Je Tsongkhapa - The Splendor of an Autumn Moon: The Devotional Verse of Tsongkhapa

THE SPLENDOR
OF AN AUTUMN MOON The Splendor of an Autumn Moon presents for the first time twenty-one devotional poems by Tsongkhapa, in both the original Tibetan and in artful English translation. Making poetry out of sutra-like materials is a hugely daunting undertaking. Gavin Kilty has done a monumental job of getting these poems into their present highly readable state. Mike OConnor, author of The Clouds Should Know Me By Now The poems translated in The Splendor of an Autumn Moon are some of the most inspiring verses ever written in the Tibetan language. In addition to evoking powerful sentiments, the poems help provide a glimpse into Tsongkhapas deep humility and his passionate commitment to the ideals of altruism. Geshe Thupten Jinpa, PhD, founder, Institute for Tibetan Classics Reading devotional poetry, with its symbols and imagery, transports our mind from a narrow state into one of joy and inspiration. Reading the poems of Tsongkhapa will uplift and inspire our hearts in a similar way.

Venerable Thubten Chodron, coauthor of Buddhism Indias bright genius for poetry and Tibets unique devotional attitude meet in these fourteenth-century hymns. These songs are the verbal counterpart to thangka-painting, both colorful and ceremonial. Gavin Kilty should be thanked for his translations. Andrew Schelling, professor, Naropa University The Tibetan saint TSONGKHAPA (13571419) is among the most influential figures in Tibetan Buddhism. The founder of the Gelug tradition, he was most renowned for the compilation of the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Lamrim Chenmo) and the Great Treatise on the Stages of Secret Mantra (Ngagrim Chenmo). GAVIN KILTY has worked as a translator and teacher of the Tibetan language since 1970 and has been a full-time translator for the Institute of Tibetan Classics since 2001.

He is the translator of Mirror of Beryl, A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages, and Ornament of Stainless Light. He also teaches Tibetan language courses in India, Nepal, and elsewhere, and he is a translation reviewer for the organization 8400: Translating the Words of the Buddha. CONTENTS The purpose of this work is to show Tsongkhapa, the great Buddhist reformer, in his devotional aspect. Much has been written and translated of Tsongkhapa the scholarthe brilliant mind who unlocked the arcane mysteries of a Buddhism that had already been extant in Tibet for six hundred years previously and for a thousand years or so in India before that. Tsongkhapa almost single-handedly rediscovered and clarified the message of the Buddhaa message that had become dissipated over the centuries. With an appetite for thorough research and an astonishing memory, he plowed through the scriptures of ancient India and contemporary Tibet, searching to knit together the various strands of Buddhas thought.

As a result, he produced some of the most authoritative literature on Buddhist philosophy and practice the world had ever known. He continues to be revered today and is thought of with immense gratitude by practitioners of all Tibetan Buddhist lineages. Tsongkhapa was also a monkand one who took his ordination very seriously. He ceaselessly strove to keep his vows pure and prayed to do so in all future lives. He researched the monastic code laid down by the Buddha and composed authoritative works on it as well. Buddhist practitioners throughout Tibet heaped great devotion upon himand still he strove to live a simple contemplative life, spending much of his time in remote hermitages meditating and writing.

Yet he never shirked from teaching when requested. The story of the remarkable life of Tsongkhapa has been well documented elsewhere, but this collection of works seeks to bring out a lesser-known side of this great scholar and meditator: the devotional poet. Tsongkhapa studied poetry, as did many of the great masters of his day and after, and in the colophon of many of his works he is referred to as the Poet of the North. Historically, poetry in Tibetan literature was almost invariably religious and often indistinguishable from prayer or eulogy. The poetry of Tsongkhapa and other renowned practitioners of ancient Tibet was addressed to objects of reverence found within the Buddhist pantheon. These included the Buddha himself, as well as the many deities of tantric practices, supernatural protectors, great bodhisattvasthe personifications of Buddhas qualitiesas well as the teachings of the Buddha and, of course, the poets own teachers and lamas.