Steps to the Great Perfection The Mind-Training Tradition of the Dzogchen Masters

The first-ever English translation of mind-training contemplations from the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.


A compilation of teachings on the seven contemplations, an ancient system of mind-training/lojong teachings that has been preserved as part of a rare set of instructions on Dzogchen, or the Great Perfection. This book is unique because although the lojong teachings of the Kadam tradition are well known, this is the first time the mind-training teachings from the Dzogchen tradition have been presented in an English translation, and most Western scholars and practitioners are unaware that such mind-training techniques even exist in Dzogchen. The contemplations themselves are vividly described, and some unfold as dramatic stories in which the meditator imagines himself or herself as the main character. Thus, they are quite accessible for beginning practitioners.

JIGME LINGPA (1730-1798) was one of the most important masters of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He and the great fourteenth-century master Longchen Rabjam (1308-1363), with whom he was closely linked through visionary experience, are known as the "two omniscient masters, father and son." Jigme Lingpa was a terton, or discoverer of treasure teachings, and revealed the Longchen Nyingtik, one of the most important cycles of meditative practice in the Nyingma School.