Ebook: Dusum Khyenpa's Songs and Teachings

The Collected Works of Dusum Khyenpa, the first Karmapa, consists of about four volumes of texts. It is very rare, almost non-existent. We managed to obtain a copy and save it from extinction. (You can purchase a copy from us at our electronic texts for sale; to the best of our knowledge it is the only place from which it can be obtained). Much of Dusum Khyenpa's Collected Works are taken up with complete sets of teachings on the various yidams of the Kagyu lineage that he received and practised. However, there is a small section containing eight dohas (spontaneous songs of spiritual realization) sung by Dusum Khyenpa. There is also a short text that gives the transmission of a specific Mahamudra teaching called "Mahamudra, the Thunderbolt". We translated seven of the eight dohas and the Mahamudra teaching and put them together into a small book, for the sake of the many followers of the Karmapa and the Kagyu teachings in general. As a matter of interest, we were amazed to find a text in Dusum Khyenpa's Collected Works that gives specific details of how to do the practice called "Dead Entry", a practice which was supposedly eliminated from the Kagyu transmission because of the dangers involved. It is often said that the teaching disappeared with Marpa the Translator but this entry in the Collected Works shows that it really was transmitted on through the lineage.