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Nearly a millennium ago, the great Indian Buddhist master Atisa Dipamkarasrijnana (ca. 982-1054) wrote a guidebook for realizing all the stages to awakening at the repeated request of his closest Tibetan disciple. Atisa is famously the author of the Lamp for the Path to Awakening (Bodhipathapradipa), a short work in verse, but this longer prose work has been virtually unknown, even in Tibet--until now. Atisa's Stages of the Path Awakening (Bodhipathakrama), translated here, synthesizes all aspects of Buddhist practice, from the very beginning of the path--reflecting on the fortunate opportunity of human rebirth--up through to attaining omniscient buddhahood by nondual meditation. The Indian master's faithful disciple Dromtonpa kept these teachings secret, and they were only transmitted to select disciples in a closely guarded transmission, but the lineage died out centuries ago, after Dromtonpa's Kadam school was eclipsed by history.
Now this significant work of Buddhist path literature has become available owing to recently recovered manuscripts of the Kadampas. This book offers a study and complete translation from the Tibetan of this monument of guidance on the Buddhist path accompanied by the commentaries and ritual texts that were transmitted alongside Atisa's text. Apple's substantial introduction includes a structural comparison with Atisa's famous work, charts the transmission lineage for the present work before it died out, and explores various hypotheses for why their fates diverged. Recovered from the contingencies of history, this book brings to life one of the most holistic and integrated approaches to the highest realizations of the Indian Buddhist path ever transmitted in Tibet.
Atisa's Stages of the Path to Awakening: Together with Commentaries and Ritual Texts, James B. Apple (Translator), Wisdom Publications, Hardcover, 408 Pages, $49.95
James B. Apple is full Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Calgary. He received his doctorate in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His current research focuses upon the critical analysis of Mahayana sutras and topics within Indian and Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism. He has published over fifty peer-reviewed articles in international academic journals. His books include Stairway to Nirvana (State University of New York Press, 2008), A Stairway taken by the Lucid: Tsong kha pa�s Study of Noble Beings (Aditya Prakashan, 2013 ), Jewels of the Middle Way, The Madhyamaka Legacy of Atisa and His Early Tibetan Followers (Wisdom Publications, 2018), Atisa Dipamkara Illuminator of the Awakened Mind (Shambala, 2019), and An Old Tibetan Dunhuang Manuscript of the Avaivartikacakrasutra (Revue d�Etudes Tibetaines, 2021).
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