Mountain Dharma

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“Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361) is among the most admired and, at the same time, contested figures in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. His radical reinterpretation of the concept of ‘emptiness,’ grounded in the vision of a pervasive and permanent buddha nature, has provided a challenge to Tibetan thinkers of all schools and a continuing source of inspiration for practitioners of Buddhist tantric meditation and yoga. With Cyrus Stearns’s exemplary new translation of his masterwork, Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning, Dölpopa’s thought becomes accessible to contemporary readers as it has not been before.”—Matthew T. Kapstein, professor emeritus, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris

“Cyrus Stearns is the perfect scholar-practitioner to bring this monumental work to life for contemporary readers. While Dölpopa was universally acknowledged as a master scholar and practitioner of the Kālacakra Tantra, his seemingly radical view of shentong (‘other-emptiness’) received critiques from several corners of the Tibetan Buddhist world. Others in this world, however, praised him for bringing to the fore the single most important—and radical—essence of all the teachings by the Buddha: at heart, we all are buddhas already; we just don't realize it yet. Hence the significance of making Dölpopa’s teachings available to contemporary audiences cannot be overestimated.”—Karl Brunnhölzl, author and translator, Sounds of Innate Freedom: The Indian Texts of Mahāmudrā

“Cyrus Stearns’s elegant translation of Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning reveals the brilliance of Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, one of Tibet’s most profound yet controversial thinkers. Mountain Dharma showcases Dölpopa’s distinctive vision of an eternal buddha nature within all beings and his presentation of emptiness of other and emptiness of self-nature as complementary rather than opposing views. Stearns’s meticulously researched and highly readable translation of Dölpopa’s magnum opus will be treasured by scholars and practitioners alike.”—Elizabeth Callahan, translator of Moonbeams of Mahāmudrā

MOUNTAIN DHARMA

An Ocean of Definitive Meaning

Cyrus Stearns

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A brilliant annotated translation of Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen’s Mountain Dharma that opens a masterpiece of the Jonang tradition to Western readers and presents Dölpopa’s provocative ideas about a true, eternal, and established reality that still impact Buddhism today.

The controversial master Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen shook Buddhist Tibet when he taught that an eternal enlightened essence, or buddha nature, exists in full form in all living beings. The ideas discussed in Mountain Dharma are still as provocative as when Dölpopa first taught them, impacting Buddhism to this day. Dölpopa identified the ultimate with the buddha nature, or sugata essence, which he held to be eternal and not empty of self-nature. The buddha nature is perfect, with all its characteristics inherently present in all living beings. It is only the impermanent and temporary afflictions veiling the buddha nature that are empty of self-nature and must be removed through the practice of the path to allow it to manifest. Dölpopa establishes the validity of his theories with an ocean of quotations selected from Indian Buddhist scriptures and treatises of indisputable authority, showing us that the ultimate is a true, eternal, and established reality, empty merely of other relative phenomena.

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book information
  • Hardcover
  • 720 pages, 6 x 9 inches
  • $79.95
  • ISBN 9780861714469
about the author
Mountain Dharma

Cyrus Stearns has been a student of Tibetan Buddhism since 1973. His main teachers have been Dezhung Tulku Rinpoché, Chogyé Trichen Rinpoché, and Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoché. He received a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Washington and is the author and translator of various books, including The Buddha from Dölpo, King of the Empty Plain, and Hermit of Go Cliffs. He is an independent scholar and translator living in the woods on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, Washington.

Other books by Cyrus Stearns:
Ornament to Beautify the Three Appearances
The Preliminary and Main Practices of the Sakya Lamdré Tradition
Luminous Lives
Hermit of Go Cliffs
Taking the Result as the Path
Song of the Road

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