Updating My Spiritual Reading List, Category 3, Buddhism (Tibetan)   

In my two nonfiction books (“Beyond the Power of Now” and “Electrical Christianity”), I provide a Spiritual Reading List (of Highly Recommended and Recommended texts in the “Great Traditions”). I made a few changes to the List between “Beyond the Power of Now” and “Electrical Christianity,” and there will be more changes to the List in my forthcoming book “The Power of Now Meditation Guide” (which should be published later this year).

My Spiritual Reading List is divided into nine categories – Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism (Original), Buddhism (Tibetan), Buddhism (Zen), Christianity, Judaism, and Gnosticism, Daism, Hinduism (Yoga), Kashmir Shaivism, and Miscellaneous. In a nine-part series, I will, in turn, consider each category and provide its latest edition.

Herewith is the third category, Buddhism (Tibetan), followed by my consideration.

Buddhism (Tibetan)

Highly Recommended

Principal Yogacara Texts: Indo-Tibetan Sources of Dzogchen Mahamudra, Rodney P. Devenish.  (Easily the best Yogacara text I’ve encountered.)

Teachings of Tibetan Yoga, Gharma C.C. Chang. (Superb Mahamudra presentation. “Must” reading for serious meditators.)

The Cycle of Day and Night, Namkhai Norbu. (Outstanding Dzogchen meditation manual. “Must” reading for serious meditators.)

The Golden Letters, John Myrdhin Reynolds. (Scholarly exposition of the history and practice of Dzogchen in relation to the Garab Dorje, the first teacher of Dzogchen.)

The Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding, Longchen Rabjam. (Marvelous ultra-mystical text by a revered Vajrayana master. If you appreciate this book, get A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission: A Commentary on The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena, by the same author. Other translations/annotations of Rabjam’s texts are available.)

Recommended

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Chogyam Trungpa. (Enlightening text by a modern “crazy wisdom” master.)

Naked Awareness, Karma Chagme. (Excellent material on Dzogchen and Mahamudra.)

Self-Liberation Though Seeing With Naked Awareness, John Myrdhin Reynolds. (Compare this translation of/commentary on Padmasambhava’s Yoga of Knowing the Mind and Seeing Reality to W.Y. Evans-Wentz’s in The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation.)

The Supreme Source, Namkhai Norbu. (The fundamental tantric text of Dzogchen.)

The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, W.Y. Evans-Wentz. (Classic translation of/commentary on Padmasambhava’s Yoga of Knowing the Mind and Seeing Reality. Compare this translation/commentary to John Myrdhin Reynolds’s in Self-Liberation Through Seeing With Naked Awareness. Skip Carl Jung’s ridiculous “Psychological Commentary.”)

Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, W.Y. Evans-Wentz. (Classic, ultra-mystical text.)

Wonders of the Natural Mind, Tenzin Wangyal. (The essence of Dzogchen in the Native Bon Tradition of Tibet.)

Consideration

I’ve added just one book to this category since “Beyond the Power of Now” and “Electrical Christianity – “Principal Yogacara Texts.” And I’ve “downgraded” two texts – “The Supreme Source” and “The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation” -- from Highly Recommended to Recommended.