In this series, The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Tibetan yogi Chöying Tobden Dorje presents the entire Buddhist path from foundation to fruition. This volume translates books 24 and 25, on the liminal states between birth and death and the final results of the Buddhist path.
In 1838, Choying Tobden Dorje, a Buddhist yogi-scholar of eastern Tibet, completed a multivolume masterwork that traces the entire path of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from beginning to end. Written by a lay practitioner for laypeople, it was intended to be accessible, informative, inspirational, and above all, practical. Its twenty-five books, or topical divisions, offer a comprehensive and detailed view of the Buddhist path according to the early translation school of Tibetan Buddhism, spanning the vast range of Buddhist teachings from the initial steps to the highest esoteric teachings of the Great Perfection. Choying Tobden Dorje’s magnum opus appears in English here for the first time.
In this volume, Choying Tobden Dorje extracts and weaves together all of fourteenth-century master Longchen Rabjam’s teachings on the bardos—the “liminal states,” including post-death experiences—and the ultimate fruitions of the Buddhist path. These two central topics in Buddhist thought are drawn from The Precious Treasury of the Genuine Meaning and The Precious Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle.
In the Nyingma tradition, the bardos—the transitional states between life, death, and rebirth—are not just about what happens after we die. They are ongoing phases that unfold throughout our entire lives, inviting us to recognize the luminous nature of our own mind. Through deep meditation and preparation, we can face death without fear, seeing it as a natural dissolution back into primordial purity—the vast, timeless ground beyond all dualities. This final fruition of the Buddhist path transcends all dualities and conceptual limitations, revealing a luminous, dynamic reality where the mind rests in effortless clarity and compassionate activity flows naturally.
