Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

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anjali
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Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by anjali »

Came across this today on Amazon: A Lullaby to Awaken the Heart: The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra and Its Commentaries, scheduled to come out at the end of November. Given Brunnhölzl's track record of other outstanding books, I have high hopes for this one as well. From the Amazon blurb,
A key Dzogchen text—available together with its Tibetan commentaries, including from the fifteenth Karmapa—from a preeminent translator.

The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra, one of the most famous and often-recited Dzogchen texts, is at once an entreaty by the primordial buddha, Samantabhadra, that all sentient beings recognize the nature of their minds and thus become buddhas, and also a wake-up call by our own buddha nature itself. This monumental text outlines the profound view of Dzogchen in a nutshell and, at the same time, provides clear instructions on how to discover the wisdom of a buddha in the very midst of afflictions.

In this volume, Karl Brunnhölzl offers translations of three versions of the Aspiration Prayer and accompanies them with translations of the commentaries by Jigmé Lingpa, the Fifteenth Karmapa, and Tsültrim Sangpo. He offers further contextualization with his rich annotation and appendices, which include additional translation from Jigmé Lingpa, Longchenpa, and Patrul Rinpoche. This comprehensive, comprehensible book illuminates this profound text and greatly furthers our understanding of Dzogchen—and of our own nature.
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jet.urgyen
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by jet.urgyen »

best prayer ever.
true dharma is inexpressible.

The bodhisattva nourishes from bodhicitta, through whatever method the Buddha has given him. Oh joy.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Reading it now - overflows with Presence & Light!
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Lingpupa »

I bow down not only to Samantabhadra, but also to Karl Brunnhölzl - one of the best.
All best wishes

"The profundity of your devotion to your lama is not measured by your ability to turn a blind eye."
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

From the Preface:
The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra, one of the most famous and often-recited Dzogchen texts, is a uniquely profound prayer with two distinct levels of meaning, and it also serves as an on-the-spot practice instruction. On its surface, this is a prayer offered by the primordial buddha, Samantabhadra, who aspires that all sentient beings may recognize the true nature of their minds as self-arising awareness, thereby becoming buddhas. Actually, however, this aspiration is made by this very same nature of the mind—primordial basic awareness, or rigpa, which is referred to as “Samantabhadra”—in order to recognize itself, which is nothing other than the ultimate awakening of buddhahood. Thus, it is a wake-up call by our own buddha nature to be revealed as it is, by way of seeing through its adventitious, fleeting obscurations. The prayer not only outlines the profound view of Dzogchen in a nutshell but also provides clear instructions on how to discover the five wisdoms of a buddha in the very midst of the five main mental afflictions.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Many valuable appendixes in addition to the translations:
Appendix 1. The Outlines of the Commentaries
Appendix 2. The Ground, Its Manifestations, and Samantabhadra’s Freedom
Appendix 3. The Arising of Delusion and the Unchanging Inherent Purity of All Saṃsāric Manifestations
Appendix 4. How Buddha Nature and Its Pure Qualities Pervade All Sentient Beings
Appendix 5. The Distinctions between All-Ground and Dharmakāya as well as Mind and Wisdom
Appendix 6. The Kāyas and Wisdoms
Appendix 7. The Many Facets of the Single Freedom
Appendix 8. An Aspiration Prayer for Ground, Path, and Fruition by Jigmé Lingpa
Appendix 9. The Essential Point of Practice by Patrul Rinpoche
Appendix 10. Afflictions as Wisdom, Skandhas as Avalokiteśvara by Patrul Rinpoche
Chart: The Ground, Its Manifestations, and the Resulting Freedom or Delusion
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Per the recent Anchorage, Alaska 7.0 earthquake:
In terms of the welfare of others, while reciting the aspiration prayer we imagine that all sentient beings of the six realms and three times can hear it (irrespective of language or distance) and focus on dispelling their many sufferings in this very instant, by way of restoring all beings to their original, innate nature. We also recognize that other beings’ primordial awareness is not in any way different from our own. Thus, we recite this prayer without any limitations of space, time, inside, outside, self, or others.
When we recite the passages related to the five primary afflictions of desire, hatred, pride, envy, and ignorance, with their resultant rebirths as hungry ghosts, hell beings, gods, asuras, and animals, we specifically focus on the beings in whom these causal afflictions arise, as well as on the corresponding resultant sufferings of these beings. We can also deliberately give rise to these afflictions in ourselves and then practice with them, as the prayer explains.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
LoveFromColorado
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by LoveFromColorado »

I just received a copy today and look forward to reading it. It appears to be quite a treasure to have for us English speakers!
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Spelare »

Looks like Brunnhölzl has opted to render ka dag as "alpha-purity." I recall that being a contentious choice around these parts when Keith Dowman employed it in his work. But apparently it meets KB's more rigorous standards. A quick search showed that usage had already appeared in works by Chögyam Trungpa, Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, and Tony Duff, so I guess it was never purely Dowman's to begin with.
Neither person nor skandha
but unstained wisdom is buddha.
In its knowing, ever serene—
I go for refuge therein.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Lukeinaz »

Spelare wrote: Sat Dec 15, 2018 8:38 am Looks like Brunnhölzl has opted to render ka dag as "alpha-purity." I recall that being a contentious choice around these parts when Keith Dowman employed it in his work. But apparently it meets KB's more rigorous standards. A quick search showed that usage had already appeared in works by Chögyam Trungpa, Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, and Tony Duff, so I guess it was never purely Dowman's to begin with.
Apart from sounding terrible what do you find wrong with this translation?
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Malcolm »

Spelare wrote: Sat Dec 15, 2018 8:38 am Looks like Brunnhölzl has opted to render ka dag as "alpha-purity." I recall that being a contentious choice around these parts when Keith Dowman employed it in his work. But apparently it meets KB's more rigorous standards. A quick search showed that usage had already appeared in works by Chögyam Trungpa, Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, and Tony Duff, so I guess it was never purely Dowman's to begin with.
Frankly, it's an odd choice since ka dag is just a contraction of "ka nas dag pa," and Mipham considers it a translation of śuddha.

The original author of this usage is CTR and the Nalanda Translation Committee.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

In English dictionaries alpha as a modifier is 'dominant' or 'first'. I would hope that 'dominant' purity is not the gist - sounds like a battle among purities.

Without translators we the unwashed louts would be far worse off. Yet they are fond of carving out new or unique frames for Dharma words.

I wish they would just incorporate more Sanskrit equivalents and then have good glossaries.

Would primary or root purity fill the bill or adi-śuddha?
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Lukeinaz »

"Kadag, it means since the beginning pure." -ChNN

"kadag ~ ka dag ~ pure from the beginning, syn. shunyata" -DC Glosary

No different from alpha purity.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Malcolm »

Nicholas Weeks wrote: Sat Dec 15, 2018 4:59 pm In English dictionaries alpha as a modifier is 'dominant' or 'first'. I would hope that 'dominant' purity is not the gist - sounds like a battle among purities.

Without translators we the unwashed louts would be far worse off. Yet they are fond of carving out new or unique frames for Dharma words.

I wish they would just incorporate more Sanskrit equivalents and then have good glossaries.

Would primary or root purity fill the bill or adi-śuddha?
Adi is “dang po”” in Tibetan. The meaning of ka dag is that the basis, the nature of mind, has never been contaminated with ignorance, ignorance is adventitious.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Malcolm »

Lukeinaz wrote: Sat Dec 15, 2018 7:02 pm "Kadag, it means since the beginning pure." -ChNN

"kadag ~ ka dag ~ pure from the beginning, syn. shunyata" -DC Glosary

No different from alpha purity.
Basically, the equivalent is simply bad English grammar.

Here is the problem: ka dag is a contraction of the term "ka nas dag pa", which is a noun formation in the ablative case.

Alpha is just a simple noun modifying 'pure.'

It might seem trivial to you, but then, scores of polemics in Buddhist discourse are based on just such grammatical niceties. In the case, we are dealing with a term that is in fact an adjectival phrase, where the ablative case in Tibetan is rendered as an adjective.

There is no way to properly represent the ablative case with "alpha", mentioned above, because alpha cannot take the adjectival/adverbial "ly" ending. In English, you cannot say "pure from alpha", as this makes no sense at all. You cannot say "alphaly" but you can say "originally" and "primordially," and so on.

"Ka nas" does not mean "from the syllable ka." Ka" is a tibetan noun which means beginning, origin, or first. Its synonyms in Tibetan are rtsa ba, thog ma, and gdod ma; root, first, or beginning, respectively. Rtsa ba nas, thog ma nas, gdod ma nas, and ka nas are all synonyms in Tibetan, of which the ablative case may easily be rendered in English translation, i.e., from the root, from the first, from the beginning, etc. You can see this work as follows: fundamentally pure (rtsa nas dag pa); thog nas dag (initially pure), gdod nas dag (primordially pure), ka nas dag (originally pure). Or if we are taking the noun to be purity, then, fundamental purity, initial purity, primordial purity, and original purity. Since alpha is not flexible in this respect, it is not really very suitable as term for rendering ka/ka nas. This is the reason I found it to be an odd choice on KB's part, because he is an excellent scholar and a linguist. But it was a bad translation choice when Trungpa first suggested it, and it remains a bad translation choice still.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by amanitamusc »

KB quotes a fair amount from Dowman tranlsations.Why?
KB also has two separate glossaries of English to Tibetan and Tibetan to English.Why two?
I was not blown away by this translation.
It would be nice to have a translation of this work by Malcolm or EPK.
In any case I should learn Tibetan and stop whining.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Malcolm »

Erik has published a translation of Samantabhadra's Prayer which can be found in Quintessential Dzogchen pp 79-84
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by LoveFromColorado »

Brunnholzl has over a page in the endnotes explaining "alpha-purity" and "innate presence." Most of the discussion is surrounding "innate presence" but as a non-Tibetan reader I did not find "alpha-purity" confusing. I understood it to mean "original beginingless" or the like in context.

Honestly to me the only thing the book lacks is an index.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by Malcolm »

LoveFromColorado wrote: Sun Dec 16, 2018 4:20 am I understood it to mean "original beginingless" or the like in context.
That is not what the term ka dag means.
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Re: Upcoming book by Karl Brunnhölzl on The Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

Post by LoveFromColorado »

According to KB in the end notes, ka dag "refers to the original and beginningless purity or emptiness of all phenomenon in general and of rigpa in particular." That appears to describe how he handles "alpha" (i.e. original and beginningless).

I certainly cannot comment on the translation of ka dag but I was just offering a small juxtaposition to the idea previous in the thread that "alpha" might be understood as "dominant", "first", or the like. In context, I did not understand it to mean anything along those lines, but I'm also self-admittedly a stickler for reading end notes. Certainly simply saying something like "original purity" might be clearer, however. I recognize the importance of words but for the lay reader like myself I think the broader context carries more meaning than the semantics. For scholars, of course, it may be a different story and I certainly respect that fact.
Last edited by LoveFromColorado on Sun Dec 16, 2018 5:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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