The Swift Path: A Meditation Manual on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Wisdom Culture Series) (Hardcover)

The Swift Path: A Meditation Manual on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Wisdom Culture Series) By Szegee Toh (Translated by), Panchen Losang Yeshé Cover Image

The Swift Path: A Meditation Manual on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Wisdom Culture Series) (Hardcover)

By Szegee Toh (Translated by), Panchen Losang Yeshé

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This collection of guided meditations from eighteenth-century Tibet harnesses elements of tantric visualization to induce realizations while contemplating the steps on the path to buddhahood.

The Swift Path by the Second Panchen Lama has long been heralded in the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism as one of the “eight great lamrims,” or works presenting the stages of the path to enlightenment, but it is the last to become widely available in English translation. Composed by a preceptor of two Dalai Lamas, this practical and systematic guide to meditating on the lamrim is based on the Easy Path, a more concise work by the First Panchen Lama. In The Swift Path, Panchen Losang Yeshé expands on the earlier Panchen Lama’s meditation guide with more detailed instructions on how to generate a clear and profound experience of the key recognitions that allow us to advance on our spiritual journey. These include the recognition of the opportunity afforded by our human existence, both its preciousness and its precariousness, and the way to adopt and live out the practices of a bodhisattva. The guided meditations here make use of a visualization of one’s teacher in the guise of Sakyamuni Buddha to unlock our own innate potential for buddhahood, complete enlightenment, to best benefit humanity and all living beings.
Szegee Toh holds an honors degree in mathematics from the National University of Singapore. She graduated from the FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) Masters Program in Buddhist philosophy in 2004. Since then she has served variously as interpreter and teaching assistant in the Masters Programs held in Istituto Lama Tsong Khapa, Italy, as well as Nalanda Monastery, France. Several of her text translations are used in the FPMT study programs.

The author of the Swift Path, Panchen Losang Yeshé, is commonly known as the Second Panchen Lama. In 1668 at the age of four he was recognized as the reincarnation of the famous teacher Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen by the Fifth Dalai Lama and enthroned at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Shigatsé. Years later he conferred ordination vows on the Sixth Dalai Lama and subsequently the Seventh Dalai Lama. By the time he passed away in 1737 at the age of about seventy-four, he had written on a vast range of subjects, including biographies, poetry, lamrim explanations, tantric commentaries, and supplication prayers.
Product Details ISBN: 9781614298250
ISBN-10: 1614298254
Publisher: Wisdom Publications
Publication Date: March 14th, 2023
Pages: 376
Language: English
Series: Wisdom Culture Series
"The Swift Path condenses Tsongkhapa’s famous Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path into a comfortable-sized manual. The English translation by Szegee Toh—a fruit of profound engagement with the subject—is always thoughtful, precise, and readable. The translation is preceded by an illuminating introduction prepared with utmost care. To anyone interested in Buddhism I highly recommend this book.”
— Yael Bentor, professor emerita, Hebrew University

“It is wonderful that Wisdom is publishing the first complete English translation of Panchen Lama Yeshe's Swift Path. Szegee Toh’s translation is excellent, as is her clear, practical introduction and extensive notes. I’m sure this volume will be of great benefit to many practitioners!”

 
— Sangye Khadro (Kathleen McDonald), author of How to Meditate

“In easy and engaging prose, the Panchen Lama's Swift Path comes powerfully alive for the contemporary practitioner. Rarely have I seen a Tibetan text rendered in such masterful, effortless English. With this publication, we now have all of the ‘eight great guides’ to the lamrim available in English, a landmark in the growing resources on Tibetan Buddhism.”
— Thupten Jinpa, principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama

"The Swift Path is an outstanding experiential manual presenting the stages of the path to enlightenment (lamrim). It is a perfect introduction for those who would like to explore this rich and inspiring spiritual tradition, and a practical meditation guide for those already familiar with it. This is an elegant addition to the literature on the gradual stages of the path in English.”
— Geshe Tenzin Namdak, resident teacher, Jamyang London Buddhist Centre