Entering The Great Expanse is Tulku Sherdor’s most important and timely book, the fruition of 40 years in the dharma. With candor and clarity, and doses of bracing humor, he explains how to study and practice dharma correctly in order to obtain genuine experience and realization. It is a guidebook and manual for the liturgy, An Excellent Path to Omniscience, published by BWI in 2017.
Using the practice of ngondro as a framework, this book explains the purpose, layers of meaning, and benefits of every level of dharma practice, including the highest levels of Vajrayana and Dzogchen. The instructions and explanations are the teachings of past lineage masters, but spoken to be heard by dharma students today. The oral instructions offered here, drawn from the Longchen Nyingtig tradition, are applicable broadly to every lineage of ngondro. The chapters on Bodhicitta, Vajrasattva, and Guru Yoga, in particular, are must-reads for everyone.
The esteemed translator and teacher Sangye Khandro of Light of Berotsana Translation Group says, “In this seminal work, Tulku Sherdor has delivered instruction and information that is indispensable for knowing dharma’s genuine meaning, and accomplishing it in this lifetime and beyond. This book is a must-read.”
The widely-respected Sakya teacher Lama Jampa Thaye of Dechen International calls it “a major and timely achievement,” whose “lucidity and evocative style make it one of the best possible introductions to Vajrayana Buddhism in general, and to Dzogchen in particular.”
Lama Shenpen Hookham of the Awakened Heart Sangha in the U.K. says, “It is refreshing to read Tulku Sherdor’s description of Ngondro written directly in English, but precisely as laid out by the tradition. He speaks clearly and from the heart, with conviction born of his own experience, vast learning, and lineage connections. The presentation is greatly enriched by his account of how the different practices unfolded for him and fed into each other, in an ever deepening process over a lifetime of practice. Tulku emphasizes that the Guru is our own Buddha Nature, which our human Guru is able to awaken in us through our relationship to him/her. This book is useful, informative and inspiring, and I shall certainly recommend it for my own students to read.
Lama Karma Justin Wall of Milarepa Retreat Center says its “tone is motivating and entertaining, the details extremely useful. Beyond giving a full portrait of the preliminaries, Entering The Great Expanse is completely honest about the diligence and judicious application required for the maturation of Vajrayana practice.”
This book is an offering to you, and to the lineage. Many people collaborated on and supported its publication, with the aspiration that it benefit this and future generations of practitioners. The first edition is printed on high-quality heavyweight opaque vellum paper, and is available at a greatly-subsidized cost of just $17.95.