Overview

The literature of the Great Perfection is divided into three sections or groups: The Mind Section, the Space Section, and the Upadesha Instruction Section. The Upadesha Instruction Section is represented by a famous set of Seventeen Tantras. The three Tantras translated in this volume are among these Seventeen Tantras. All of these Tantras, therefore, are filled with practical advice and pointing out instructions for the practice and realization of the Great Perfection. The Mirror of the Heart of the All Good One is a direct introduction into our own nature as the All Good One, a teaching on the practicalities of mandalas and of wisdom, and a description of the ways we can misunderstand what the Great Perfection means. The Arrangement of Precious Introductions contains actual instructions on many of the yogic practices associated with the Great Perfection. The Secret Kissing of the Sun and Moon is the source for the Song of the Vajra. Within the rubric of a teaching on the four kinds of bardos, it presents us with comprehensive descriptions of the practice of the Great Perfection as it applies to every aspect of our lives and deaths.

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Christopher Wilkinson began his career in Buddhist literature at the age of fifteen, taking refuge vows from his guru Dezhung Rinpoche. In that same year he began formal study of Tibetan language at the University of Washington under Geshe Ngawang Nornang and Turrell Wylie. He became a Buddhist monk, for three years, at the age of eighteen, living in the home of Dezhung Rinpoche while he continued his studies at the University of Washington. He graduated in 1980 with a B.A. degree in Asian Languages and Literature and another B.A. degree in Comparative Religion (College Honors, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa). After a two year tour of Buddhist pilgrimage sites throughout Asia he worked in refugee resettlement programs for five years in Seattle, Washington. He then proceeded to the University of Calgary for an M.A. in Buddhist Studies where he wrote a groundbreaking thesis on the Yangti transmission of the Great Perfection tradition titled Clear Meaning: Studies on a Thirteenth Century rDzog chen Tantra. He proceeded to work on a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of the 20,000 line Perfection of Wisdom in Berkeley, California, followed by an intensive study of Burmese language in Hawaii. In 1990 he began three years' service as a visiting professor in English Literature in Sulawesi, Indonesia, exploring the remnants of the ancient Sri Vijaya Empire there. He worked as a research fellow for the Shelly and Donald Rubin Foundation for several years, playing a part in the early development of the Rubin Museum of Art. In the years that followed he became a Research Fellow at the Centre de Recherches sur les Civilisations de l'Asie Orientale, College de France, and taught at the University of Calgary as an Adjunct Professor for five years. He has currently published eighteen volumes of translations of Tibetan literature, and is currently engaged in further translations of great classics in Buddhist literature.

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