Realizing the Great Perfection: A Commentary on Dudjom Rinpoché’s Illumination of Primordial Wisdom

Pith Instructions for Realizing the Great Perfection, from One of the Greatest Tibetan Yogis of the Twentieth Century, H. H. Dudjom Rinpoche.

In the concise yet comprehensive practice manual entitled TheIllumination of Primordial Consciousness, the great twentieth-century Tibetan Nyingma master Dudjom Rinpoche lays out a sequential path to spiritual freedom according to the teachings of the Great Perfection (Dzokchen): First, we refine our awareness by training in meditative quiescence (shamatha) and then proceed to the cultivation of contemplative insight (vipashyana), by which our mind’s basic nature of luminosity and emptiness is revealed. Then, having recognized that the ordinary, deluded mind is actually without any intrinsic essence, we are primed to cut through this conditioned mind into unborn, timeless pristine awareness, which has never been contaminated by mental afflictions or other obscurations. Finally, we realize that our own awareness has never been other than the dharmakaya, the mind of a buddha, and perfect enlightenment is realized spontaneously and effortlessly.

Beloved teacher and renowned scholar Lama B. Alan Wallace guides the reader through Dudjom Rinpoche’s remarkable text, sharing insights gained over years of study and practice. He provides line-by-line commentary, enhanced with teachings from other revered Dzokchen masters such as Padmasambhava, Dudjom Lingpa, and Gyatrul Rinpoche. Also included is a set of fifteen guided meditations, with links to audio tracks of Lama Alan giving the instructions himself.

B. Alan Wallace is president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. He trained for many years as a monk in Buddhist monasteries in India and Switzerland. He has taught Buddhist theory and practice in Europe and America since 1976 and has served as interpreter for numerous Tibetan scholars and contemplatives, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College, where he studied physics and the philosophy of science, he earned his MA and PhD in religious studies at Stanford University. He has edited, translated, authored, and contributed to more than forty books on Tibetan Buddhism, medicine, language, and culture, and the interface between science and religion.

Alan is also the founder of the Center for Contemplative Research (CCR), which has retreat center locations in Crestone, Colorado, and Castellina Marittima, Italy as well as a center in New Zealand slated to open soon. The CCR is dedicated to researching the role and methods of the ancient contemplative practices of shamatha and vipashyana, and their involvement in mental health and wellbeing, as well as their role in fathoming the nature and origins of human consciousness.