As It Is (Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche)

Full Title: As It Is: Volumes 1 and 2
Major Topic: Using traditional practices and methods to know mind nature directly.
Level: all levels
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Urgyen Tulku, even among Tibetans, had a special gift for leading people into the experience of mind and explaining in simple language how to practice deeply. In [...]

Buddhist Ethics (Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye)

Full Title: Buddhist Ethics (Treasury of Knowledge)
Major Topic: The three vows (individual freedom, awakening being and knowledge holder)
Level: advanced
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Comprehensive summary of ethical systems and ordinations as practiced in the Tibetan tradition for the last thousand years; one chapter of Kongtrul’s encyclopedia of Tibetan Buddhism. This is a reference [...]

Unfettered Mind (Takuan Soho)

Full Title: Unfettered Mind: Writings of the Zen Master to the Sword Master
Major Topic: presence
Level: experienced and advanced
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Using the context of martial arts, Takuan describes how to live awake and present. A subtle book, to be read with care. It may take time to appreciate exactly what Takuin [...]

Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa (Garma C. C. Chang)

Full Title: Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa: The Life Story and Teaching of the Greatest Poet-Saint Ever to Appear in the History of Buddhism
Major Topic: Milarepa’s challenges and teachings
Level: all levels
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For those familiar with Tibetan Buddhism concepts, Milarepa’s songs are an inexhaustible treasury of teaching and instruction. Two [...]

Creation and Completion (Jamgon Kontrul)

Full Title: Creation and Completion: Essential Points of Tantric Meditation
Major Topic: creation and completion phase practice in Vajrayana
Level: experienced and advanced
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Practical exposition of the key points in Vajrayana practice and how to integrate the many different elements of this form of practice. For Vajrayana practitioners, this book will [...]

Cultivating the Empty Field (Taigen Dan Leighton)

Full Title: Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi
Major Topic: Presence, stability, clarity
Level: All levels
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A 12th century ancestor of Dogen gives sparkling descriptions of presence, where stability and clarity are integrated and phenomena are unrestricted. Translated by Taigen Daniel Leighton and Yi Wu.

Life of Shabkar (tr. Matthieu Ricard)

Full Title: Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin
Major Topic: Shabkar’s challenges and teachings
Level: all levels
This biography, like that of Milarepa’s, is a treasury of teaching and guidance. Two ways to use this book. Some of the chapters are wonderful accounts of spiritual challenges, albeit in highly mythic language. Second, the songs themselves [...]

The Jewel Ornament of Liberation (Gampopa & Herbert Guenther)

Full Title: The Jewel Ornament of Liberation: The Wish-Fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings
Major Topic: Tibetan mahayana Buddhism
Level: all levels
A classical description of the path of spiritual awakening according to the Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist tradition. Gampopa blends the classical Indian scholastic tradition he received in his Kadampa training with the training in practice and mahamudra [...]

Natural Great Perfection (Nyoshul Khenpo)

Full Title: Natural Great Perfection
Major Topic: dzogchen, direct awareness
Level: all levels
Compilation of talks by contemporary Dzogchen master; clear, simple, and profound. Read and savor each of the chapters, sit with them, and let them guide your practice.

Treasury of Precious Qualities (Longchen Yeshe Dorje)

Full Title: Treasury of Precious Qualities: A Commentary on the Root Text of Jigme Lingpa
Major Topic: Tibetan form of Mahayana Buddhism
Level: all levels
Thorough exposition of the concepts and teachings at the base of all Tibetan Buddhist practice. A reference book that provides classical presentations of the path as practiced in Tibetan Buddhism.