The Crystal and the Way of Light: Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen (Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy)

Within Tibetan Buddhism, there is a little-known discipline called Dzogchen, the turbo path to liberation. In some traditions, the path to liberation extends over lifetimes of diligent practice, but Dzogchen is an accelerated way to achieve self-perfection. After many years of formal study, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu was initiated into this less-formal practice, which is one of the highest yet most accessible of Tibetan Buddhist teachings. Namkhai Norbu eventually made his way to Italy to teach, where John Shane transcribed and translated Namkhai Norbu's lectures, putting together what is now one of the most popular books on Dzogchen. Namkhai Norbu makes it clear that these teachings are not a handbook for practice but rather an overview of Dzogchen, notably its three divisions: the base, the path, and the fruit. The ultimate and immediate goal is to achieve the primordial state of non-dual awareness, the one taste, and to maintain it. With colorful anecdotes from his own experience (finding an ancient text manifested in a dream, for example, and visiting eccentric cave yogis), Namkhai Norbu's teachings illustrate that Dzogchen is not just theory but the way to a new, and almost incomprehensible, way of being. --Brian Bruya