Mastering Meditation

A legendary contemporary meditation master illuminates practices that are essential to Tibetan Buddhists everywhere.

Mastering Meditation gives you the experience of studying with one of the greatest meditation masters of the modern age. His Eminence Chöden Rinpoché was not only a celebrated scholar, honored by selection as a debate partner to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but he was also an accomplished yogi who spent nineteen years in solitary meditation retreat. In this thorough and thoroughly clear book, Rinpoché offers meticulous explanations and profound practical instructions on two essential practices in Tibetan Buddhism: calm abiding and mahamudra.

The first part of this book contains instructions for developing calm abiding, an unshakable single-pointedness of mind. The second part, Rinpoché's direct commentary on the Fourth Panchen Lama's foundational text, offers advanced instructions on using calm abiding as a platform to develop mahamudra. Rinpoché elucidates both sutra-system mahamudra--meditation on the emptiness of the mind--as well as mantra-system mahamudra, a specialized meditation that uncovers subtle, hidden levels of mind to pierce into the ultimate nature of self and reality, leading finally to complete enlightenment.

Drawing from his vast learning and personal experience, Rinpoché provides readers with an open gateway to remarkable states of lucidity and peace.

“"This volume by one of the preeminent scholars and contemplatives of the Geluk tradition in recent times is bound to become a classic guide to unveiling the mystery of consciousness, which has thus far eluded modern science."”

"Although typically associated with the Kagyü tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the profound meditation on the nature of mind known as mahamudra (the great seal) is also important among the Geluk, whose masters have studied, practiced, and taught the technique for many centuries. In this accurate, scholarly, and highly readable translation, Ven. Tenzin Gache brings to light two important texts by the beloved modern Geluk master Chöden Rinpoché (1930-2015): a clear exposition of how to attain calm abiding (samatha), which is an essential part of mahamudra meditation, and a detailed commentary on the root verses on mahamudra composed by the First/Fourth Pa?chen Lama, Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen (1570-1662). Chöden Rinpoché's discussion of mahamudra is among the most thorough and practical of any written by a modern Gelukpa--including lucid discussions of the philosophical analysis required to perfect sutra-level mahamudra and of procedures for great-seal tantric practice, while Ven. Gache's introduction, notes, and supplementary sections provide a helpful window onto Rinpoche's incisive and inspiring writings. Mastering Meditation is a superlative book, which should be on the bookshelf of anyone interested in mahamudra, its place in Geluk tradition, and its power to reveal to us the true nature of our mind."--Roger R. Jackson, author of Mind Seeing Mind: Mahamudra and the Geluk Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism
"Embodying the scholarship of a lharampa geshé and the insights of a realized yogi, Chöden Rinpoché is the perfect master to explain how to meditate on the ultimate nature of the mind, and does so in this wonderful book, made accessible by Venerable Gache's excellent introduction and translation. Highly recommended."--Dr. Nicholas Ribush, director, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

His Eminence Chöden Rinpoché was born in eastern Tibet in 1930 and was recognized as a young boy as the reincarnation of the previous Chöden Rinpoché. When he was fifteen, he enrolled at Sera Jé monastic college, where he excelled; he completed all the study necessary for the highest degree of geshé lharampa, was renowned as one of the great Tibetan teacher-yogis of our modern era, and was chosen as a debate partner for the Fourteenth Dalai Lama when His Holiness was taking his geshe exams. After the Chinese takeover of Tibet, Rinpoché entered solitary retreat, in which he stayed for nineteen years. In 1985 the Dalai Lama asked him to leave Tibet to teach in India and Nepal. He taught students in the geshé program at Sera Jé for many years, as well as offering teachings all over the world. He passed away in 2015.

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