Everyday Consciousness and Primordial Awareness - by Khenchen Thrangu (Paperback)

About the Book

An introduction to Buddhist psychology that delves into the nature of mind and human potential. It offers essential instructions for meditation sessions that can powerfully influence and ultimately transform the mind into the purified mind of a buddha. The author clearly describes how consciousnesses operate in everyday perception and makes the correlation as to how, at the time of Buddhahood, these same consciousnesses express the five primordial wisdoms of the five Buddha families.

Book Synopsis

This introduction to Buddhist psychology supplies essential instructions for successful meditation practice. Rinpoche presents meditation practices that can powerfully influence and ultimately transform the mind into the purified mind of a Buddha. He clearly describes how consciousnesses operate in everyday perception and how at the time of Buddhahood, these same consciousnesses express the five primordial wisdoms of the five Buddha families.

Review Quotes

"With characteristic cogency, clarity, and precision, Thrangu Rinpoche lays out the Buddhist description of mind in both its conventional and tantric dimensions. Then he invites us further in showing how these teachings give voice to the subtlety of meditation experience and can lead us to the profundity of the awakened state itself."--Reginald A. Ray, Naropa University, author of Indestructible Truth and Secret of the Vajra World

"Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, a preeminent Tibetan master, has presented an accessible and precise introduction to the inherently awakened mind at the heart of confusion and suffering. While this text is invaluable for the scholar, it is even more crucial for the Vajrayana practitioner."--Judith Simmer-Brown, PhD, Professor, Naropa University

"Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche is among the wisest and most compassionate Buddhist masters alive today. I have no doubt that this book will be a great inspiration and support for all serious Dharma students who read it and put it into practice."--Pema Chödrön, author of When Things Fall Apart

"With the help of this introduction to Buddhist psychology, successful meditation practice is distinctly possible. . . . Distinctively clear and vivid."--Mandala Magazine

"There is no shortage of brief introductions to Buddhist practice, especially from the Tibetan Buddhist perspective. What makes Rinpoche's work distinctive is the clarity and vividness of his religious thought. Rinpoche attempts to concretize the notions of five levels of awareness in the reader's mind by correlating each with a different 'Buddha-family, ' accessible through correct mediation. There is also a helpful Tibetan (transliterated)-English glossary to assist the non-Tibetan reader through the forest of religious terminology. Recommended for most collections, especially where interest in Buddhism or the Dalai Lama is strong."--Library Journal

About the Author

Khenchen Thrangu was born in Tibet in 1933. He has founded numerous monasteries and nunneries, schools for Tibetan children, and medical clinics. He has taught extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States, and is the abbot of Gampo Abbey. He was appointed by the Dalai Lama to be the personal tutor for the Seventeenth Karmapa.