The Tibetan Buddhist master Tsongkapa was born over six centures ago. He was perhaps the greatest commentator of Buddhism in history, and wrote more than 10,000 pages in explanation of the ancient books of Buddhist wisdom. His most famous masterpiece is the Great Book on the steps of the path, the Lamrim Chenmo, a clear and detailed roadmap to Enlightenment. He wrote the work after coming in and out of prophetic vision over the length of an entire month, at the great monastery of Radreng, in south Tibet. The vision was triggered by the Mountain of Blessings, a prayer and guide to perfection used by Lamas ever since, as a preparation for the secret teachings of Buddhism. This important work appears here in full with a commentary by the illustrious Pabongka Rinpoche, generally regarded as the foremost Tibetan Buddhist teacher of the last century. Both texts have been translated by Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Lobsang Tharchinone-one of the last great masters of old Tibet, and a former about of Sera Mey Tibetan Monastery, one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in the world.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Khen Rinpoche
Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche was born in Kham in 1933. At the age of five he was formally recognized by the Sixteenth Karmapa and the previous situ Rinpoche as the incarnation of the great Thrangu tulku. From the ages of seven to sixteen he entered Thrangu monastery and studied reading, writing, grammar, poetry, astrology, memorized ritual texts and completed two preliminary retreats. At the age of sixteen he began the study of the three vehicles of Buddhism under the direction of Khenpo Lodro Rabsel. He also spent time in retreat. At the age of twenty-three and the time of the Chinese Military takeover, Rinpoche left Tibet for Rumtek monastery in Sikkim where the Karmapa had his seat in exile. At the age of thirty-five he took the geshe examination before 1,500 monks at Buxador monastic refugee camp in Bengal and was awarded the highest degree of Rabjam. On his return to Rumtek he was named Khenpo or main teacher of Rumtek and all other Kagyu monasteries and became abbot of Rumtek monastery and also of the Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist studies also at Rumtek. He has been the personal teacher of the four principle Kagyu tulkus: Shamar Rinpoche, Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtul Rinpoche, and Gyaltsab Rinpoche. Thrangu Rinpoche has traveled extensively throughout Europe, the Ear East and North America. He is the abbot of Gampo Abbey, In Nova Scotia Canada and of Thrangu House in England. In 1984 he spent several months in Tibet where he ordained over one hundred monks and nuns and visited several monasteries. He has also founder his own monastery Thrangu Tashi Choling in Boudhnath near Kathmandu, Nepal; has a retreat center and college at Namo Buddha in the Kathmandu valley; has established his own primary school for the general education of lay children and young monks, has begun building a nunnery in Boudhnath for women to receive their khenpo degree, and has begun building a monastic college in Sarnath, India. Several of the works by Rinpoche published in English are Tranquility and Insight a detailed book on meditation, Buddha Nature, the Uttara Tantra by this publisher, the Song of Lodro Thaye, the differentiating Consciousness and Wisdom, and a series of texts on mahamudra meditation. He also has a book in German and one in Spanish.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tsongkapa
Tsongkapa (1357-1419), also known as Je Rinpoche Lobsang Drakpa, was perhaps the single greatest commentator in the 2,500 year history of Buddhism. He was born in the district of Tsongka in eastern Tibet and took his first vows at a tender age. As a teenager he had already mastered much of the teachings of Buddhism and was sent by his tutors to the great teachings of Buddhism and was sent by his tutors to the great monastic universities of central Tibet. Here he studied under the leading Buddhist scholars of his day; it is said as well that he enjoued mystic visions in which he met and learned from different forms of the Buddha himself. The 18 volumes of Tsongkapa's collected works contain eloquent and incisive commentaries on virtually every major classic of ancient Buddhism, as well as his famed treatises on the "steps of the Path to Buddahod." His students, who included the first Dalai Lama of Tibet, contributed hundereds of their own exposition of Buddhist philosophy and practice. Tsongkapa founded the Great Three monasteries of Tibet. where by custom nearly 25,000 monks have studied the scripturer of Buddhism over the centuries. He also instituted the great Monlam festival, a period of religiuos study and celebration for the entire Tibetan nation. Tsongkapa passed away in his 62nd year, at his home monastery of Ganden in Lhama, the capital of Tibet.
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