HISTORY OF THE KARMAPAS: The Odyssey of the Tibetan Masters with the Black Crown
by Lama Kunsang, Lama Pemo, and Marie Aubèle

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February, 2012      1559393904, 9781559393904
332 pp., 14 color photos, 48 b&w photos  
#HIKAOD     $21.95 paper    Special Sale! $15.36

Masters of esoteric knowledge and miraculous practices, the lineage of the Karmapas descends from the great Indian tantric master Tilopa through a chain that includes Naropa, Marpa, and Milarepa. The Karmapas are distinguished by their black crowns, said to have been woven by dakinis and symbolizing the activity of the buddhas.

In their recounting of the histories of the seventeen Karmapas, the authors reveal the universal and marvelous concealed in the everyday world. Their lively account, peppered with anecdotes, is the most comprehensive in the West on this subject, with information from Tibetan, Chinese, Mongolian, French, and English sources.

Lama Kunsang and Lama Pemo (Olivier and Lydia Brunet) Both completed the traditional three-year retreat under the guidance of the first Kalu Rinpoche and Bokar Rinpoche. They then spent five years in a monastery in the Himalayas, working in Kalu Rinpoche’s translation committee. They currently teach Buddhism and meditation in Europe and Asia.

Marie Aubèle, a student of Tibetan Buddhism for many years, also lives in France.

POINTING OUT THE DHARMAKAYA
by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, foreword by the Dalai Lama, intro. by Lama Tashi Namgyal

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February, 2012      1559393882, 9781559393881
182 pp.  
#POOU2E     $19.95 paper    Special Sale! $13.96

At the heart of successful Mahamudra practice is the ability to understand the nature of mind. The Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje (1556-1603), the acknowledged master of this approach, wrote three definitive texts on Mahamudra; Pointing Out the Dharmakaya is the shortest and most practical of the three. Brilliant explanations by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche make this text vividly relevant for contemporary Western practitioners. For those committed to ascertaining the mind’s true nature, there is no more systematic or comprehensive approach than can be found in this extraordinary set of instructions.

"Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche is among the wisest and most compassionate Buddhist masters alive today."—Pema Chödrön, author of When Things Fall Apart 

"Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche is one of the most learned and experienced of the senior Karma Kagyu teachers living today. Indeed, he is the Tutor of the present Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje.... Readers who are interested in discovering the nature of the mind will find much here in this clear and thorough guide to delight and inspire them."—H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

"Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche has a unique ability to bring forth the central issues of a text and make them available to contemporary audience."—H.H. the Seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa

"From the Seventeenth Karmapa's tutor, a pithy distillation of the Ninth Karmapa's Mahamudra manual. Its emphasis on the arousing of bodhicitta makes this an indispensable companion to Rinpoche's The Ninth Karmapa's Ocean of Definitive Meaning."—Ziji 

"An invaluable guide for Mahamudra practitioners on how to look at the mind, it is clearly laid out so that the instructions are easy to recall and put to use. For those committed to ascertaining the mind's true nature checking their experience, and refining and extending their insight, there is certainly no more systematic or comprehensive approach than can be found in this extraordinary set of instructions."—The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies 

Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche is an eminent teacher of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and a recognized master of Mahamudra meditation. He is currently tutor to His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa. He lives in India.

THE TREASURY OF KNOWLEDGE, Book Six, Parts One and Two: Indo-Tibetan Classical Learning and Buddhist Phenomenology
by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, translated by Gyurme Dorje

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March, 2012      1559393890, 9781559393898
992 pp.  
#TRKN12     $49.95 cloth    Special Sale! $34.97

Jamgön Kongtrul's Treasury of Knowledge in ten books is a unique encyclopedic masterpiece embodying the entire range of Buddhist teachings as they were preserved in Tibet. The first two parts of Book Six concern Indo-Tibetan Classical Learning and Buddhist Phenomenology. The former analyzes traditional subjects such as Sanskrit grammar, logic, and medicine. The principal non-Buddhist philosophical systems in vogue are then summarized and contrasted with the hierarchical meditative concentrations and formless absorptions through which the "summit of cyclic existence" can genuinely be attained. Part Two examines the phenomenological structures of Abhidharma—the shared inheritance of all Buddhist traditions.

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé (1813-1900), a pivotal figure in eastern Tibet's nonsectarian movement, was one of the most outstanding writers and teachers of his time.

Gyurme Dorje holds a PhD in Tibetan Literature and an MA in Sanskrit. From 1991 to 1996 he held research fellowships at London University, where he worked on the Encyclopaedic Tibetan-English Dictionary. He has written, edited, translated and contributed to numerous books on Tibetan culture.  He is based in London.

THE SEVEN-POINT MIND TRAINING: A Tibetan Method for Cultivating Mind and Heart
by B. Alan Wallace, edited by Zara Houshmand

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April, 2012      1559393939, 9781559393935
148 pp.  
#SEPO2E     $16.95 paper    Special Sale! $11.86

The central focus of The Seven-Point Mind Training is the transformation from self-centered solitude to compassion for others. Mind training is designed to shift our attitudes so that our minds become pure wellsprings of joy instead of murky pools of problems, anxieties, fleeting pleasures, frustrations, hopes, and fears. It does not require that we withdraw into seclusion, but that we re-examine all of our relationships—to family, friends, enemies, and strangers—and gradually transform our responses to whatever life throws our way.

"The techniques advocated by Wallace have more immediacy than ever. This book, though rich in Tibetan wisdom, is written in a clear, concise, informative and entertaining manner for easy assimilation into the Western mindset."—Ashé Journal of Experimental Spirituality 

"Alan Wallace is one of the great Western Buddhist thinkers of our day."—Howard Cutler, co-author with H.H. the Dalai Lama of The Art of Happiness at Work 

B. Alan Wallace trained for many years as a monk in Buddhist monasteries in India and Switzerland. He has taught Buddhist theory and practice since 1976 and has served as interpreter for numerous Tibetan scholars and contemplatives, including H.H. the Dalai Lama. He has published many books on Tibetan Buddhism, including Buddhism with an Attitude and The Four Immeasurables. He currently lives in Santa Barbara, California.

THE HEART ATTACK SUTRA: A New Commentary on the Heart Sutra
by Karl Brunnhölzl

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May, 2012      1559393912, 9781559393911
160 pp.  
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The radical message of the Heart Sutra, one of Buddhism's most famous texts, is a sweeping attack on everything we hold most dear; our troubles, the world as we know it, even the teachings of the Buddha himself. Several of the Buddha's followers are said to have suffered heart attacks and died when they first heard its assertion of the basic groundlessness of our existence—hence the title of this book.

Overcoming fear, the Buddha teaches, is not to be accomplished by shutting down or building walls around oneself, but instead by opening up to understand the illusory nature of everything we fear—including ourselves. In this book of teachings, Karl Brunnhölzl guides practitioners through this 'crazy' sutra to the wisdom and compassion that lie at its core.

Karl Brunnhölzl works as a translator and interpreter for the Tsadra Foundation, Nalandabodhi, and the Nitartha Institute, where the Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche recently bestowed on him the title of khenpo. He is the author and translator of Luminous Heart (2009) and Gone Beyond (2011). He lives in Seattle, Washington.

THE MAGIC OF AWARENESS
by Anam Thubten

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May, 2012      1559393920, 9781559393928
160 pp.  
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Real life, says Anam Thubten, is not an accumulation of stories from the past, nor is it a series of anticipated fantasies; it is unfolding right now. Enlightenment is always available, even in this very ordinary moment. It is something extraordinary that ordinary people can witness whenever we are ready; it's the sudden experience of being free, an experience when everything becomes radically clear, the result of allowing ourselves "to fall from the thinking mind into the heart." This unbelievably simple awareness is always there; Anam Thubten shows us where to look for it.

With a remarkable ability to present Buddhist concepts in a fresh and accessible manner, Anam Thubten understands what drives contemporary spiritual practitioners. In a manner both refreshing and profoundly compassionate, he blends humor, references to popular culture and an intimate knowledge of Buddhist tradition in a study of enlightenment that meets readers right where they are.

Anam Thubten's first book, No Self, No Problem, is a best-selling Snow Lion title. The Magic of Awareness continues Thubten's series of books based on talks given at the Dharmata Foundation, where he is a teacher and spiritual advisor.

Anam Thubten was born in Golok, eastern Tibet, and undertook Buddhist training in the Nyingma tradition at an early age. He has been teaching in the West since the 1990s and is the spiritual advisor and Dharma teacher for the Dharmata Foundation. He lives in Point Richmond, California.

LIVING LIFE FULLY
by Bill Karelis

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June, 2012      1559393947, 9781559393942
176 pp.  
#LILIFU     $16.95 paper    Special Sale! $11.86

We are all imprisoned by our own projections of mind, and we all have the power to free ourselves. To gain this freedom, we must do three things. We need to know that we are imprisoned; we need to investigate how we entrap ourselves; and we need to discover how to overcome our habitual patterns.

The circumstances of life do not have to destroy us or drag us into degraded realms. We all possess the means to live a rich, full, and good existence if we develop a kind and disciplined relationship with ourselves.

We may have forgotten our fundamental openness and wakefulness. It is not necessary to ask why this is the case, or who is to blame. The approach here is to learn how we can change from neurotic, self-destructive behavior to sanity, gentleness, and goodness.

The path to that relationship is supported by meditation, but meditation doesn't have to be heavy or ambitious. We don't have to cultivate the self-image of being "spiritual" people. It is better to be ordinary, to avoid the fancy labels, and to have some kind of perspective about the journey. The point is not to make ourselves into better or different people, but just to become comfortable with living in our skin.  It is in learning how we do harm to ourselves and others that we become able to give up doing so. Cultivating decency and gentleness is always possible. And doing so makes a genuine life.

It doesn't seem to matter where we start from. Illness, poverty, or despair may be the best starting place. Sometimes it is the person who is the most trapped, or who suffers the greatest pain or the deepest sorrow, who is best equipped to transcend the survival mentality and to live a fully awakened life.

Bill Karelis teaches meditation and conducts intensive programs and retreats in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and South Africa. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

GROUNDLESS PATHS: The Prajnaparamita Sutras, The Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Nyingma Tradition
by Karl Brunnholzl, a Tsadra Foundation Series book

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August, 2012      1559393750, 9781559393751
904 pp.  
#GRPA     $54.95 cloth    Special Sale! $38.47

The Abhisamayalamkara summarizes all the topics in the vast body of the prajñaparamita sutras. Resembling a zip-file, it only comes to life through its Indian and Tibetan commentaries. Together, these texts not only discuss the "hidden meaning" of the prajñaparamita sutras—the paths and bhumis of sravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas, but also serve as contemplative manuals for the explicit topic of these sutras—emptiness—and how it is to be understood on the progressive levels of realization of bodhisattvas. Thus, these texts describe what happens in the mind of a bodhisattva who meditates on emptiness, making it a living experience from the beginner's stage up through buddhahood.

Groundless Paths contains the first in-depth study of the Abhisamayalamkara (the text studied most extensively in higher Tibetan Buddhist education) and its commentaries from the perspective of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. This study consists mainly of translations of Maitreya's famous text and two commentaries on it by Patrul Rinpoche. These are supplemented by three short texts on the paths and bhumis by the same author as well as extensive excerpts from commentaries by six other Nyingma masters, including Mipham Rinpoche. Thus, this book helps close a long-standing gap in the modern scholarship on the prajñaparamita sutras and the literature on paths and bhumis in mahayana Buddhism.

Karl Brunnhölzl was trained as a physician and presently works as a Tibetan translator and Buddhist teacher. He studied Tibetology, Buddhology, and Sanskrit at Hamburg University and Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators in Kathmandu. Currently he works as a translator and interpreter for the Tsadra Foundation, Nalandabodhi, and the Nitartha Institute. In 2009 he was appointed as the first Western khenpo (abbot in the Kagyü and Nyingma lineages) by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. He is the author and translator of The Center of the Sunlit Sky (2004), the first in-depth study of the Kagyü interpretation of Madhyamaka in a Western language; Straight from the Heart (2007), an anthology of Buddhist pith instructions; Nagarjuna's In Praise of Dharmadhatu (2007) with commentary by the Third Karmapa; Luminous Heart (2009), the Third Karmapa on buddha nature, consciousness, and wisdom; and Gone Beyond, Vols. 1 and 2 (2010-2011).

DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK
by Thubten Chodron

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September, 2012      1559393963, 9781559393966
224 pp.  
#DOBEEV     $15.95 paper    Special Sale! $11.16

It can be hard for those living in the twenty-first century to see how fourteenth-century Buddhist teachings apply to them. When you're trying to figure out which cell phone plan to buy or brooding about something someone wrote about you on Facebook, lines like "While the enemy of your own anger is unsubdued,/Though you conquer external foes, they will only increase" can seem a little obscure.

Thubten Chodron's new book doesn't just explain the verses of Togmay Zangpo's revered text, Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas. In dozens of passages, she lets her students and colleagues share first-person stories of the ways that its teachings have changed their lives. Some bear witness to dramatic transformations—making friends with an enemy prisoner-of-war, finding peace after the murder of a loved one—while others tell of smaller lessons, like waiting for something to happen or coping with a minor injury. One woman who set up a practice with another professional discovered he was deeply in debt and had stolen money from her. "I learned a lot about not feeling like a victim and not being angry.... This man had two small kids. His wife had breast cancer. His suffering was evident. What others do to me is not the issue; it's how I think about their actions."

Thubten Chodron, whose Buddhism for Beginners has been a Snow Lion bestseller since its publication, knows exactly what's on readers' minds and deals adroitly with their weaknesses. Students of Buddhism enjoy her teasing tone ("Can't I just lie down, relax, and have a Pepsi while I listen to the MP3 recording? My life is very busy and at least this way I can learn the Dharma") and her no-nonsense attitude to practice. Enlivened and deepened by the stories from Dharma practitioners of every age and background, this book moves students from reading about Buddhism to actually putting it into practice.

American-born Tibetan Buddhist nun Thubten Chodron has studied and practiced Buddhism in India and Nepal and travels worldwide teaching Buddhism and meditation. She is the author of Buddhism for Beginners and Open Heart, Clear Mind. She lives in Seattle, Washington.