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Sounds of Innate Freedom

The Indian Texts of Mahamudra, Volume 3

Published by Wisdom Publications
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

The third volume in a historic six-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 are historic volumes containing many of the first English translations of the 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). Translated, introduced, and annotated by Karl Brunnhölzl, acclaimed senior teacher at the Nalandabodhi community of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, 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 Kagyu tradition, giving us a clear view of the sources of one of the world’s great contemplative traditions.

This third volume contains twenty-four texts, the bulk of which are dohas by Saraha and commentaries on them, as well as works by other renowned Indian Buddhist mahasiddhas such as Naropa, Krsna, and Sakyasribhadra. The extensive commentaries brilliantly unravel enigmas and bring clarity to the songs they comment on as well as to many other songs of realization in the series. 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.

About The Author

Karl Brunnhölzl was originally trained as a physician. He received his systematic training in the Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators, founded by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, as well as Nitartha Institute, founded by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. Since 1989 he has been a translator and interpreter of Tibetan and English. He is a senior teacher and translator in the Nalandabodhi community of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche as well as at Nitartha Institute. He is the author and translator of numerous texts, including most recently A Lullaby to Awaken the Heart (2018) and Luminous Melodies: Essential Dohas of Indian Mahamudra (2019).

Product Details

  • Publisher: Wisdom Publications (April 11, 2023)
  • Length: 1080 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781614297154

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Raves and Reviews

“I am delighted by the publication of this thoughtfully compiled collection of classic mahamudra literature. It is wonderful that these ancient songs of realization, in all their profundity and beauty, are now accessible to modern English readers everywhere.”

– His Eminence the Twelfth Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche

"This critical collection provides an enlightened template for our place and time, essentialized practice and unmediated access to embodied wisdom that leads to radical awakening in this life.”

– Willa Blythe Baker, 

“This is a lineage of kindness and wisdom, delivered with the precision and detail of extensive scholarly research that is equally a matter of the heart and a treasury of insight."

– Jim Scott

Sounds of Innate Freedom, is one of the great Buddhist scholarly projects of our time. Informed by Brunnhölzl’s extraordinary erudition and linguistic gifts, these volumes promise to be the definitive sourcebook of South Asian works on the Great Seal and will be required reading for scholars and practitioners of Buddhism everywhere."

– Roger R. Jackson, author of Mind Seeing Mind: Mahamudra and the Geluk

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