Untying the Knots That Bind with Anne C. Klein

Anne C. Klein is a professor of religious studies at Rice University, a lama in the Nyingma tradition, and a founding teacher at Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism in Houston. Her new book, Lamplight on Your Path: Adzom Drukpa's Guide to Dzogchen's Foundational Practices, provides the first English translation of a classic Tibetan practice manual. Considered a companion text to Patrul Rinpoche’s beloved Words of My Perfect Teacher, Lamplight on Your Path offers a commentary on Jigme Lingpa’s foundational practices, or ngondro, that prepare the mind for the state of wholeness and freedom at the heart of the dzogchen tradition.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Klein to talk about what the foundational practices are and why they’re considered so essential, how chanting helps us to internalize and embody the teachings, the relationship between effort and effortlessness in dzogchen practice, and how the foundational practices can untie the knots that bind us to samsara.