FPMT Masters Program Translations

ORNAMENT OF CLEAR REALIZATIONS

	Of all the texts in the Mahayana Buddhist Canon, it is in the Ornament for Clear Realizations (Abhisamayalamkara) that the most detailed explanation of the spiritual paths and grounds is given. Therefore, by gaining an understanding of Abhisamayalamkara in its entirety our mind will become like a treasure rich in qualities.
–Geshe Jampa Gyatso

A commentary on the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita) texts that serves as a support for understanding the profound teachings on emptiness. It includes a detailed explanation of the spiritual paths of hearers, solitary realizers, and bodhisattvas, together with their clear realizations and abandonments on the various paths. It discusses the precepts and methods for obtaining the meditative stabilizations, clairvoyances, signs of irreversibility, and qualities of buddhahood, including the thirty-two signs and eighty exemplifications, the four buddha bodies, and omniscience. This subject is explained on the basis of the Commentary Clarifying the Meaning by Haribhadra, supplemented by reference to the Tibetan commentaries, Ornament of Essential Explanations by Gyeltsab Je, Ocean of Sport by Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen and Lama Tsongkhapa’s Golden Rosary of Good Explanation.

Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen, Roltso (Ocean Playground of the Nagas - rGyan 'grel spyi don rol mtsho)
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Gyaltsab Je, Ornament of Essential Explanation (rNam bshad snying po rgyan)
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Lama Tsongkhapa, Golden Rosary of Good Explanation / Extensive Explanation of [Maitreya's] 'Treatise of Quintissential Instructions on the Perfection of Wisdom, Ornament for Clear Realization, As Well As Its Commentaries Legs bshad gser gyi phreng ba)
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MIDDLE WAY

	In order to meditate on emptiness, or selflessness, we first need to understand how to do this in a correct way. This understanding can be attained by studying such texts as Chandrakirti's Supplement to the 'Middle Way' (Madhyamakavatara).Having come to understand what is right and what is wrong, we can begin to work at eliminating our wrong conceptions and developing right conceptions, eventually realizing emptiness directly and attaining the path of seeing.
–Geshe Jampa Gyatso

The Supplement to [Nagarjuna’s] ‘Treatise on the Middle Way’ (Madhyamakavatara) by Chandrakirti is an explanation of emptiness as presented by the Prasangika Madhyamaka system of tenets. The main body of the text consists of ten chapters, each one associated with one of the ten perfections and one of the ten grounds of a bodhisattva. Study of this text leads to an understanding of great compassion and how it serves as a cause for generating the mind of enlightenment (bodhichitta). This text also sets out the various levels through which one proceeds to the attainment of the completion of all ten perfections and enlightenment. This subject is explained in the Masters Program on the basis of Chandrakirti’s auto-commentary, Lama Tsongkhapa’s Illumination of the Thought, and the First Dalai Lama's Mirror of the Clarification of the Thought. Jetsün Jamyang Shepa’s Great Exposition of the Middle Way is an invaluable source of reference and one of the most thorough commentaries on this text.

Jetsün Jamyang Shepa, Great Exposition of the Middle Way / Analysis of [Chandrakirti's] 'Supplement to [Nagarjuna's] "Treatise on the Middle Way"', Treasury of Scripture and Reasoning, Thoroughly Illuminating the Profound Meaning [of Emptiness], Entrance for the Fortunate (dbU ma 'jug pa'i mtha' dpyod lung rigs gter mdzod zab don kun gsal skal bzang 'jug ngogs)
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TREASURY

	The Treasury of Manifest Dharma (Abhidharmakosha) was composed by Vasubandhu in order to purify the negative karma he created by abandoning the mahayana Dharma through criticizing it. The karma of abandoning the Dharma is the heaviest of negative karmas.
–Geshe Jampa Gyatso

Vasubandhu’s Treasury of Manifest Dharma is a detailed presentation of the constituents, faculties, Buddhist cosmology, the six realms, karma, the afflictions and their antidotes, the various types of spiritual practitioners and their paths, and the knowledges, concentrations, and absorptions. This subject is explained on the basis of the First Dalai Lama’s Clarifying the Path to Liberation: A Complete Explanation of the Treasury of Manifest Dharma, Vasubandhu’s self-commentary, and Chim Jampel Yang's Clear Ornament Commentary to the Treasury and Chim Losang Dragpa’s Treasury (mDzod)

Chim Jampay Yang, Ornament for Knowledge (mNgon pa'i rgyan)

Chim Losang Dragpa, Treasury (mDzod)
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TANTRA

	As a basis for tantric practice we need to first develop the qualities of sutra, the lam-rim (Stages of the Path), by studying and meditating on the paths of beings of small scope, middle scope, and great scope. In this way we train our mind to become a suitable vessel for the practice of tantra.
–Geshe Jampa Gyatso

Lama Tsongkhapa’s Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path of Mantra presents the features of the four classes of tantra as well as the initiation procedures and particularities of the deity yoga related to each class.

Lama Tsongkhapa, Great Exposition of the Stages of Mantra (Ngag rim chen mo)
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MISCELLENEOUS

Interpretable and Definitive Meanings An explanation of the interpretable meaning and definitive meaning teachings given by Buddha Shakyamuni based on the Chittamatra section of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Essence of Eloquence. These teachings include an extensive explanation of the three natures or characteristics - other-powered phenomena, thoroughly established phenomena, and imputational factors - asserted by the Chittamatra school of thought.

Twenty Sangha An explanation of the eight main types of arya sangha - approacher to stream enterer, abider in the result of stream enterer, approacher to once-returner, abider in the result of once-returner, approacher to never-returner, abider in the result of never-returner, approacher to foe-destroyer, and abider in the result of foe-destroyer - and their various subdivisions.

Gendun Gyatso, the Second Dalai Lama, A Commentary to the difficult points of "Discriminating the Interpretable and the Definitive" and matters concerning the Chittamatra (Drang nges rnam 'byed kyi dka' 'grel dangs sems tsam gyi skor mchan 'grel)
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Jetsün Chökyi Gyaltsen, The General Meaning of Interpretable and Definitive, Twenty Sangha, Absorption and Equipoise, and Interdependent Origination, as a Supplement to the "Perfection of Wisdom" (Phar phyin zur bkol drangs nge dge 'dun nyi shu bsam gzugs rten 'brel bcas kyi spyi don)

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Lama Tsongkhapa, Ocean of Eloquence: An Extensive Commentary on the Difficult Points of Alaya-vijnana and Klista-manas (Yid dang kun bzhi'i dka' ba'i gnas rgya cher 'grel pa legs bar bshad ba'i rgya mtsho)

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