Graham Coleman - The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation

[English Title]

[Tibetan Title]

Composed by
PADMASAMBHAVA

Revealed by
TERTON KARMA LINGPA

Translated by
GYURME DORJE

Edited by
GRAHAM COLEMAN With THUUTEN JINPA

Introductory Commentary by
HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA

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First published in hardback in Penguin Books 2005
Published in this format in Penguin Books 2006
Published in Penguin Classics 2008
1

Translation copyright The Orient Foundation (UK) and Gyurme Dorje, 2005
Editorial apparatus copyright The Orient Foundation (UK),
Graham Coleman and Thupten Jinpa, 2005
Introductory Commentary copyright His Holiness the Dalai Lama, 2005
All rights reserved

Thangkas painted by the late Shawu Tsering of Repkong and photographed by
Jill Morley Smith and from the private collection of Gyurme Dorje
The drawings of Padmasambhava and Karma Lingpa by Robert Beer on pages iii and xlvi are reproduced by kind permission of the artist see www.tibetanart.com.

The moral right of the translator, the editors, and the author of
the Introductory Commentary has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

978-0-14-190331-6

May all sentient beings, children of buddha nature,
realise
the ultimate nature of mind:
insight and compassion,
in blissful union.

Colour Plates

Our project began in 1988 when HH the Dalai Lama kindly offered to request HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, the late head of the Nyingma school, to give an oral commentary to me on key sections of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Dalai Lama knew that various translations had been made of The Great Liberation by Hearing, our , but that so far no one had translated the entire Tibetan Book of the Dead. HH Dilgo Khyentse graciously agreed to the Dalai Lamas request and over a period of four weeks gave the empowerments and an incisive and illuminating oral commentary to the core elements of the text, which was eloquently translated each day by Sogyal Rinpoche.

While in Kathmandu, receiving the oral commentary from HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, I had the good fortune to meet Dr Gyurme Dorje, who had previously translated Longchen Rabjampas commentary to the Guhygarbha Tantra, the root text on which the Tibetan Book of the Dead is based. During our first meeting, Gyurme agreed to make a new annotated translation of the entire Tibetan Book of the Dead, a task he undertook with exceptional care and dedication over the years that followed. While Gyurme was working on the translation he was also employed at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London as a research fellow, translating into English the Greater Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary (Bod-rgya tshig-mdzod chen-mo). During this time, Gyurme worked closely with the highly regarded Nyingma master Zenkar Rinpoche, who is one of the foremost contemporary lineage holders of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Zenkar Rinpoche kindly advised Gyurme throughout the translation of our text and also gave an extensive oral commentary to us on , The Introduction to Awareness.

At various stages of the project, the Dalai Lama answered my and dictated the introduction to Chapter n.

Throughout the editing process I had the happy good fortune of working with Geshe Thupten Jinpa, senior translator to the Dalai Lama, whom I had first met in 1977 and who has been a close friend since he came to England to study philosophy at Cambridge in 1989. Jinpa translated the Dalai Lamas Introductory Commentary and reviewed every line and word of all fourteen chapters of the edited translation with me twice, in the course of which he made countless important and inspiring suggestions. Everyone who knows Jinpas work is aware of his special talent and skill both as a translator and writer and these have played an invaluable role in this project. Finally, the individual introductions to each of the chapters, except , were written by Dasho Sangay Dorji, a Bhutanese scholar, who comes from a family whose paternal line has been lineage holders of the Tibetan Book of the Dead for several generations and who throughout his childhood accompanied his father every time he was called to a household to carry out these practices.

Needless to say it has been a wonderful privilege for us to work with all those who helped to make this project possible. Our insights and skills as writers would not even register on the most sensitive of detectors compared to those of the composers of the original cycle of teachings or the lineage holders who gave the commentarial explanation that guided us. Throughout this endeavour therefore we have tried to substitute hard work and attention to detail for our lack of ability and to let the original magnificence of the text shine through the clouds of our shortcomings as much as we were able.