RESTRICTED TEXT: This text is to be purchased or read only by those who have completed the preliminary practices and received pointing out instructions from a qualified lineage holder. By ordering this book you confirm that you have met these requirements.

In the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, the Great Perfection is considered the most profound and direct path to enlightenment. The instructions of this tradition present a spiritual shortcut--a radically direct approach that cuts through confusion and lays bare the mind's true nature of luminous purity. For centuries, these teachings have been taught and practiced in secret by some of the greatest adepts of the Buddhist tradition.

Great Perfection, Volume II: Separation and Breakthrough contains extensive teachings on the unique practices of the Great Perfection tradition, beginning with the outer and inner separation, or "rushen," practices and then moving progressively through the unique physical, verbal, and mental preliminaries of the Heart Essence Lineage. The final section of the text gives detailed instructions on the practice of trekcho, the breakthrough stage of original purity, showing step-by-step how the student can first identify pure awareness, and the sustain this recognition. In addition to these profound instructions, the author includes short biographies of the lineage masters of the Great Perfection. This instruction manual was compiled by the Third Dzogchen Rinpoche and is one of the most important commentaries on the Heart Essence of the Dakinis, the Khandro Nyingtik, Longchenpa's seminal compilation of Great Perfection teachings. This is a companion volume to Great Perfection: Outer and Inner Preliminaries, which contains the first half of the Third Dzogchen Rinpoche's text, The Excellent Chariot.

Great Perfection: Volume II: Separation and Breakthrough, The Third Dzogchen Rinpoche, Snow Lion, Hardcover, 256 pages, $39.95

The Third Dzogchen Rinpoche (1759-1792) was the abbot of Dzogchen Monastery, one of the largest monastic centers in eastern Tibet. He was known particularly for his mastery of the Great Perfection teachings and his clear and accessible works on this topic.

Cortland Dahl (translator) is a Buddhist scholar and translator, a meditation teacher, and a collaborator on various scientific studies. Cortland's interest in meditation began more than twenty years ago. After receiving a Master's Degree in Buddhist Studies, he lived for eight years in India and Nepal, where he spent long periods in solitary retreat in the Himalayan foothills and taught courses on Buddhism, meditation, and Tibetan language at Kathmandu University's Center for Buddhist Studies and at the Tergar Institute, which he cofounded in 2007. He currently serves as a Senior Instructor in Tergar, a global network of meditation groups and centers, and as Chairman of Tergar International. As an author and translator, Cortland has published numerous translations on meditation and Buddhist philosophy, as well as scientific articles on meditation research and the cultivation of well-being. Cortland is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Wisconsin under the guidance of the renowned neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson.