Heidi I. Koppl

Heidi I. Köppl has worked as a translator at the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery in Nepal for more than a decade and has been a faculty member at the Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies since the Centre's inception. She is currently doing research for a doctorate degree in Buddhist Studies at the University of Lausanne.

Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo

Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo (eleventh century) was an important translator and exegete of New Translation School literature and the first defender of the Old Translation School. His works, whether translations from Sanskrit, commentaries on canonical texts, or original compositions such as Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle, sit on both sides of the Old School/New School boundary. He is remarkable among Old School figures in that the majority of them confined their literary output to the esoteric traditions of their past, whereas Rongzom engaged extensively with the New School literature and philosophy. He is regarded as one of the two archetypal figures for the Nyingma by no less an authority than the nineteenth-century scholar and adept Ju Mipham.

"Rongzom Chözang, one of the most important scholars of the eleventh century, believed in the divinity of the world. Even more interesting, he set out to prove it! Köppl's book, a translation of Rongzom's most important text on the subject, is an important contribution to Buddhist doctrinal studies. The long introduction provides us with one of the most detailed comparative treatments of the Nyingma view (tawa) that I know of, elucidating Rongzom's position in relation to other Nyingma thinkers. The notes to the translation clarify even the most difficult portions of the text. . . . A truly masterful work." —José Ignacio Cabezón, XIVth Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

"Heidi Köppl makes the seminal work of Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo newly accessible to the modern reader. Rongzom, in deep conversation with Buddhist philosophy, argued for the most immediate visionary experience of enlightenment—every part of our world as already divine. Rongzom, assisted by Köppl's sparkling exegesis, leads readers to a direct encounter with their own primordial goodness." —John Makransky, Associate Professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology, Boston College

"Ms. Köppl's organization of the translation and commentary is superb, enabling the reader to see the arguments clearly. . . . An important contribution to Tantric Buddhist philosophy." —New Age Retailer

"Köppl's concise volume is an interesting read and a refreshing view into the nature of purity." —Nanci Rose-Ritter