Sarah Harding (1) (1951–)

New translations of teachings on meditative practice from four highly influential Tibetan Buddhist traditions.
Drawing primarily from the Pacification, Severance, Shangpa Kagyü, and Bodongpa traditions, Four Tibetan Lineages presents some of Tibet's most transformative yet lesser-known teachings on meditative practice. Most works in this volume are drawn from a Tibetan anthology known as the Treasury of Precious Instructions compiled by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé (1813-1900). A vast show more preservation project, this anthology reflects Kongtrul's attempt to rescue rare teachings from disappearing. By foregrounding the teachings of masters like Khedrup Khyungpo Naljor (d. 1135), Dampa Sangyé (d. 1117), Machik Labdrön (1031/55-1126/50), Jonang Taranatha (1575-1634), and Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo (1820-92), this volume extends Jamgön Kongtrul's preservation efforts into the modern world. show less

From the legendary cofounder of Tibet's nineteenth-century nonsectarian movement, an encyclopedic survey of the practice of Chod, or severance, a tantric ritual based on the crucial Mahayana sutras to sever clinging to an ego and thereby achieve realization.

The Treasury of Precious Instructions by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye, one of Tibet’s greatest Buddhist masters, is a shining jewel of Tibetan literature, presenting essential teachings from the entire spectrum of practice lineages that show more existed in Tibet. In its eighteen volumes, Kongtrul brings together some of the most important texts on key topics of Buddhist thought and practice as well as authoring significant new sections of his own.

In this, the fourteenth volume, Kongtrul compiles the teachings on Severance, or Chöd. It includes some of the tradition’s earliest source scriptures, such as the “grand poem” of Āryadeva, and numerous texts by the tradition’s renowned founder, Machik Labdrön. Kongtrul also brings together the most significant texts on the rites of initiation, empowerments for practice, and wide-ranging instructions and guides for the support of practitioners. Altogether, this quintessential guide to Severance offers vast resources for scholars and practitioners alike to better understand this unique and remarkable tradition—the way of severing the ego through the profound realization of emptiness and compassion. show less

Profound, poetic, and moving description of the View and practice of Chod from the dakini who transmitted it.

Sarah Harding's translation of the five-chapter gCod text (by the 10th century C.E. female adept Machig Labdron) known in Tibetan as Namshe Chenmo: really a combination of autobiography and Buddhist practice text. Although excerpts of Namshe Chenmo have been published here and there, this represents the first time it's been translated into English in its entirety. A landmark text.