Atiśa’s Stages of the Path to Awakening

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Atiśa's Stages of the Path to Awakening is the latest of James Apple's publications dedicated to the works of Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. The book presents Stages of the Path to Awakening for the first time in full to an Anglophone readership, together with translations of several commentarial and instructional works and accompanied by a detailed introduction by the author. I am delighted to see these little-known texts from the tradition of the famous Buddhist master finally receiving the attention they deserve.”—Ulrike Roesler, University of Oxford

“The lamrim, or ‘stages of the path,’ is one of Tibet’s most important and popular methods of self-transformation. Based on the works of the eleventh-century Bengali saint Atiśa, it is practiced in every school of Tibetan Buddhism. In this book, James Apple translates and brings to life hitherto unknown writings of Atiśa on the lamrim. This is a tremendously important contribution to Indo-Tibetan religious literature, and a great gift to those of us who study and practice the stages of the path.” —José Ignacio Cabezón, distinguished research professor of religious studies, Dalai Lama Professor Emeritus, UC Santa Barbara

ATIśA’S STAGES OF THE PATH TO AWAKENING

Together with Commentaries and Ritual Texts

James B. Apple

Available Early! Enjoy 20% off with code atisa20 through June 9.

This book contains a lost Stages of the Path (Lamrim) work composed by the originator of the genre, Atiśa, one of the greatest Indian Buddhist masters to ever set foot in Tibet.

Nearly a millennium ago, the great Indian Buddhist master Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (ca. 982–1054) wrote a guidebook for realizing all the stages to awakening at the repeated request of his closest Tibetan disciple. Atiśa is famously the author of the Lamp for the Path to Awakening (Bodhipathapradipa), a short work in verse, but this longer prose work has been virtually unknown, even in Tibet—until now. Atiśa’s Stages of the Path Awakening (Bodhipathakrama), translated here, synthesizes all aspects of Buddhist practice, from the very beginning of the path—reflecting on the fortunate opportunity of human rebirth—up through to attaining omniscient buddhahood by nondual meditation. The Indian master’s faithful disciple Dromtönpa kept these teachings secret, and they were only transmitted to select disciples in a closely guarded transmission, but the lineage died out centuries ago, after Dromtönpa’s Kadam school was eclipsed by history.

Now this significant work of Buddhist path literature has become available owing to recently recovered manuscripts of the Kadampas. This book offers a study and complete translation from the Tibetan of this monument of guidance on the Buddhist path accompanied by the commentaries and ritual texts that were transmitted alongside Atiśa’s text. Apple’s substantial introduction includes a structural comparison with Atiśa’s famous work, charts the transmission lineage for the present work before it died out, and explores various hypotheses for why their fates diverged. Recovered from the contingencies of history, this book brings to life one of the most holistic and integrated approaches to the highest realizations of the Indian Buddhist path ever transmitted in Tibet.

book information
  • Hardcover
  • 408 pages, 6 x 9 inches
  • $49.95
  • ISBN 9781614298441
  • Hardcover
  • 408 pages
  • $33.99
  • ISBN 9781614298441
about the author
Atiśa’s Stages of the Path to Awakening

James B. Apple is full Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Calgary. He received his doctorate in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His current research focuses upon the critical analysis of Mahāyāna sūtras and topics within Indian and Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism. He has published over fifty peer-reviewed articles in international academic journals. His books include Stairway to Nirvāṇa (State University of New York Press, 2008), A Stairway taken by the Lucid: Tsong kha pa’s Study of Noble Beings (Aditya Prakashan, 2013), Jewels of the Middle Way, The Madhyamaka Legacy of Atiśa and His Early Tibetan Followers (Wisdom Publications, 2018), Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Illuminator of the Awakened Mind (Shambala, 2019), and An Old Tibetan Dunhuang Manuscript of the Avaivartikacakrasūtra (Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, 2021).

Other books by James B. Apple:
Jewels of the Middle Way

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