John Whitney Pettit received his PhD in Buddhist studies from Columbia University. He lives in Woodstock, New York.
Penor Rinpoche was the head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Born in 1932 in Eastern Tibet he was renowned by all as an exemplary master of the Tibetan tradition. He tirelessly taught devoted students around the world. He passed away in 2009.
Lama Mipham was one of the most extraordinary thinkers and
meditators of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. In his Beacon of
Certainty he illuminates some essential points of Madhyamika
philosophy according to the view of the Great Perfection
(Dzogchen). John Pettit's translation and in-depth presentation is
a major contribution to the field of combining Madhyamika and
Dzogchen studies, that remains largely unexplored.--Matthieu
Ricard, co-author of The Monk and the Philosopher
Lama Mipham Rinpoche was a great Nyingma scholar of the 19th
century, who wrote a prodigious number of works on all subjects, as
well as brilliant commentaries on both sutra and tantra. His work
translated here by John Whitney Pettit as Beacon of Certainty was
particularly famous and one of his most beneficial for clearing
away the doubts and confusions on the view, path, and meditation.
It is my earnest hope that John Pettit's translation will bring
great benefit to foreign students and scholars in the study of both
philosophy and meditation practice. This is a valuable work indeed.
I pray that all sentient beings receive benefit from this text and
ultimately attain Enlightenment.--Penor Rinpoche
Mipham's philosophical languaging of Dzogchen in Beacon is widely
regarded as a major treasure of the Tibetan tradition and John
Pettit's masterful introduction and translation bring it to Western
readers for the first time. This is a riveting and wonderful work,
an exploration of the crucial background texts underlying Mipham's
thinking, and engagingly exploring such central topics as the
relationship of reasoning to direct meditative experience in
Dzogchen. Both readable and informative, Pettit's work gives the
reader a real education in some of the most compelling issues of
Buddhism, especially their impact on Dzogchen.--Anne Klein, Rice
University
With this outstanding study and translation of Mipham's Beacon of
Certainty John Whitney Pettit makes an especially valuable
contribution to our knowledge of Buddhist philosophical thought in
Tibet. Despite the abundance of recent work on the scholasticism of
the dominant Gelukpa order, the philosophical traditions of the
other Tibetan Buddhist schools remain largely unknown. Mipham was
one of Tibet's great interpreters of the Indian Buddhist legacy,
whose writings have become the primary texts studied in colleges of
the ancient Nyingmapa order, to which he belonged, and are widely
read by Tibetan scholars adhering to the other monastic orders as
well. The remarkable text translated here is traditionally renowned
as one of his foremost essays on Madhyamaka thought, one that is
intimately related to the perspective of the Great Perfection
teachings of contemplation. Dr. Pettit's perceptive exploration of
this work will be much appreciated by all serious readers in
Buddhist Studies and the Philosophy of Religion.--Matthew Kapstein
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