Luminous Heart: The Third Karmapa on Consciousness, Wisdom, and Buddha Nature

Description

This superb collection of writings on buddha nature by the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (1284-1339), focuses on the transition from ordinary deluded consciousness to enlightened wisdom, the characteristics of buddhahood, and a buddha’s enlightened activity. These materials, most of them never before translated, comprehensively represent the Third Karmapa’s unique and well-balanced view which synthesizes Yogacara, Madhyamaka, and the classical teachings on buddha nature. Rangjung Dorje not only shows that these teachings do not contradict each other, but also that they supplement each other and share the same essential points in terms of the ultimate nature of mind and all phenomena. His fusion is remarkable because it clearly builds on Indian predecessors and precedes the later, often highly charged debates in Tibet about the views of Rangtong (self-empty) and Shentong (other-empty). Although Rangjung Dorje is widely regarded as one of the major proponents of the Tibetan Shentong tradition (some even consider him its founder), this book show that his views differ importantly from the Shentong tradition as understood by Dolpopa, Taranatha, and the First Jamgon Kongtrul. The Third Karmapa’s view is more accurately described as one in which the two categories of rangtong and shentong are not regarded as mutually exclusive but are combined in a creative synthesis. In addition, though relying strictly on classical Indian sources, the Karmapa’s texts are not mere scholarly documents. For those practicing the sutrayana and the vajrayana in the Kagyu tradition, what these texts describe can be transformed into living experience.