Sweet Simplicity: Mahamudra doha songs

Sweet simplicity: mahamudra doha songs. James Low.  (Simply Being, UK, 2022) ISBN:‏  9781739938154

The beautiful brief Buddhist songs in this book point towards the inexpressible sweet simplicity of our own minds. This simplicity is usually obscured by the complexity of our reified experience and the conceptual elaboration we employ to try to work out who we are and what our life is for.

The doha songs encourage us to turn towards our own minds as the ungraspable simplicity of the ever-present ground.

The dohas here arose from the minds of enlightened yogis in Eastern India during the 8th -10th centuries. The collection is referred to as the Asta Doha Kosa in Sanskrit, Do-Ha mDzod brGyad in Tibetan. The collection is supplemented by the famous Mahamudra Aspiration prayer, also known as the Chagchen Monlam (Phyag-Chen sMon-Lam in Tibetan), written by the third Karmapa. The introduction and translation from Tibetan is by James Low.

You can read more about dohas and their history on the internet, for example here

Contents

Introduction 

Section 1: The Eight Treasuries which Elucidate

The Essential Instructions on Mahamudra: the Doha Treasury of Mahamudra Instructions of Saraha 11
The Doha Treasury of Virupa. 21
The Doha Treasury of Tilopa 31
The Doha Treasury of Krishnapa/Nagpopa 35
View Meditation Conduct and Result: A Doha Song of Maitripa 39
The Ganges Mahamudra Essential Instruction of Tilopa. 43
Summary of the View of Naropa 51
Mahamudra in A Few Words by Maitripa 57

Section 2: Expression of Mahamudra

Sri Saraha Responds to The Questions of the Adept Maitripa 63
The Ganges Mahamudra Instruction given by Precious Tilopa to Naropa 69
Concise Words on Mahamudra of Naropa 77

Section 3: Mahamudra Aspiration

Aspiring for the Truth of Mahamudra by Rangjung Dorje, the Third Karmapa 83

Robert Jaroslawski has translated Sweet Simplicity into German as Einfach so… (Khampa Verlag Freiburg und Eckernförd, 2022) ISBN: 978-3-9805251-6-9

Mariana Orozco has translated Sweet Simplicity into Spanish as Maravillosa simplicidad. (Simply Being Kindle paperback and e-book, 2022) ISBN 978-1739938161

Nemeth Tamás has translated Sweet Simplicity into Hungarian. It is privately published. Please email sambhala [at] tibet [dot] hu if you wish to buy a copy. You can read the Introduction (Finom egyszerűség – bevezető) here.

Ilaria Corti has translated Sweet Simplicity into Italian [March 2023] and you can download the PDF file here. It has not been published.

Bartek Czajkowski has translated Sweet Simplicity into Polish as Rozkoszna Prostota. Konrad Świtała has published it [Sept 2024]. You can buy it here. https://allegrolokalnie.pl/oferta/rozkoszna-prostota-james-low

Bartek Czajkowski has translated the Mahamudra Aspiration Prayer by Rangjung Dorje into Polish. You can read it here.

João Vale Neto has translated the Mahamudra Aspiration Prayer by Rangjung Dorje into Portuguese. You can read it here.

João Vale Neto has translated the Preface and Introduction into Portuguese. You can read it here.

James Low gave Zoom teachings on the Mahamudra Aspiration Prayer 3-4 Dec 2022.