Essential Practice

Abstract

In lecturing on Kamalashıla’s treatises outlining the stages of meditation practiced in the Middle Way School, Thrangu Rinpoche remarked that “these treatises were composed newly in order to help the people of Tibet when the teachings of the Buddha were initially being established in Tibet. Now, because the teachings of the Buddha are beginning to flourish in America, I thought it would be helpful if I were to present these treatises, which are not like others.” Some who study these instructions will be embarking freshly upon this noble journey. Others may feel that, after an extensive immersion in Buddhist teaching and Buddhist practice, they have at last come to the beginning of the path. Either way, a beginner’s delight and a beginner’s humility fit well with the accessible and authoritative portrait. Essential Practice given here of a bodhisattva’s view, meditation, and conduct.