His Eminence Chöden Rinpoché - Mastering Meditation: Instructions on Calm Abiding and Mahamudra

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
MASTERING MEDITATION

Rinpochs teachings are genuine manifestations of Lama Tsongkhapas tradition. It is wonderful to see that more of his clear, practical, and precious instructions are now available in English.

Gesh Tenzin Namdak, senior Western student of Rinpoch and resident teacher at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London

Although typically associated with the Kagy tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the profound meditation on the nature of mind known as mahmudr (the great seal) is also important among the Geluk, whose masters have studied, practiced, and taught the technique for many centuries. In this accurate, scholarly, and highly readable translation, Ven. Tenzin Gache brings to light two important texts by the beloved modern Geluk master Chden Rinpoch (19302015): a clear exposition of how to attain calm abiding (amatha), which is an essential part of mahmudr meditation, and a detailed commentary on the root verses on mahmudr composed by the First/Fourth Panchen Lama, Losang Chkyi Gyaltsen (15701662). Chden Rinpochs discussion of mahmudr is among the most thorough and practical of any written by a modern Gelukpa including lucid discussions of the philosophical analysis required to perfect stra-level mahmudr and of procedures for great-seal tantric practice, while Ven. Gaches introduction, notes, and supplementary sections provide a helpful window onto Rinpochs incisive and inspiring writings. Mastering Meditation is a superlative book, which should be on the bookshelf of anyone interested in mahmudr, its place in Geluk tradition, and its power to reveal to us the true nature of our mind.

Roger R. Jackson, author of Mind Seeing Mind: Mahmudr and the Geluk Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism

Embodying the scholarship of a lharampa geshe and the insights of a realized yogi, Chden Rinpoch is the perfect master to explain how to meditate on the ultimate nature of the mind, and does so in this wonderful book, made accessible by Venerable Gaches excellent introduction and translation. Highly recommended.

Dr. Nicholas Ribush, director, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

This picture illustrates the nine mental settlings, culminating in calm abiding and special insight.

Wisdom Publications

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2020 Awakening Vajra International

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No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Chden Rinpoch, 19302015, author. | Gache, Tenzin, translator.

Title: Mastering meditation: instructions on calm abiding and mahmudr / His Eminence Chden Rinpoch; translated, introduced, and annotated by Tenzin Gache.

Description: First. | Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019025467 (print) | LCCN 2019025468 (ebook) | ISBN 9781614296188 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781614296294 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Meditation Buddhism. | Meditation Buddhism Early works to 1800.

Classification: LCC BQ5612 .C47 2020 (print) | LCC BQ5612 (ebook) | DDC 294.3/4435 dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019025467

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019025468

ISBN 978-1-61429-618-8 ebook ISBN 978-1-61429-629-4

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Cover design by Jim Zaccaria. Interior design by Gopa & Ted2, Inc.

Cover image courtesy of Kurty Wong.

Diligent efforts were made in every case to identify copyright holders of the photographs. The author and the publisher are grateful for the use of this material.

Permission to use the image on page ii is courtesy of Mr. Tsering Phuntsok and Norbulingka Institute. The illustration of the dissolution on page 163 and the illustration of the channels and chakras on page 171 are courtesy of Yamantaka.org. The illustration of Pachen Losang Chkyi Gyaltsen on page 254 is courtesy of Andy Weber.

Foreword

BY HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA

MEDITATION PRACTICE is essential for the development of spiritual qualities such as loving-kindness, compassion, and wisdom to reach their fullest potential. Without training our mind through meditation, our mind wanders and our ability to focus and apply our mind in a disciplined manner remains weak.

There are two broad categories of meditation practice, one belonging to calm abiding (shamatha) that focuses on training attention, stability, and awareness, and the other belonging to special insight (vipashyana), which is focused on cultivating insight through analysis. The purpose of achieving calm abiding is not just for the sake of gaining higher levels of concentration. Rather it is to serve as the basis for achieving special insight realizing emptiness through which afflictive emotions can be removed completely. Mahmudr is a highly advanced form of practice of special insight, and the transmission of its instruction exists also in the Gelug Tradition.

I am glad that Chden Rinpochs teachings on these two topics are now compiled into this book, Mastering Meditation. I commend the translator and all those who have worked hard in making these teachings available in English.

Publishers Acknowledgment

THE PUBLISHER gratefully acknowledges the generous help of Awakening Tara Singapore and donors and Neo Kok Theng in sponsoring the production of this book.

Gyalten Translation Groups Preface

THE GYALTEN TRANSLATION GROUP of Awakening Vajra International gratefully wishes to acknowledge the extensive efforts of Venerable Tenzin Gache in producing this lucid translation of His Eminence Chden Rinpochs profound guide to mahmudr and calm abiding.

As movingly recounted in Venerable Gaches preface, Chden Rinpoch had and continues to have a profound effect on all with whom he came into contact. Not only was he an accomplished scholar who held and transmitted rare oral traditions, untiringly teaching the Dharma in the East and West at the behest of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but he was also a legendary yogi who accomplished a near twenty-year solitary retreat under the direst of circumstances. Anyone who ever had the good fortune to experience Rinpochs presence will have little doubt that Rinpoch himself embodied, at the highest level, the realization of the practices described in this book.

This skillful translation constitutes what will hopefully be the first in a series of works edited by the Gyalten Translation Group and published by Wisdom Publications. Initiated by Geshe Gyalten Kungka, principal disciple of His Eminence Chden Rinpoch, the series will focus on preserving and spreading Rinpochs intellectual and spiritual legacy, while also presenting works by Geshe Gyalten and other close disciples of Rinpoch. The Gyalten Translation Group (Jeff Seipel, Gyalten Tsondue, Sue Bartfield, Timothy Brown, and Gyalten Jigdrel) offers its sincere thanks to Venerable Gache, to Laura Cunningham at Wisdom Publications, and to all the students of Chden Rinpoch around the world who have shown great devotion to Rinpoch and steadily supported the work of Awakening Vajra International. We also wish to thank Geshe Gyalten Kungka for his vital role as an indispensable communicator of Rinpochs teachings and, most of all, Rinpoch himself now reincarnated as Tenzin Gyalten Rinpoch without whom none of these activities would have been possible.