The Bodhicitta Sutra: Ten Scriptures of the Great Perfection - Paperback

by Christopher Wilkinson (Translator), Christopher Wilkinson (Author)

The Great Perfection, also known as the Atiyoga or Dzogchen (rDzogs chen), is a tradition of esoteric Buddhism that espouses instantaneous enlightenment. This tradition arrived in Tibet in the Eighth Century of the Common Era and has been maintained up until the present. The literature of the Great Perfection has been divided into three groups or sections: The Mind Section (Sems sde), the Space Section (kLong sde), and the Upadesha Instruction Section (Man ngag sde). The Bodhicitta Sutra is a source work of the Mind Section, and is here translated in full for the first time. The Bodhicitta Sutra is famed in Tibetan literature as the "Do Chu" (mDo bcu), which means The Ten Sutras. The first of the Ten Sutras is the Bodhicitta Sutra, and the next nine sutras are commentaries on it. There is an eleventh Sutra, which is a discussion of the commentarial tradition active in this work. The complete collection of eleven Sutras is therefore also called both "The Bodhicitta Sutra," and "The Ten Sutras."

Author Biography

Christopher Wilkinson began his career in Buddhist literature at the age of fifteen, taking refuge vows from his guru Dezhung Rinpoche. In that same year he began formal study of Tibetan language at the University of Washington under Geshe Ngawang Nornang and Turrell Wylie. He became a Buddhist monk, for three years, at the age of eighteen, living in the home of Dezhung Rinpoche while he continued his studies at the University of Washington. He graduated in 1980 with a B.A. degree in Asian Languages and Literature and another B.A. degree in Comparative Religion (College Honors, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa). After a two-year tour of Buddhist pilgrimage sites throughout Asia he worked in refugee resettlement programs for five years in Seattle, Washington. He then proceeded to the University of Calgary for an M.A. in Buddhist Studies where he wrote a groundbreaking thesis on the Yangti transmission of the Great Perfection tradition, titled "Clear Meaning: Studies on a Thirteenth Century rDzog chen Tantra." He proceeded to work on a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of the 20,000 line Perfection of Wisdom in Berkeley, California, followed by an intensive study of Burmese language in Hawaii. In 1990 he began three years' service as a visiting professor in English Literature in Sulawesi, Indonesia, exploring the remnants of the ancient Sri Vijaya Empire there. He worked as a research fellow for the Shelly and Donald Rubin Foundation for several years, playing a part in the early development of the Rubin Museum of Art. In the years that followed, he became a Research Fellow at the Centre de Recherches sur les Civilisations de l'Asie Orientale, Coll鑒e de France, and taught at the University of Calgary as an Adjunct Professor for five years. He has published twenty-six volumes of translations of Tibetan literature, and is currently engaged in further translation of these great classics.