The Light of the Sun

One thousand years ago, Gampopa, the illustrious heart son of Tibet's greatyogin Milarepa, essentialized the entire Buddhist path in a concise set of pithinstructions that became known as the Four Dharmas of Gampopa. Sincethat time, this profound teaching has been used by many eminent masters as a vehiclefor imparting the key points of Buddhist practice, including, in the fourteenthcentury, the incomparable Longchenpa, whose brilliant exposition of the Four Dharmasilluminates the culmination of the path from a Dzogchen perspective. The Lightof the Sun presents a new translation of Longchenpa's Precious Mala of the Four Dharmas,alongside the original Tibetan text, with the lucid, accessible, and relevant commentaryof contemporary Dzogchen master Choegyal Namkhai Norbu.

Born in eastern Tibet in 1938, Choegyal Namkhai Norbu is an internationally knownDzogchen teacher and author as well as an eminent scholar of the history and cultureof Tibet. He studied with renowned masters of various Tibetan Buddhist traditionsat important monasteries and colleges, demonstrating exceptional capacity tolearn and receiving degrees in both philosophy and letters and traditional medicine.In 1960, he emigrated to Italy as a professor of Tibetology, where about a decadelater he began to give instructions to a growing following of Western students, initiallyon Yantra Yoga and subsequently on Dzogchen, the Total Perfection teachingsof the Tibetan spiritual traditions. He is the founder of the International DzogchenCommunity, created to encourage the teaching and practice of the Dzogchen point ofview and meditation methods, and travels worldwide giving teachings and speaking atinternational conferences. A prolific author of books on Dzogchen, Yantra Yoga, andTibetan history, medicine, and culture, he also founded ASIA and the Shang ShungInstitute, two nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting the Tibetan peopleand preserving Tibetan culture.