The Copper-Colored Mountain: Jigme Lingpa on Rebirth in Padmasambhava's Pure Land

Description

A translation of Jigme Lingpa’s eighteenth-century Tibetan Buddhist aspiration prayer for taking rebirth in the pure land Copper-Colored Mountain, accompanied by a commentary and analysis by the translators. While Pure Land Buddhism is generally thought of as an East Asian tradition with an Indian origin, the Copper-Colored Mountain is in fact the first and only pure land with scriptural origins entirely in the Tibetan tradition. It represents Tibetan culture’s fascinating intersection of traditional history with the liturgical tantric practice. The Copper-Colored Mountain is understood to be the current abode of Padmasambhava, the Indian master credited with first bringing Buddhism to Tibet and founding Tibet’s first monastery, Samye. After leaving Tibet, it is said that Padmasambhava set up residence on Cāmara, one of the two islands on either side of the continent of Jambudvipa, our world according to Buddhist cosmology. After taming the resident ogres of Cāmara and converting them to Buddhism, he then built an octagonal palace where Buddhist practitioners may be transported in visions and dreams or reborn through aspiration prayers. This work is a translation and analysis of one such aspiration prayer. This prayer was composed by Jigme Lingpa, a treasure revealer of the Nyingma tradition in the eighteenth century, and remains the most important prayer to this pure land in Tibetan Buddhism. Merging academic precision in representing the Tibetan texts and devotion to the principles of tantric Buddhism, translators Georgios T. Halkias and Christina Partsalaki enable a wider appreciation of the history and impact of this prayer in Tibetan Buddhist literature while elucidating its meaning for Buddhist practitioners. Review “I am very encouraged that, even in this day and age, not only is the name “Copper-Colored Mountain” still uttered, but Professor Halkias and Christina Partsalaki have now put great effort into presenting a wide range of explanations of its meaning. . . . I am confident that just mentioning the name “Copper-Colored Mountain” will plant the seed of actually experiencing it, if not now, then definitely in the future.”—from the foreword by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse “I’m delighted to see Padmasambhava’s Pure Land presented in Georgios T. Halkias and Christina Partsalaki’s book with academic rigor, philosophical acumen, and reverence for this sacred topic. It is a fine example of the compatibility of intellectual objectivity and spiritual insight, as it sheds a clear light on the depth of Mahayana Buddhist concepts of pure lands in general and the Copper-Colored Mountain in particular.”—B. Alan Wallace, founder, and director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies “The authors are sensitive in their reading of the verses, balancing a scholarly perspective with an interpretative angle that explicates the significance of each stanza for contemplative practice.”—Buddhadharma About the Author GEORGIOS T. HALKIAS is an associate professor at The University of Hong Kong and author of Luminous Bliss: A Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet. CHRISTINA PARTSALAKI has an MPhil from the University of Hong Kong and is the author of “Heraclitus and the Buddha: Approaching Truth in Early Greek and Early Buddhist Thinking,” published in the Stoa of Sciences journal. JIGME LINGPA was an eighteenth-century Tibetan treasure revealer of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Translations of his works into English have been published on the topics of Dzogchen nature of mind teachings, Vajrayana preliminary practices of Ngöndro, and the complete Nyingma path.