Lam Rim texts

Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

sukhamanveti: Hi, Will! Thank you for your reply.

I have the good fortune to own the first two volumes of The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. I really should buy the third some time this year. I once owned Liberation in Our Hands. The only thing I remember is that it had a depiction of the figures in the visualization of the field of merit, whereas the newer translation, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, omits this.

Yes, I had both of these too, but had to reduce the size of my library. However the "Our Hands" version was a better translation I thought and was in 2 or 3 volumes. The other "Palm of Your Hand" one was pub. by Wisdom and in one fat volume.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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mudra
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by mudra »

sukhamanveti wrote: Hi, Will! Thank you for your reply.

I have the good fortune to own the first two volumes of The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. I really should buy the third some time this year. I once owned Liberation in Our Hands. The only thing I remember is that it had a depiction of the figures in the visualization of the field of merit, whereas the newer translation, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, omits this.

Best regards.
Personally I found the three volume version of Liberation to be a better translation. As to getting the third volume of Lam Rim Chen Mo, yes you should get it! It is quite difficult but if you get a good oral commentary it is indeed Je Rinpoche's masterpiece for the layman...
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Huifeng
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by Huifeng »

I know this is "Lam Rim texts" in the Gelug Forum, but just for my Gelug-pa friends, I'd like to let them know that Ven Yinshun's modern classic "The Way to Buddhahood" (成佛之道) was strongly influenced by Je Tsong Khapa's Lamrim Chenmo, both in form and overall outlook. About 100 yrs ago, Ven Fazun went to study Gelug teachings in Tibet, and made some of the first Chinese translations of the Lamrim Chenmo and other key works. These influenced Ven Yinshun, and although he used this as a basic layout and progression, especially the "three motivations", in the end he used all Chinese sutra and sastra sources for the actual content of The Way to Buddhahood. If you're looking for something in the same broad vein, but with a different flavor, highly recommended.

The Way to Buddhahood, by Ven Yinshun.

:anjali:
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Huifeng wrote:I know this is "Lam Rim texts" in the Gelug Forum, but just for my Gelug-pa friends, I'd like to let them know that Ven Yinshun's modern classic "The Way to Buddhahood" (成佛之道) was strongly influenced by Je Tsong Khapa's Lamrim Chenmo, both in form and overall outlook. About 100 yrs ago, Ven Fazun went to study Gelug teachings in Tibet, and made some of the first Chinese translations of the Lamrim Chenmo and other key works. These influenced Ven Yinshun, and although he used this as a basic layout and progression, especially the "three motivations", in the end he used all Chinese sutra and sastra sources for the actual content of The Way to Buddhahood. If you're looking for something in the same broad vein, but with a different flavor, highly recommended.

The Way to Buddhahood, by Ven Yinshun.
:anjali:
Yes indeed, this teaching is really sublime and will be a great benefit to any Mahayana aspirant!
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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sukhamanveti
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by sukhamanveti »

Thank you, Will and Mudra, for your advice! I will have to buy the older translation of Pabongka Rinpoche's commentary. (I have the newer translation until then, along with the first volume of another commentary.)
Huifeng wrote: Ven Yinshun's modern classic "The Way to Buddhahood" (成佛之道) was strongly influenced by Je Tsong Khapa's Lamrim Chenmo, both in form and overall outlook.
Venerable,

It is thanks to your influence that I bought Ven. Yinshun's The Way to Buddhahood, which I am only just now beginning to study (I buy too many books!), although I bought it last year. I had remembered you speaking highly of it in another forum. Thank you for this.

I have noticed that at times Ven. Yinshun will even refer to Lama Tsong Khapa by name or quote from the Lam Rim Chen Mo (e.g., "In his Great Treatise on the Sequence of Attaining Enlightenment, the Venerable Master Tsongkhapa..."). To my mind seeing a master of Ch'an and Sanlun draw upon the thought of Lama Tsong Khapa underscores the basic harmony of the many, authentic Mahayana traditions.

I see that Ven. Yinshun offers much practical advice for the student of Mahayana. He is adept at identifying common mistakes in approaching Mahayana practice, such as seeking to bypass all of the fundamentals and leap directly into enlightenment or clinging to a single teaching and neglecting all others. For Ven. Yinshun, as for Lama Tsong Khapa, all of the teachings are instructions for practice and none are to be abandoned.

I look forward to learning more from Ven. Yinshun.

Best regards.
namo bhagavate śākyamunaye tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṁbuddhāya | namaḥ sarvabuddhabodhisattvebhyaḥ ||

"Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas love all beings in the world equally, as if each were their only child..." Buddhāvataṃsakamahāvaipulya Sūtra
muni
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by muni »

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 9227468054#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:buddha1:
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mudra
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by mudra »

Huifeng wrote:I know this is "Lam Rim texts" in the Gelug Forum, but just for my Gelug-pa friends, I'd like to let them know that Ven Yinshun's modern classic "The Way to Buddhahood" (成佛之道) was strongly influenced by Je Tsong Khapa's Lamrim Chenmo, both in form and overall outlook. About 100 yrs ago, Ven Fazun went to study Gelug teachings in Tibet, and made some of the first Chinese translations of the Lamrim Chenmo and other key works. These influenced Ven Yinshun, and although he used this as a basic layout and progression, especially the "three motivations", in the end he used all Chinese sutra and sastra sources for the actual content of The Way to Buddhahood. If you're looking for something in the same broad vein, but with a different flavor, highly recommended.

The Way to Buddhahood, by Ven Yinshun.

:anjali:
:namaste: Ah, thank you Venerable! I never knew of the existence of such a text. (should get out a bit more I guess!)
d.sullivan
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by d.sullivan »

For anyone who might be looking for a really bare-bones LamRim text, check out Guided Meditations on The Stages of the Path by Thubten Chodron. As you might be able to guess from the title, its a book full of meditations from the Lam Rim, and it includes a CD with the author reading each meditation aloud, which is over 14 hours of audio. I really like it. For a noob like me, its a great introduction to the Lam Rim.
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catmoon
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by catmoon »

d.sullivan wrote:For anyone who might be looking for a really bare-bones LamRim text, check out Guided Meditations on The Stages of the Path by Thubten Chodron. As you might be able to guess from the title, its a book full of meditations from the Lam Rim, and it includes a CD with the author reading each meditation aloud, which is over 14 hours of audio. I really like it. For a noob like me, its a great introduction to the Lam Rim.

Oooo that is most tempting. I mean, she has the perfect voice for that kind of guided meditation. It's really quite a gift.
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d.sullivan
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by d.sullivan »

catmoon wrote:
d.sullivan wrote: its a book full of meditations from the Lam Rim, and it includes a CD with the author reading each meditation aloud, which is over 14 hours of audio.

Oooo that is most tempting. I mean, she has the perfect voice for that kind of guided meditation. It's really quite a gift.
Yeah, her voice is practically angelic. Quite the gift, indeed. It is really cool to have so many powerful meditations in one small book, too. Each meditation outline is very concise, with each meditation taking about a pages worth of space. Very cool.
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ground
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by ground »

Will wrote:
Having a preference for original sources sources I would suggest The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment which is the full 3 volume translation (Snow Lion pub.) of Je Tsongkhapa's LRCM. Geshe Sopa's commentary is great and covers (or will when finished) all the major subjects, but does not give the root text of Je Rinpoche. Considering the size of the root text that is understandable. But I would still expose myself to the English language source of Je Tsongkhapa first.
Personally I prefer these two. I started with LRCM first and a few years later Geshe Sopa's commentary. Looking back today I would suggest to study them both in parallel because some chapters of Tsongkhapa's LRCM are quite terse while Geshe Sopa elaborates important subtleties that may not be noticed in Tsongkhapa's text.

Kind regards
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conebeckham
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by conebeckham »

I know this is a Geluk forum, but Jetsun Taranatha also wrote a Lam Rim text, called "Stages of the Path for the Three Types of Individuals."

and Niguma wrote a Lam Rim, called the "Illusory Stages of The Path," or, if you like, "The Stages of the Illusory Path," (Tib. "gyumai Lamrim").

The latter is my favorite.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
purplelotus
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by purplelotus »

I would like to just put a mention in for HHDL's Path to Bliss. I think it's a wonderful book and as he says unlock the Lam Rim Chen Mo. I have to say that of the commentaries I have read Geshe Sopa's is my favourite. The detail on Karma in Vol 2 is amazing.

Best wishes

P
plwk
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by plwk »

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jellybean
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by jellybean »

I have been looking for Atisha's "original" Lamrim, Lamp on the path to Enlightenment. Been having quite a lot of trouble finding it. Does anyone know where I can find a good English translation?
thank you everyone!
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Tilopa
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by Tilopa »

jellybean wrote:I have been looking for Atisha's "original" Lamrim, Lamp on the path to Enlightenment. Been having quite a lot of trouble finding it. Does anyone know where I can find a good English translation?
thank you everyone!
Google is your friend.....

http://www.bodhicitta.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

look under the 'buddhist teachings' link.
Last edited by Tilopa on Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
zerwe
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by zerwe »

Search the FPMT website or Lama yeshe Archive. It is a short text and is available as a free download.
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by jellybean »

zerwe wrote:Search the FPMT website or Lama yeshe Archive. It is a short text and is available as a free download.
Shaun
Thank you very much!
Very helpful :)
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conebeckham
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by conebeckham »

I haven't seen Geshe Rabten's "The Essential Nectar" mentioned in this thread.

That book was a great help to me, many years ago, as it includes not only the topics of the Lam Rim, but also a practical framework for actually "practicing" the meditations, along with some preliminary practice. It strikes me as having more of a "practice-based" orientation than many of the Lam Rim explanations and texts I've seen.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
emptydreams
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Re: Lam Rim texts

Post by emptydreams »

Id like to also point out that these are the lamrim texts that are found in other traditions:

Theravarda - Vishuddi Magga - Focuses on the development of the 3 Principal paths, as well as the 4 noble truths, 8 noble paths and 12 dependent origins.
Mahayana - Shuragama sutra (unabridged, Hsuan Hua version) -- seems to be a extremely detailed version of the Lamrim that the Buddha himself personally taught Ananda so that he can attain enlightenment.

Nyingma - Words of my Perfect Teacher
Kagyu - Jewelled Ornament of Liberation
Sakya - Lamdre


However these are my personal observations after studying the texts..
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