Book dossier

Sounds of Innate Freedom

by Karl Brunnhölzl

"A paragraph on the series: Sounds of Innate Freedom: The Indian Texts of Mahāmudrā is an historic five volume series containing many of the first English translations of the classic mahāmudrā literature. The texts and songs in these volumes are excerpted from the large compendium of texts called The Indian Texts of the Mahāmudrā of Definitive Meaning, compiled by the Seventh Karmapa, Chötra Gyatso (1456-1539). In its modern Tibetan edition, this collection consists of five volumes containing seven kinds of texts: the Anāvilatantra (as a tantric source of Mahāmudrā attributed to the Buddha himself) and its commentary, songs of realization (dohā, caryāgīti, and vajragīti), commentaries on songs of realization and other texts, independent tantric treatises, nontantric treatises, edifying stories, and doxographies (presenting hierarchies of different Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical systems). The collection offers a brilliant window into the richness of this vast ocean of Indian Mahāmudrā texts in the Kagyü tradition, as well as a clear view of the sources of one of the world's great contemplative traditions. It is for meant for anyone who appreciates Buddhist literature and Buddhist tantric practice. Reading these songs and texts that express the inexpressible and contemplating their meaning in meditation will open doors to experience, and possibly even awakening, just as they did for practitioners in the past. Description of volume 5: Volume 5 most closely follows Luminous Melodies and contains the most versified songs of realization, consisting of dohās (couplets), vajragītis (vajra songs), and caryāgītis (conduct songs), all luminously expressing the inexpressible, as well as commentary. The dohā lineage in tantric Buddhism began when Saraha (known as "the Great Brahmin") started singing songs of realization to his disciples: the royal family and the people of the kingdom. Since then, the great Mahāmudrā siddhas have continued to express their realization and instructions to their disciples in pithy songs composed and sung spontaneously. These songs display a vast range of styles, themes, and metaphors-providing readers a feast offering of profound pith instructions of great power that were uttered by numerous male and female mahasiddhas, siddhas, yogīs, and ḍākinīs, often in the context of gaṇacakras and initially kept in their secret treasury. This volume can stand on its own, at the same time as it provides a taste of the entire collection, offering a window into the richness of this vast ocean of Indian Mahāmudrā texts in the Kagyü tradition. The majority of songs and their commentaries are translated for the first time into English by Karl Brunnhölzl, brilliantly capturing the wordplay, mystical wonder, bliss, and ecstatic sense of freedom expressed by awakened Mahāmudra masters of India such as Saraha, Lūhipa, Kṛṣṇa (alias Kāṇhapa), Jaganmitrānanda (alias Mitrayogī), Virūpa, Tilopa, Nāropa, Maitrīpa, Nāgārjuna, the female mahāsiddhas princess Lakṣmīṃkarā, and Ḍombiyoginī, as well as many otherwise unknown figures of this rich Buddhist tradition. Karl Brunnhölzl's learned and lucid introduction situates the songs in their social, religious, and literary context. Mahāmudrā refers to perfect buddhahood in a single instant, the omnipresent essence of all phenomena that is nondual and devoid of all obscurations. Reading these songs that express the inexpressible and contemplating their meaning in meditation will open doors to experience, and possibly even awakening, just as they did for practitioners in the past. For besides the officially recognized mahāsiddhas, there were many other varieties of practitioners, and many lived and taught outside of the framework of institutionalized Buddhism in their time-evidence that the teachings and the path of mahāmudrā are accessible to and can be practiced by anyone from any walk of life, whether a king, a servant in a brothel, or a housewife, often without having to renounce their day jobs"--