Designed to first free our minds from the five obscurations and eventually from the ignorance that is the root of suffering, these practices, when imbued with bodhicitta, enable us to reach a pivotal stage within the Mahayana path of accumulation, at which we’re assured of being a bodhisattva in all our future lives until enlightenment.
The instructions gathered here are like a string of pearls spanning from the eleventh century to the present day. They include teachings from great Indian masters as well as renowned lamas of the past and present from the four major orders of Tibetan Buddhism, many of them stemming from visionary teachings revealed by Manjusri, Vajrapani, Avalokitesvara, and Padmasambhava. Introductions rich with biographical detail accompany each group of translated entries, providing invaluable context and drawing connections for the reader. Original essays from Lama Alan Wallace cap off the anthology, and a collection of links to a rich array of recorded oral teachings by eminent lamas, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s first teachings in the West, make this a true treasure trove for the practitioner and scholar alike.
For those who aspire to the total enlightenment of a buddha, the practices of samatha and vipasyana play a crucial role from the beginning of the path to its culmination. Designed to first free our minds from the five obscurations and eventually from the ignorance that is the root of suffering, these practices, when imbued with bodhicitta, enable us to reach a pivotal stage within the Mahayana path of accumulation, at which we’re assured of being a bodhisattva in all our future lives until enlightenment.
The instructions gathered here are like a string of pearls spanning from the eleventh century to the present day. They include teachings from great Indian masters as well as renowned lamas of the past and present from the four major orders of Tibetan Buddhism, many of them stemming from visionary teachings revealed by Manjusri, Vajrapani, Avalokitesvara, and Padmasambhava. Introductions rich with biographical detail accompany each group of translated entries, providing invaluable context and drawing connections for the reader. Original essays from Lama Alan Wallace cap off the anthology, and a collection of links to a rich array of recorded oral teachings by eminent lamas, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s first teachings in the West, make this a true treasure trove for the practitioner and scholar alike.
Excerpt
On the afternoon of July 20, 2023, when I was meditating in my solitary retreat above our hermitage, Miyo Samten Ling, in Crestone, Colorado, just as dawn was breaking in India on the day commemorating the Buddha’s first turning of the wheel of Dharma, it occurred to me that I had in my possession a number of unpublished translations that I have made over the past forty years, containing precious teachings by some of the greatest Buddhist masters in history. I have offered oral teachings on many of these texts, but since each one is relatively brief, I had not yet found the right context in which to publish each one of them. With a burst of inspiration, I spent several hours compiling those translations, like a garland of pearls, into a sequence of pith instructions on the core meditations of samatha and vipasyana to share with others in the hope that they would cherish and benefit from them as I have. Over the course of many months, Eva Natanya and I have added to and embellished this garland to form the present anthology.
The garland begins with two conversations between Atisa—viewed as a speech emanation of Guru Rinpoche, or Padmasambhava, and also a previous incarnation of the Panchen Lama—and his foremost disciple, Dromtonpa—recognized as an emanation of Avalokitesvara and a previous incarnation of the Dalai Lama. When I first encountered these two conversations, I felt I had slipped into a time machine and was there with them in person, reveling in the profound wisdom and humor that this noble guru and his beloved disciple shared together.
In this anthology, I have then added Atisa’s seminal text on the nature of the two realities—obscurative and ultimate—followed by a commentary by his Indian disciple Prajnamoksa on Atisa’s Pith Instructions on the Middle Way.
The next jewel I plucked from my satchel of translations was The Eight-Verse Mind Training by Geshe Langri Thangpa, one of the great masters of the Kadam tradition founded by Atisa and Dromtonpa. This was the text His Holiness the Dalai Lama chose for his first public teaching in the West, in the summer of 1979 in Mont Pelerin, Switzerland, for which I had the tremendous honor of serving as his interpreter.
The garland begins with two conversations between Atisa—viewed as a speech emanation of Guru Rinpoche, or Padmasambhava, and also a previous incarnation of the Panchen Lama—and his foremost disciple, Dromtonpa—recognized as an emanation of Avalokitesvara and a previous incarnation of the Dalai Lama. When I first encountered these two conversations, I felt I had slipped into a time machine and was there with them in person, reveling in the profound wisdom and humor that this noble guru and his beloved disciple shared together.
In this anthology, I have then added Atisa’s seminal text on the nature of the two realities—obscurative and ultimate—followed by a commentary by his Indian disciple Prajnamoksa on Atisa’s Pith Instructions on the Middle Way.
The next jewel I plucked from my satchel of translations was The Eight-Verse Mind Training by Geshe Langri Thangpa, one of the great masters of the Kadam tradition founded by Atisa and Dromtonpa. This was the text His Holiness the Dalai Lama chose for his first public teaching in the West, in the summer of 1979 in Mont Pelerin, Switzerland, for which I had the tremendous honor of serving as his interpreter.
Product Details
- Publisher: Wisdom Publications (September 16, 2025)
- Length: 392 pages
- ISBN13: 9781614299691
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