Book cover for Gone Beyond (Volume 1): The Prajnaparamita Sutras, the Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Kagyu Tradition by

Gone Beyond (Volume 1)

The Prajnaparamita Sutras, the Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Kagyu Tradition

2011 Released
876 Pages
14-21 Hours
★ 4.82 11 ratings
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Snow Lion PublicationsISBN 9781559393560
Translated by Karl Brunnhölzl
The Abhisamayalamkara summarizes all the topics in the vast body of the Prajnaparamita Sutras. Resembling a zip-file, it comes to life only through its Indian and Tibetan commentaries. Together, these texts not only discuss the "hidden meaning" of the Prajnaparamita Sutras--the paths and bhumis of sravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas--but also serve as contemplative manuals for the explicit topic of these sutras--emptiness--and how it is to be understood on the progressive levels of realization of bodhisattvas. Thus these texts describe what happens in the mind of a bodhisattva who meditates on emptiness, making it a living experience from the beginner's stage up through buddhahood.

Gone Beyond contains the first in-depth study of the Abhisamayalamkara (the text studied most extensively in higher Tibetan Buddhist education) and its commentaries in the Kagyu School. This study (in two volumes) includes translations of Maitreya's famous text and its commentary by the Fifth Shamarpa Goncho Yenla (the first translation ever of a complete commentary on the Abhisamayalamkara into English), which are supplemented by extensive excerpts from the commentaries by the Third, Seventh, and Eighth Karmapas and others. Thus it closes a long-standing gap in the modern scholarship on the Prajnaparamita Sutras and the literature on paths and bhumis in mahayana Buddhism.

The first volume presents an English translation of the first three chapters of the Abhisamayalamkara and its commentary by the Fifth Shamarpa. The second volume presents an English translation of the final five chapters and its commentary by the Fifth Shamarpa.

Karl Brunnhölzl

Translated by

Karl Brunnhölzl, MD, PhD, was originally trained as a physician. He received his systematic training in Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators, founded by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, as well as the Nitartha Institute, founded by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. Karl also studied Buddhism, Tibetology, and Sanskrit at Hamburg University, Germany. Since 1989 he has been a translator and interpreter from Tibetan and English. Karl is a senior teacher and translator in the Nalandabodhi community of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, as well as at Nitartha Institute. He is the author and translator of numerous texts, including The Center of the Sunlit Sky: Madhyamaka in the Kagyü Tradition (2004), Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith Instructions (2007), Luminous Heart: The Third Karmapa on Consciousness, Wisdom, and Buddha Nature (2009), Gone Beyond: The Ornament of Clear Realization and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Kagyü Tradition, 2 vols. (2010-11), When the Clouds Part (2014), A Lullaby to Awaken the Heart (2018), and Luminous Melodies: Essential Dohas of Indian Mahamudra (2019). He lives in Munich, Germany.

Karl has set some of the songs of realization in this and the other volumes to contemporary melodies; recordings can be accessed at https: //mindwithoutme.com.

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