The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind: A Treasure Tantra of the Great Perfection

This second volume of the collected works of the modern Tibetan master Khangsar Tenpa’i Wangchuk is the root text and commentary on the Dzogchen tantra called The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind, a verse text on the direct practices to realize the nature of mind taught within the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

This is a modern commentary on a Dzogchen tantra titled The Natural Freedom and Openness of the Mind, covering the practices of trekcho, thogal, and bardo. This tantra is a mind terma, or treasure, of the early modern terton, or treasure revealer, Deshek Lingpa (1842-1907), and incarnation of Yudra Nyingpo, a student of Yeshe Tsogyal, preeminent female consort of Padmasambhava, through whom the transmission lineage of this teaching is said to descend. The commentary presents the approach to enlightenment taught in this tradition. These instructions are considered advanced and secret, to be taught only to those who have received transmission from a qualified master. For the curious reader outside of the tradition, this book offers a clear and concise introduction to way the Nyingma tradition frames Buddhist cosmology, mind, liberation, and prayer.

KHANGSAR TENPA’I WANGCHUK (1938-2014) was born in Golok, Tibet. He began his Buddhist study at eight years old, became a monk at fourteen, and began teaching at fifteen. A Nyingma practitioner, Khangsar Khenpo was both a tertön, or treasure revealer, and a scholar of the rigorous scholastic curriculum of the Geluk tradition. During the later years of the Cultural Revolution, he was sentenced to twelve years in prison where he continued his dedicated practice alongside other great masters, from whom he received pith instructions and transmissions. In the later part of his life, he focused on teaching, writing commentaries on seminal texts, and restoring and enlarging monasteries in his home villages of Khangsar Taklung and Panak in the region of Golok. The PADMAKARA TRANSLATION GROUP, based in France, has a distinguished reputation for its translations of Tibetan texts and teachings. Its work has been published in several languages and is renowned for its clear and accurate literary style.