Eva Natanya
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Je Tsongkhapa's Guhyasamaja Sadhana
at Shantarakshita Library
Central University of Tibetan Studies,
​Sarnath, Varanasi, India
UPDATE (August 2018): I would like to announce the publication of a second book that I had the joy of editing for Dr. B. Alan Wallace, called Fathoming the Mind: Inquiry and Insight in Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence, which will be released in October 2018. It is a striking study of a Tibetan Buddhist view of the ultimate nature of reality -- as revealed in a visionary experience by Dudjom Lingpa in the 19th century -- which Dr. Wallace then explains thoroughly in the context of twenty-first century thought, with extensive references to (and debates with) some contemporary scientific views.
To order see:
https://www.amazon.com/Fathoming-Mind-Inquiry-Insight-Lingpas/dp/1614293295 
See full description at: 
https://www.wisdompubs.org/book/fathoming-mind​
https://www.wisdompubs.org/book/fathoming-mind/praise

UPDATE (January 2018): I am happy to announce the publication of Open Mind: View and Meditation in the Lineage of Lerab Lingpa, translated by Dr. B. Alan Wallace, with a Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in February 2018. I had the honor of editing this important translation in detail, and believe it will be a book of tremendous value to serious practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, especially those drawn to understand the interface between the Great Perfection (Dzokchen) tradition and the views of the New Translation Schools, as represented by Je Tsongkhapa.
To order see: https://www.amazon.com/Open-Mind-Meditation-Lineage-Lerab/dp/1614293880/
For more details, see the page at Wisdom Publications: https://www.wisdompubs.org/book/open-mind
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There are thousands of Buddhist scriptures, commentaries, philosophical treatises, ritual texts, instruction manuals for meditation, inner and outer yoga, and devotional practices that remain untranslated. I am committed to the life-long work of understanding, translating, and making such texts available to English speakers in forms that can be readily understood and put into practice.

Eva Natanya, PhD 
Indian and Tibetan Buddhism
University of Virginia, Dept. of Religious Studies

Translator, Scholar, Philosopher, Theologian

I have studied the classical Tibetan language for fifteen years, and have translated hundreds of pages from the works of Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), as well as from such Gelukpa masters as Gyaltsab Je, Khedrub Je, the First Panchen Lama Lobsang Chukyi Gyaltsen, and Choney Lama Drakpa Shedrup. I also have significant experience reading and translating texts from the Great Perfection (Dzokchen) tradition of the Nyingma lineage. I care deeply about the nonsectarian (Rimé) movement in nineteenth century Tibetan history, and am committed to contemporary efforts that seek mutual understanding between the great lineages of Tibetan Buddhism.

Thanks to the Ludo and Rosane Rocher Research Fellowship in Sanskrit Studies, which I received from the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), I spent more than nine months in full-time study at Tibetan monasteries and nunneries in India, attending classes in philosophy and tantra along with monks and nuns.

​My doctoral dissertation, 
Sacred Illusion: On Purity and Creation in Je Tsongkhapa's Philosophy of Tantra, examines Je Tsongkhapa’s Vajrayana philosophy, focusing on the exemplary system of Guhyasamaja. By studying several of Tsongkhapa's tantric commentaries alongside his most important works on the Mind-Only and Middle Way schools of Indian Buddhist philosophy, I seek to discover how different portions of his thought might be understood to form a systematic whole. I believe we can grasp the practical, transformative applications of Tsongkhapa’s Middle Way view much more clearly when reading these specialized texts in the light of his broader vision of Buddhist cosmology, ethics, human nature, and perceptual theory. I also consider that we gain insight into lesser known implications of Tsongkhapa’s Madhyamaka when turning to passages where he explained that view specifically for the purpose of Vajrayana meditation.
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Copyright © 2017-2023  All photographs and text property of Eva Natanya. All rights reserved.
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