Translator’s Note

A WORD ABOUT the manner of this translation: In the first place, Tulku Pema Rigtsal

wrote this treatise for the East Asian students who requested it. Second, it is
written with his Tibetan and Nepali monk-students in mind. Third, he had Tibetan
youth in mind, youth educated in modern institutions who have been alienated by
the heavy, conservative nature of the tradition in the exile community and may be
brought back to sympathy with it by a more modern presentation of the dharma.
Fourth, it has been written for Western Buddhists who may be attracted to
Dzogchen by its current high media profile and for Western students of Dzogchen.
In order to accommodate this mixed readership, we decided that the intended
meaning pointing at the nature of mind should take precedent at every
conceivable juncture over the grammatical and linguistic peculiarities of the
Tibetan. The translation has thus become a paraphrastic rendition of the original.
Furthermore, editing the text while translating it, we have sometimes amended it
by addition or subtraction in order to clarify and elucidate the vital meanings for
the benefit of one set of readers or another.
I extend my gratitude to Tulku Pema Rigtsal Rinpoche for the opportunity to
translate and edit this book and to write an introduction to it. I would like to add
my thanks to his for the fine and generous editing contribution of Michael
Friedman and Michael Wakoff, the Snow Lion in-house editor.

Keith Dowman

The Great Stupa of Boudhanath

Kathmandu, Nepal

March 1, 2010