Luminous Clarity: A Commentary on Karma Chagme’s Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen

KARMA CHAGME was born in Tibet in 1613. He was a major lineage holder of the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and his writings have also become central to the Payul Nyingma order. KHENCHEN THRANGU was born in Tibet in 1933. At the age of five, he was formally recognized by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and Tai Situpa as the ninth incarnation of the great Thrangu tulku. Because of the Chinese military takeover of Tibet, Thrangu Rinpoche, then twenty-seven, was forced to flee to India in 1959. He was called to Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, where the Karmapa has his seat in exile. Because of his great scholarship, he was given the task of preserving the teachings of the Kagyu lineage. He was appointed by H.H. the Dalai Lama to be the personal tutor for the Seventeenth Karmapa, and he was also the personal tutor of the four principal Karma Kagyu tulkus: Shamar Rinpoche, Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and Gyaltsab Rinpoche. Thrangu Rinpoche established the fundamental curriculum of the Karma Kagyu lineage taught at Rumtek and founded numerous monasteries and nunneries, schools for Tibetan children, and medical clinics. He has taught extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States and is the abbot of Gampo Abbey.