Naked Awareness

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Summary: An important, insightful contribution to Buddhist Studies.
Review: Karma Chagme's Naked Awareness reviews the spiritual beliefs of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, considering the two phases of Dzoghchen practice and perspectives on consciousness and philosophy.

Rating:
Summary: 1st part of a definitive text
Review: This book is the initial portion of Gyatrul Rinpoche's commentary on a portion of Karma Chagme's 17th century text, "The Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen." The 2nd volume is called, "A Spacious Path to Freedom." A related text (all 3 are translated by B. Alan Wallace) is entitled, "Natural Liberation" and is attributed to Padmasambhava. However, even the 3 together do not completely communicate the original text. Chokyi Rinpoche also wrote a small commentary on the original text entitled: "The Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen." All 4 of these books are well worth reading. They are among the clearest and pithiest of currently available English translations of Mahamudra and Dzogchen texts and help one to not only understand their relationships, but more importantly to understand the underlying truths within them. Mahamudra is contended to be the highest teaching within the Kagyu tradition (among the 4 Tibetan Buddhist traditions). Dzogchen is similarly regarded for the Nyingma tradition. Thus, the original work can be said to address the very highest Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhist) teachings. It is obvious (even in translation) that Karma Chagme was a great, enlightened master. This may very well be the best of the 4 volumes cited above. It contains a wealth of material including Trekcho and Togal--the 2 primary Dzogchen practices. It is highly recommended.