Creation and Completion: Essential Points of Tantric Meditation

Rating:
Summary: Deity practice in Tibetan Buddhism
Review: This book is, indeed, a unique guide to the fundamental practice of Tibetan Buddhist tantra.

Basic to tantra is deity practice in devotional rituals and meditation techniques, and it consists of two stages: the creation stage and the completion stage. In the creation stage, practitioners visualise themselves in the form of the enlightened deity. In the completion phase this visualisation is subseqently dissolved.
As such, "creation" and "completion" of tantric mahayana (or vajrayana) are the equivalents of "shamatha" (tranquillity meditation) and "vipashyana" (insight meditation) of sutra mahayana.

The book is a translation of an exposition by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, who designed this text as a guide to meditation practice. It was originally written entirely in verse, in the style of the songs of realization and other inspiration spiritual literature of Tibet.

This book is very accessible and clear, and it will certainly give the reader a better understanding of what tantric practice is all about. A must-read, for sure.

There is one book which is very useful to continue on this subject (as a companion book): "Generating the Deity" by Gyatrul Rinpoche (ISBN 1559390557).