Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning

“Cyrus Stearns’s elegant translation of Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning reveals the brilliance of Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, one of Tibet’s most profound yet controversial thinkers. Mountain Dharma showcases Dölpopa’s distinctive vision of an eternal buddha nature within all beings and his presentation of emptiness of other and emptiness of self-nature as complementary rather than opposing views. Stearns’s meticulously researched and highly readable translation of Dölpopa’s magnum opus will be treasured by scholars and practitioners alike.”–Elizabeth Callahan, translator of Moonbeams of Mahamudra“Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292-1361) is among the most admired and, at the same time, contested figures in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. His radical reinterpretation of the concept of ‘emptiness, ’ grounded in the vision of a pervasive and permanent buddha nature, has provided a challenge to Tibetan thinkers of all schools and a continuing source of inspiration for practitioners of Buddhist tantric meditation and yoga. With Cyrus Stearns’s exemplary new translation of his masterwork, Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning, Dölpopa’s thought becomes accessible to contemporary readers as it has not been before.”–Matthew T. Kapstein, professor emeritus, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris

Cyrus Stearns has been a student of Tibetan Buddhism since 1973. His main teachers have been Dezhung Tulku Rinpoché, Chogyé Trichen Rinpoché, and Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoché. He received a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Washington and is the author and translator of various books, including The Buddha from Dölpo, King of the Empty Plain, and Hermit of Go Cliffs. He is an independent scholar and translator living in the woods on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, Washington.