The Lion’s Roar
An Introduction to Tantra
By Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s work is essential for
anyone who wishes to study and practice Vajrayana Buddhism. To
a degree not duplicated by any other Tibetan Lama teaching in the West
– he spoke our language. More than this, he spoke a poetic
expansion of our language – replete with idiomatic vernacular
usages. This masterful expression revealed unimagined vistas of
possibility. These vistas remain vivid for the reader, more than 25
years later: their shocking immediacy undimmed by time.
Trungpa Rinpoche structured his introduction to Tantra
in terms of
the Nyingma nine-yana system, treating the yanas as
‘stages of the path’. One is led carefully through a
detailed description of the yanas which counterbalances the personal
confusion that impels practice and the radical transformation that is
the result of practice.
For the scholar, there is all the information one could want about
the technical details of the relation of the yanas to one
another—a detailed map of the ‘journey’. For those
whose urgent need is for experience, there is also the shattering
inspiration of the lion’s roar. Like everything Trungpa Rinpoche
said and did, this book is a palpable transmission, beyond information
and doctrine.
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