“Cyrus Stearns is the perfect scholar-practitioner to bring this monumental work to life for contemporary readers. While Dölpopa was universally acknowledged as a master scholar and practitioner of the Kalacakra Tantra, in a culture that traditionally frowns upon anything deemed novel or ‘self-styled,’ his seemingly radical views and terminologies of shentong (‘other-emptiness’) received critiques from several corners of the Tibetan Buddhist world. Others in this world, however, praised him for bringing to the fore the single most important—and radical—essence of all the teachings by the Buddha: at heart, we all are buddhas already; we just don't realize it yet. To understand and gain confidence in this message is the indispensable foundation of the view, meditation, and fruition of the entirety of Vajrayana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen. Hence the significance of making Dölpopa’s teachings, squarely based on the sutras and tantras, available to contemporary audiences cannot be overestimated.”

– Karl Brunnhölzl, author and translator, Sounds of Innate Freedom: The Indian Texts of Mahamudra

“Cyrus Stearns’s elegant translation of Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning reveals the brilliance of Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, one of Tibet’s most profound yet controversial thinkers. Mountain Dharma showcases Dölpopa’s distinctive vision of an eternal buddha nature within all beings and his presentation of emptiness of other and emptiness of self-nature as complementary rather than opposing views. Stearns’s meticulously researched and highly readable translation of Dölpopa’s magnum opus will be treasured by scholars and practitioners alike.”

– Elizabeth Callahan, translator of Moonbeams of Mahamudra

“Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361) is among the most admired and, at the same time, contested figures in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. His radical reinterpretation of the concept of ‘emptiness,’ grounded in the vision of a pervasive and permanent buddha nature, has provided a challenge to Tibetan thinkers of all schools and a continuing source of inspiration for practitioners of Buddhist tantric meditation and yoga. With Cyrus Stearns’s exemplary new translation of his masterwork, Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning, Dölpopa’s thought becomes accessible to contemporary readers as it has not been before.”

– Matthew T. Kapstein, professor emeritus, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris