The Crystal and the Way of Light: Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen

This is perhaps Norbu's best and most fun book. It has enough of the magical and wonderful in it to give hope to all who read it. We all have to live our own lives. It is great to be able to read a book of good tidings and hope such as Norbu has done here. Some people have great missions in life, and it seems that writing a great book such as this is Norbu's.

As a practitioner of Dzogchen, following the traditional way of guidance and personal practice under a master of that practice, I found this book to be a tremendous help to me. With its concise presentation of the Buddhist paths of Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen and the similarities and differences between them, plus wonderfully helpful advice and explanations that will be extremely valuable to someone already having some experience with Dzogchen practice, this book is the best overview I've found yet. Dzogchen is a teaching that is neither magic nor mysticism nor within the domain of scholars - it is simply a teaching to show one how to discover one's true condition, which is the state of Dzogchen, or Great Perfection, itself from the very beginning. Our job is simply to apprehend that state and then, through the use of methods introduced to us by a master, remain in that condition until it is fully and permanently revealed. So, if you would like to know a little at least about what this Dzogchen business is even about, this book will give you a brilliantly concise-yet-thorough and accessible presentation of the most fundamental things you'd need to know before going any further, but its true import can only ever really be comprehended after receiving introduction, in person, from a master. Once you've had some personal experience and the ideas in this book are no longer just ideas, that's when the book's preciousness is actually evident. The Dzogchen path is a vastly profound yet very relaxed, lighthearted, vibrant, and non-dogmatic path concerned with actual experience above all, and Namkhai Norbu is a perfect embodiment of that.

Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche is a spiritual genius, representing a beautiful and potent spiritual tradition: Dzogchen, or the Great Perfection. This text is an approachable, concise introduction to Rinpoche's teaching and his person, and is valuable as such, even though there really isn't much room here for Rinpoche's genius to broadcast itself en masse. This text has the advantage of being neither faux-new-age mush nor happy-doodle marketplace Dharma. It makes certain demands on the reader (such as holding a certain amount of precise terminology in mind), but also gives the reader plenty of help keeping it together and in perspective (charts, illustrations, and an index). So, it gives you as gentle an introduction to the Great Perfection one can without doing violence to it. I just love this author and I am very grateful for his writings. May he live long and his work flourish!

I recommend this book to anyone sincerely interested in Dzogchen teaching. The author, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, is a worlwide renouned teacher, scholar and above all a Dzogchen practitioner. Not only he expounds the theoretical basis of the teaching, he gives us a lot of examples from his own life of practice. WARNING: THIS BOOK IS DANGEROUS FOR YOUR EGO!!!

John Shane compiles and edits The Crystal And The Way Of Light, considering the spiritual path from the viewpoint of Dzogchen. From the foundations of Dzogchen practices and the author's familiarity with its philosophy and spirituality to symbols of Tibetan meditation and photos of Buddhist masters, this is filled with insights.