The Yogini’s Eye

About the Book

The Yogini’s Eye: Comprehensive Introduction to Buddhist Tantra, Volume I: Systemization and Interpretation introduces a new translation series, Classics of the Early Sakya, which will focus on the extensive literature of the Sakya Lamdre lineage of the Hevajra Tantra cycle of revelation. This first volume of introduction is the earliest book of its type and comprehensive treatment of the subject matter to have been written, and initiated the scholarly study of Tibetan Buddhist Tantra. Subsequent studies in all lineages were built on the foundation established by this book.

The Yogini’s Eye has served as the introductory textbook for the study of Sakya Tantra continuously for over 800 years. Over the centuries, the textbook has been supplemented by a total of fifteen commentaries and study guides written by the most learned scholars of the Sakya tradition, including Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen (1312–1375), Yeshe Gyaltsen (1300’s–1406), Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (1382–1450), Lowo Khenchen Sonam Lhundrup (1456–1532), Ngorchen Konchok Lhundrup (1497–1547), Amezhap Ngawang Kunga Sonam (1597–1659), and Dezhung Chopel Jamyang Kunga Namgyal (1880’s– mid-1950’s). This first English edition contains the translation of thirteen of these study guides, excluding all repetitive sections, inserted into the original book in the appropriate context.

About the Author

Sonam Tsemo (1142–1182) is the second of the five founders of the Sakya lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the first person to establish the study of Buddhist Tantra on a rigorous basis equivalent to that of Sutra. Ngor Thartse Khenpo Sonam Gyatso (Hiroshi Sonami) (1933–1987) was the seventy-fourth abbot of Ngor monastic university in Tibet and was a direct disciple of Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro (1893–1959). After exile, Hiroshi devoted the remainder of his life to the transmission and preservation of the Sakya Lamdre lineage. Wayne Verrill (1952–) received the transmission of Sakya Lamdre from Hiroshi Sonami from 1978–1987. After a career as an environmental scientist for the state of California, he has retired to return to completion and publication of their earlier work.