The Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) (Brill's Tibetan Studies Library)

Tibetan rDzogs chen is a philosophical and meditative teaching in Tibetan Buddhism that parallels Ch'an in Chinese Buddhism and Zen in the Japanese Buddhist tradition, and was the first of the various religious traditions to be formed in Tibet. A scholar of religion and philosophy, Karmay (emeritus, National Center of Scientific Research, Paris) investigates what kind of ideas gave impetus to the formation of rDzogs chen thought in the ninth century AD and the historical, social, and religious circumstances underlying its birth and its literary and historical development during the following two centuries. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)