Richard Salomon

The Buddhist Literature of Ancient Gandhāra

In the years following Alexander the Great’s conquest of the East, a series of empires rose up along the Silk Road. In what is now northern Pakistan, the civilizations in the region called Gandhāra became increasingly important centers for the development of Buddhism, reaching their apex under King Kaniska of the Kusanas in the second century CE. Gandhāra has long been known for its Greek-Indian synthesis in architecture and statuary, but until about twenty years ago, almost nothing was known about its literature. The insights provided by manuscripts unearthed over the last few decades show that Gandhāra was indeed a vital link in the early development of Buddhism, instrumental in both the transmission of Buddhism to China and the rise of the Mahāyāna tradition. The Buddhist Literature of Ancient Gandhāra surveys what we know about Gandhāra and its Buddhism, and it also provides translations of a dozen different short texts, from similes and stories to treatises on time and reality.

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Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi: Reading the Buddha’s Discourses in Pali (#161)

This Wisdom Podcast filmed as a live Wisdom Dharma Chat features special guest Venerable Bhikku Bodhi. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk from New York City, born in 1944. He obtained a BA in philosophy from Brooklyn College and a PhD in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School. After completing his university studies he traveled to Sri Lanka, where he received novice ordination in 1972 and full ordination in 1973, both under the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk, Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya (1896-1998). From 1984 to 2002 he was the editor for the Buddhist Publication Society in Kandy, where he lived for ten years with the senior German monk, Ven. Nyanaponika Thera (1901-1994), at the Forest Hermitage. He returned to the U.S. in 2002. He currently lives and teaches at Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, New York. Ven. Bodhi has many important publications to his credit, either as an author, translator, or editor. These include The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (Majjhima Nikaya, 1995), The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Samyutta Nikaya, 2000), and The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (Anguttara Nikaya, 2012). In 2008, together with several of his students, Ven. Bodhi founded Buddhist Global Relief, a nonprofit supporting hunger relief, sustainable agriculture, and education in countries suffering from chronic poverty and malnutrition.  

Venerable and host Daniel Aitken discuss:

• Venerable’s book, Reading the Buddha’s Discourses in Pāli;
• The challenges of translating certain technical terms from Pāli such as words for knowledge and wisdom;
• The relationship between the Pāli suttas and the actual languages that the Buddha may have spoken;
• The benefits of learning Pāli;
• Which words are hardest to translate from Pāli;
• How to memorize Pāli verses;
• And much more.

Links mentioned in the conversations can be found below:

• https://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/buddhist-action-2020/

• https://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/donate/

• https://wisdomexperience.org/product/buddhas-words/

• https://wisdomexperience.org/wisdom-article/rebirth-in-early-buddhism-dhammaruwans-story/

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Karl Brunnhölzl: Sounds of Innate Freedom (#160)

This Wisdom Podcast filmed as a live Wisdom Dharma Chat features special guest Karl Brunnhölzl. Originally trained as a physician, Karl Brunnhölzl, MD, PhD, received his systematic training in Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators, founded by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, as well as the Nitartha Institute, founded by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. Since 1989 he has been a translator and interpreter of Tibetan and English. Karl is a senior teacher and translator in the Nalandabodhi community of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, as well as at Nitartha Institute. He is also the author and translator of numerous texts, including most recently Sounds of Innate Freedom, Volume 3: The Indian Texts of Mahāmudrā, the canon of the mahasiddhas.

In this episode, Karl and host Daniel Aitken discuss:

• his book, Sounds of Innate Freedom, Volume 4: The Indian Texts of Mahāmudrā;
• the dohā tradition of the mahasiddhas;
• singing and dancing as part of the path;
• the voice of women in the Mahāmudrā songs of realization;
• Karl’s musical recordings of the dohās, which can be found here;
• and much more.

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The Sublime Continuum and Its Explanatory Commentary

The original Sublime Continuum Explanatory Commentary was written by Noble Asanga to explain the verses received from the bodhisattva Maitreya in the late fourth century CE in northern India. Here it is introduced and presented in an original translation from Sanskrit and Tibetan, with the translation of an extensive Tibetan Supercommentary by Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen (1364–1432), whose work closely followed the view of his teacher, Tsong Khapa (1357–1419).

Contemporary scholars have widely misunderstood the Buddhist Centrist (Madhyamaka) teaching of emptiness, or selflessness, as either a form of nihilism or a radical skepticism. Yet Buddhist philosophers from Nagarjuna on have shown that the negation of intrinsic reality, when accurately understood, affirms the supreme value of relative realities. Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen, in his Supercommentary, elucidates a highly positive theory of buddha nature, showing how the wisdom of emptiness empowers the compassionate life of the enlightened, as it is touched by its oneness with the truth body of all buddhas. With his clear study of Gyaltsap’s insight and his original English translation, Bo Jiang completes his historic project of studying and presenting these works from Sanskrit and Tibetan in both Chinese and, now, English translations, in linked publications.

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Robert Thurman & Susan A. Landesman: The Tārā Tantra (#156)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features Susan A. Landesman interviewed by Prof. Robert Thurman and host Daniel Aitken.

Susan A. Landesman, independent scholar and educator in New York City, is the author and translator of “The Tārā Tantra: Tārā’s Fundamental Ritual Text (Tārā-mūla-kalpa),” “Goddess Tārā: Silence and Secrecy on the Path to Enlightenment,” “Tara” (in the Oxford Bibliographies), and “The Tārā Tantra: Part II: The Uttara-tantra” (forthcoming). Having completed her doctorate in Indian and Tibetan languages and cultures at Columbia University, she specializes in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan art, and women in Buddhism.

Robert Thurman is an American Buddhist author, academic, and former Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, before retiring in June 2019. Graduate of Philips Exeter and Harvard, he studied Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism as a personal student of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He has lectured widely all over the world, is President of the American Institute for Buddhist Studies, and is also a founding trustee of Tibet House New York.

Susan, Robert, and Daniel discuss:

• Susan’s background in visual arts and pathway to Tibetan Buddhism with Prof. Alex Wayman;
• translating with Geshe Lobsang Jamspel at Columbia and her dissertation on the Tārā Tantra;
• the vivid, inspiring imagery of the tantras;
• Tārā’s important role as a Buddha and enlightened protector;
• Susan’s upcoming translation “The Tārā Tantra: Part II: The Uttara-tantra;”
• contemporary Tibetan artist Samten Dakpa;
• and much more.

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Stages of the Path and the Oral Transmission

A major contribution to the literature on Buddhist practice according to the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism from its foremost interpreter.

Although it was the last major school to emerge in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the Geluk school has left an indelible mark on Buddhist thought and practice. The intellectual and spiritual brilliance of its founder, the great Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), has inspired generations of scholars and tantric yogis to place him at the heart of their daily meditative practice. The Geluk tradition’s close ties to the Dalai Lamas have also afforded it an outsized influence in all aspects of Tibetan life for centuries. At its peak, its combined monasteries boasted a population in the tens of thousands, and its sway encompassed the religious landscape of Mongolia and much of Central Asia.

This widespread religious activity fostered a rich literary tradition, and fifteen seminal works are featured here representing four genres of that tradition. The first are works on the stages of the path, or lamrim, the genre for which the Geluk is most renowned. Second are works on guru yoga, centered around the core Geluk ritual Offering to the Guru (Lama Chöpa). Third are teachings from the unique oral transmission of Geluk mahāmudrā, meditation on the nature of mind. Fourth are the “guide to the view” (tatri) instructions. The volume features well-known authors like Tsongkhapa, the First Panchen Lama, and the Fifth Dalai Lama, but also important works from lesser-known figures like Gomchen Ngawang Drakpa’s stages of the path in verse and Gyalrong Tsultrim Nyima’s extensive commentary on the Lama Chöpa that interweaves precious explanations from the Ensa Oral Tradition he received from his own teacher. 

Your guide to these riches, Thupten Jinpa, maps out their historical context and spiritual significance in his extensive introduction.

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James B. Apple: Stairway to Atiśa (#149)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features James B. Apple, Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Calgary. James’ research focuses upon critical analysis of Mahāyāna sūtras and topics within Indian and Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism. His numerous books and articles include Stairway to Nirvāṇa, A Stairway taken by the Lucid, Jewels of the Middle Way, Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Illuminator of the Awakened Mind, and An Old Tibetan Dunhuang Manuscript of the Avaivartikacakrasūtra.

In this episode, host Daniel Aitken and James discuss 

• how college athletics set James on his path to Buddhism and academia;
• his investigations into the root of suffering with teachers such as Bhante Gunaratana, Gelek Rinpoche, and Geshe Lhundub Sopa;
• the unique lineage and views of the highly influential Indian master Atiśa Dīpankara Śrījñāna;
• fine points of Atiśa’s contemplative Madhyamaka philosophy and emphasis on meditation;
• Kadampa systems of Tantric practice and the Twenty-One Taras;
• Atiśa’s Mahamudra lineage and interactions with some of the Mahasiddhas;
• the secret stages of the path of Dromtonpa;
• and much more!

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The Source of Supreme Bliss

The Source of Supreme Bliss contains the first English translations of important commentaries on the Highest Yoga Tantra system of the Heruka Chakrasamvara five deity practice. 

Included is a lucid, practical, and deeply profound explanation of the generation stage by Ngulchu Dharmabhadra. This is followed by an extremely rare and profound commentary by the First Panchen Lama Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen on the completion stage, along with a commentary on how to perform a proper Chakrasamvara retreat. The second half of the book comprises translations of the ritual texts associated with the commentaries. 

Indispensable for anyone who undertakes this practice, The Source of Supreme Bliss will also provide rich and profound insights for those interested in Highest Yoga Tantra.

The Dechen Ling Practice Series from Wisdom Publications is committed to furthering the vision of David Gonsalez (Venerable Losang Tsering) and the Dechen Ling Press of bringing the sacred literature of Tibet to the West by making available many never-before-translated texts.

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Ven. Anālayo: Early Buddhist Oral Tradition (#143)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features Wisdom author Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo: scholar, author, and meditation teacher. Born in Germany in 1962 and ordained in Sri Lanka in 1995, Ven. Bhikkhu Anālayo completed a PhD thesis on the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta at the University of Peradeniya in 2000, and is faculty member and scholar at several academic institutions. Ven. Bhikkhu Anālayo has authored several books on meditation and early Buddhism, such as Satipatthāna: The Direct Path to Realization, Superiority Conceit in Buddhist Traditions, Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research, and his most recent book Early Buddhist Oral Tradition. He also teaches the Wisdom Academy online course Foundations of Mindfulness.  

In this episode, host Daniel Aitken and Ven. Bhikkhu Anālayo celebrate the launch of Early Buddhist Oral Traditions, and discuss 

• understanding self-reliance and the Buddha’s tradition;
• the records of the Buddha’s teachings and their transmission through time;
• structural elements and meaning in the memorization process of the Suttas;
• biases and confidence when studying early Buddhist texts;
• identity and memory in the modern digital environment;
• and much more!

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Matthew Kapstein: The Reluctant Professor (#139)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features an interview with special guest Matthew Kapstein Ph.D., Numata Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Chicago, director of Tibetan Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études Paris, and co-editor of the online Oxford Bibliographies of Buddhism. His numerous publications include Buddhism Between Tibet and China, Reason’s Traces,  Contributions to the Cultural History of Early Tibet, and The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Matthew Kapstein and host Daniel Aitken discuss

• Matthew’s fascinating introduction to the languages, landscape, and philosophy of Asia;
• his pivotal journey to India and Nepal in the early 1970’s, meeting Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Zina Rachevsky;
• Sanskrit and Tibetan language learning on the ground in Nepal, India, and the United States;
• studying with masters such as Kalu Rinpoche, Chögyam Trungpa, Dudjom Rinpoche, the 16th Karmapa Rangjung Dorje, and Khenpo Sangye Tenzin;
• Matthew’s pursuits in Western philosophy as well as Madhyamaka traditions such as Mipham Rinpoche’s;
• the seminal Tibetan King Gesar epic;
• and much more!

Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!

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A History of Buddhism in India and Tibet

The first complete English translation of an important thirteenth-century history that sheds light on Tibet’s imperial past and on the transmission of the Buddhadharma into Central Asia.

Translated here into English for the first time in its entirety by perhaps the foremost living expert on Tibetan histories, this engaging translation, along with its ample annotation, is a must-have for serious readers and scholars of Buddhist studies. In this history, discover the first extensive biography of the Buddha composed in the Tibetan language, along with an account of subsequent Indian Buddhist history, particularly the writing of Buddhist treatises. The story then moves to Tibet, with an emphasis on the rulers of the Tibetan empire, the translators of Buddhist texts, and the lineages that transmitted doctrine and meditative practice. It concludes with an account of the demise of the monastic order followed by a look forward to the advent of the future Buddha Maitreya. 

The composer of this remarkably ecumenical Buddhist history compiled some of the most important early sources on the Tibetan imperial period preserved in his time, and his work may be the best record we have of those sources today. Dan Martin has rendered the richness of this history an accessible part of the world’s literary heritage.

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Ratnakīrti’s Proof of Momentariness by Positive Correlation (Kṣaṇabhaṇgasiddhi Anvayātmikā)

The Kṣaṇabhaṇgasiddhi is a masterpiece of skillful reasoning by the eleventh-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Ratnakīrti. This renowned scholar taught at the great Buddhist University of Vikramaśīla and was a master of almost every classical philosophical school that preceded him.

The present work is informed by centuries of debate between Buddhist advocates of momentariness and archrival Nyāya philosophers who believed that both selves and things endure.

This book is the first published translation of Ratnakīrti’s proof based on positive correlations, and includes a commentary explaining each step of his reasoning.

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Ven. Bhikkhu Anālayo and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche: Early Buddhism and Dzogchen (#133)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features a discussion with special guests Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.

Ven. Anālayo, Rinpoche, and host Daniel Aitken discuss many Buddhist ideas and practices, comparing what different Buddhist traditions have to say about them, including

• how the Buddha practiced;
• understanding mindfulness across different Buddhist traditions;
• the difference between mindfulness and awareness and how we translate the original terms for these practices;
• defining terms like space and emptiness and how we think about emptiness;
• emptiness and compassion;
• and much more.
  
  Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!

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The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature (Mahāyānasūtrālaṁkāra)

The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra) was transmitted from the bodhisattva Maitreyanātha to Āryā Āsaṅga, the fourth-century Indian Buddhist scholar-adept. The most foundational of the set of the famous Five Teachings of Maitreya, the Discourse Literature is considered the wellspring of what the Tibetans call the “magnificent deeds trend of the path,” the compassion side, which balances the “profound view trend of the path,” the wisdom side. The Discourse Literature is also considered to be metaphysically aligned with and foundational for the Idealist (Vijñānavādin) school of Mahāyāna thought. Translated from Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese by Lobsang Jamspal, Robert Thurman, and the AIBS team, the present work contains a fully annotated, critical English rendition of the Discourse Literature along with its commentary (bhāṣya) by Āsaṅga’s brother, Vasubandhu. It also includes an introduction covering essential historical and philosophical topics, a bibliography, and a detailed index. This long-awaited work is the founding cornerstone of the AIBS Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences series.

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Sounds of Innate Freedom, Volume 4

Sounds of Innate Freedom: The Indian Texts of Mahāmudrā 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 Mahāmudrā 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 dohās (couplets), vajragītis (vajra songs), and caryāgītis (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 mahāsiddhas, yogis, and ḍākinīs, often in the context of ritual gaṇacakras 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—mahāmudrā—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.

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In Vimalakīrti’s House

Over the course of nearly half a century, Robert A. F. Thurman has left an indelible mark on numerous fields of study, including Buddhist literature, Tantric Buddhism, Tibetan studies, and the comparative sciences of mind. To celebrate his seventieth birthday, Thurman’s students and colleagues have come together to pay tribute to these contributions and to Thurman’s ongoing leadership in these fields by assembling a collection of essays of their own that extend and supplement his groundbreaking research.

In Vimalakīrti’s House is the result of this collaboration and represents a broad spectrum of cutting edge studies in areas central to Thurman’s own scholarly project. The resulting volume is itself a kind of “treasury of the Buddhist sciences,” insofar as its authors explore wide-ranging problems in art, literature, epistemology, history, ritual, buddhology, and lexicography.

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Great Treatise on the Stages of Mantra (Sngags rim chen mo)

Tsong Khapa’s Great Treatise on the Stages of Mantra (Sngags rim chen mo)—considered by the present Dalai Lama to be one of Tsong Khapa’s two most important books (along with his Lam rim chen mo)—is his masterful synthesis of the principles and practices of all four classes of Tantra, which formed the basis of his innovation in creat­ing the esoteric “Tantric College” institution and curriculum in the early fifteenth century. With detailed reference to hundreds of works from the Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur, the chapters presented and studied in this volume concern his treatment of the creation stage (bskyed rim) meditations of Unexcelled Yoga Tantra. This includes a detailed analysis emphasizing how and why such creation stage practices—utilizing deity yoga to transform death, the between, and life into the three bodies of buddhahood are indispensible to creating a foundation for successfully entering the culminal yogic practices of the perfection stage. (A subsequent volume will present the perfection stage chapters of this essential masterwork.)

An important work for both scholars and practitioners, this annotated translation is supplemented with extensive support materials.

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The Adamantine Songs (Vajragīti)

Presented here in English for the first time is a set of three of Saraha’s “Adamantine Songs” (Skt. Vajragīti; Tib. rdo rje’i glu), poetic works that play a central role in the Great Seal (mahāmudrā) tantric tradition of both India and Tibet. The tantric adept (siddha) Saraha was among the most notable figures from India’s late first millennium, a time of rich religious and literary activity. His influence on Buddhist practice and poetry extended beyond the Indian subcontinent into Tibet, where it continues to affect every tradition that engages the practice and philosophy of the esoteric Great Seal.

In these songs, Saraha’s views on the nature of mind are presented as both evocative poetry and theoretical exegesis. These songs offer a new perspective on the religious life of Buddhist India and the figure of one of its most famous adepts.

Braitstein opens the door to this important set of texts by Saraha through her elegant translation, critical edition of the Tibetan texts, and in-depth analysis of the three poems. She situates Saraha and his work both in the Tibetan Buddhist sphere and in a broader South Asian literary and religious context, closely treating the central themes in Saraha’s poems, highlighting the specific siddha worldview espoused in his oeuvre, and at the same time unpacking the cryptic references contained in the songs’ individual verses. With this book, Braitstein substantially increases the amount of Saraha’s poetry available to an English-speaking audience and contributes to the ever-increasing movement to explore the culture of the tantric adepts.

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Nāgārjuna’s Reason Sixty (Yuktiṣaṣṭikā)

The Reason Sixty is the most concise philosophical work by the second-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna. It is one of that master’s works most often cited by Centrist (Madhyamaka) commentators, and it is included in the Sixfold Canon of Reason (rigs tshogs drug) which forms the textual basis for Centrist studies in the Tibetan philosophical curriculum. Standing midway between his other masterpieces on philosophy and religion, in the Reason Sixty Nāgārjuna describes the central thrust of his therapeutic philosophy of language—the elimination of cognitive bias and affective resistances to the gradual cultivation of nondualistic wisdom and compassion.

The seventh-century Centrist master Chandrakīrti, concerned with applying his language therapeutic method to define the social epistemology of Centrism, likewise links the critical hermeneutic-pedagogy and the practical therapeutic-anthropology of his other works in his acclaimed Reason Sixty Commentary.

Includes detailed introductory essays, annotated translations, critical Tibetan editions, trilingual glossary, intellectual-historical and biographical tables, bibliography, and index.

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