Dylan Esler

Books

• Effortless Spontaneity: The Dzogchen Commentaries by Nubchen Sangye Yeshe, Leiden: Brill, 2023 (xiv, 248 pp.). Open Access. https://brill.com/display/title/63340

• The Lamp for the Eye of Contemplation: The Samten Migdron by Nubchen Sangye Yeshe, a 10th-century Tibetan Buddhist Text on Meditation, New York: Oxford University Press, 2022 (xxii, 515 pp.). https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-lamp-for-the-eye-of-contemplation-9780197609903?cc=lu&lang=en&

Articles in journals

• ‘The Notion of “Effortlessness” in the Dzogchen Commentaries by Nubchen Sangye Yeshe’, in Entangled Religions, vol.14:4, 2025. Online publication. https://doi.org/10.46586/er.14.2025.12379

• ‘Yamāntaka’s Wrathful Magic: An Instance of the Ritual Legacy of gNubs chen Sangs rgyas ye shes on the Byang gter Tradition via the Figure of rGya Zhang khrom’, in Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no.62, February 2022, pp.190-215.

• ‘Negotiating the Absence of Ritual: Dzogchen in the Tantric Manuscripts of Dunhuang and Beyond’, in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol.44, 2021, pp.409-440.

• with Yukiyo Kasai, ‘Introduction—Buddhist Rituals and Practices in Central Asia: Texts and Material Culture’, in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol.44, 2021, pp.405-408.

• ‘The Phurpa Root Tantra of Nyang-rel Nyima Özer’s (1124-1192, Tib. Myang ral Nyi ma ’od zer) Eightfold Buddha Word, Embodying the Sugatas (Tib. bKa’ brgyad bDe gshegs ’dus pa) Corpus: A Thematic Overview and Philological Analysis’, BuddhistRoad Paper 7.1, 2020. (145 pp.) DOI: 10.46586/rub.br.155.131

• ‘The Fruition in a Comparative Perspective’, in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol.40, 2017, pp.159-188. 

• ‘Moving from the Conditioned towards the Ineffable: Referential Imaging and Its Absence in Buddhist Meditation’, in Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, vol.93:3, September 2017, pp.431-443. 

• ‘L’Époque dynastique de l’empire tibétain’, in Acta Orientalia Belgica, vol.30 [= Dieux, génies, anges et démons dans les cultures orientales & Florilegium Indiae Orientalis, Jean-Marie Verpoorten in honorem (ed. Christophe Vielle, Christian Cannuyer & Dylan Esler), Bruxelles: Société Royale Belge d’Études Orientales], 2017, pp.241-252. 

• ‘Méditation graduelle au Tibet ancien’, in Les Cahiers Bouddhiques, no.8, January 2015, pp.97-121.

• ‘On the Life of gNubs-chen Sangs-rgyas ye-shes’, in Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no.29, April 2014, pp.5-27. 

• ‘The Exposition of Atiyoga in gNubs-chen Sangs-rgyas ye-shes’ bSam-gtan mig-sgron’, in Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no.24 (Special issue), October 2012, pp.81-136.

• ‘Note d’oniromancie tibétaine : réflexions sur le Chapitre 4 du bSam-gtan mig-sgron de gNubs-chen sangs-rgyas ye-shes’, in Acta Orientalia Belgica, vol.25, 2012, pp.317-328.

Book chapters

• ‘Mort et immortalité d’après quelques sources anciennes de l’école Nyingma’, in Olivier Riaudel (ed.), Traverser la mort: La vie et les ‘états intermédiaires’, Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2024, pp.33-48.

• ‘Perfection Beyond Technique: The Notion of Effortless Spontaneity in Tibetan Dzogchen’, in Joseph Verheyden, Geert Roskam, Ann Heirman and Johan Leemans (eds.), Reaching for Perfection: Studies on the Means and Goals of Ascetical Practices in an Interreligious Perspective (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 329), Leuven: Peeters, 2022, pp.167-178.

• ‘Non-Duality in Chan, Tantra and rDzogs-chen: An Essay in the Transversal Enquiry of Metaphysical Paradigms’, in Jean-Michel Counet (ed.), La non-dualité : Perspectives philosophiques, scientifiques, spirituelles, Leuven: Peeters / Louvain-la-Neuve: Éditions de l’Institut Supérieur de Philosophie, 2021, pp.51-73.

• ‘Traces of Abhidharma in the bSam-gtan mig-sgron (Tibet, Tenth Century)’, in Bart Dessein and Weijen Teng (eds.), Text, History, and Philosophy: Abhidharma across Buddhist Scholastic Traditions, Leiden: Brill, 2016, pp.314-349.

Other specialist articles

• ‘In Search of the Tibetan Dzogchen Manuscripts in Tagore’s Haven: Report of a Research Trip to Santiniketan’, in Temenos Academy Review, no.25, 2022, pp.140-157.

• – as translator (from Tibetan): Lopon P. Ogyan Tanzin, ‘Assessing the Greatness of Tibet’s Early Translations according to Rong-zom Mahāpaṇḍita’, in Temenos Academy Review, no.16, 2013, pp.21-42. 

 • ‘Discovering Treasure: A Mode of Scriptural Revelation in the rNying-ma School of Tibetan Buddhism’, in Temenos Academy Review, no.15, 2012, pp.117-145.

• ‘rDzogs-chen and Heidegger: A Confluence of Thought or a Mistaken Conflation?’, in Prabitrakumar Roy (ed.), Buddhism, World Culture and Human Values, Sarnath: CIHTS, 2009, pp.1-19. 

• ‘The Light of “Perennial Philosophy” on the Study of Religion’, in Sophia, vol.13:1, Spring/Summer 2007, pp.81-113.

• ‘The Origins and Early History of rDzogs chen’, in The Tibet Journal, vol.30:3, Autumn 2005, pp.33-62.

Translations of canonical Buddhist texts

• The Dhāraṇī for Secret Relics (Guhyadhātudhāraṇī, Toh 507 / 883), 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh507.html https://read.84000.co/translation/toh883.html

Translations of other Tibetan Buddhist texts

• Dudjom Rinpoche, The Bountiful Cow of Accomplishments: Directives for the Two Phases of the Profound Path of the Khandro Thugthig, Khye’u-chung Lotsāpa Translations (Edited by Lopon P. Ogyan Tanzin, translated by Dylan Esler), Norderstedt: BoD, 2015. (xviii, 116 pp.: Tibetan text with English translation)

• Dudjom Lingpa / Dudjom Jikdral Yeshe Dorje, The Gladdening Laughter of the Ḍākinī: The Activity Rite of the Terrifying Tamer of Demons, the Fierce Siṃhamukhā, Khye’u-chung Lotsāpa Translations (Edited by Lopon P. Ogyan Tanzin, translated by Dylan Esler and Nicolas Chong, with a Preface by Dr Jean-Luc Achard), Sarnath: NSWC, Central University of Tibetan Studies, 2011. (xiv, 163 pp.: Tibetan text with English translation)

Edited volumes

• Contemplation and Non-Doing: Solitude, Absorption and Letting-be as Structural Principles of Contemplative Religious Practice (Special issue, ed. Dylan Esler), in Entangled Religions, vol.14:4, 2023-2026. Online publication. https://er.ceres.rub.de/index.php/ER/issue/view/328  

• Buddhist Rituals and Practices in Central Asia: Texts and Material Culture (Special panel, ed. Dylan Esler & Yukiyo Kasai), in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol.44, 2021, pp.405-556.

• Dieux, génies, anges et démons dans les cultures orientales & Florilegium Indiae Orientalis, Jean-Marie Verpoorten in honorem (ed. Christophe Vielle, Christian Cannuyer & Dylan Esler), Bruxelles: Société Royale Belge d’Études Orientales, 2017 (Acta Orientalia Belgica, vol.30). (xxx, 402 pp.)

Book reviews

• ‘Compte-rendu de: Per Kværne and Dan Martin, Drenpa’s Proclamation: The Rise and Decline of the Bön Religion in Tibet’, in Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no.70, April 2024, pp.183-190.

• ‘Review of Butters, Albion M.: Illuminating the Goal. Rdzogs Chen and Doxography in 14^th-Century Tibet’, in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, vol.116: 4-5, 2021, pp.410-413. https://doi.org/10.1515/olzg-2021-0131

• ‘Compte-rendu de: Cantwell, Cathy, Dudjom Rinpoche’s Vajrakīlaya Works: A Study in Authoring, Compiling, and Editing in the Tibetan Revelatory Tradition’, in Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no.56, October 2020, pp.305-314.

• ‘Compte-rendu de: Henrion-Dourcy, Isabelle, Le théâtre ache lhamo: Jeux et enjeux d’une tradition tibétaine’, in Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no.54, April 2020, pp.261-266.

• ‘Review of Tadeusz Skorupski, Kriyāsaṃgraha: Compendium of Buddhist Rituals – An Abridged Version’, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol.67:2, 2004, pp.264f.