Contents: Introduction. 1. The Mahamudra approach: the four tuning-in phases. 2. Padma dkar-po's 'Definitive investigation of the four tuning-in phases'. 3. The rDzogs-chen approach: symmetry transformations: the realms of potentia and actuality. 4. The gestalt experience of being and the closed system potential. 5. The empowerments as psychological stepping-stones. 6. The 'Lighting' and the 'Lamps'. 7. rTse-le rGod-tshangs-pa Sna-tshogs Rang-grol's 'The Sun's life-giving force. Literature references. Index of technical terms Tibetan. Sanskrit index. Index of names and subjects.

"Despite the interest in meditation, few works have studied what meditation means within the original traditions. Meditation Differently presents a translation of an important Tibetan work which contrasts and compares two central traditions of Buddhist meditative practice--the Mahamudra and the rDzogs-chen, particularly the sNying-thig version. This translation is supplemented by a detailed commentary based on original Tibetan sources by Dr. Guenther, an eminent scholar of Buddhism and modern thought. This critical commentary is a hermeneutical and phenomenological study of the key ideas in the understanding of being and experience, utilizing developments in modern thinking to bring out the nuances of Buddhist thinking." (jacket)

[Herber V. Guenther is Professor Emeritus of Far Eastern Studies at the University of Saskatchewan.]

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