Bodhichitta, often translated as "great compassion," is the gem at the heart of Buddhism. From this altruistic desire to serve others, all other Buddhist practices naturally flow, therefore, this state of mind is one Buddhists should understand and cultivate. In The Awakening Mind, Geshe Tashi Tsering leads us through the two main methods to develop bodhichitta that have been developed by the great Indian and Tibetan Buddhists over the centuries: the seven points of cause and effect, and equalizing and exchanging the self with others. This is the fourth release from Geshe Tashi's Foundation of Buddhist Thought series, which individually and collectively represent an excellent introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. These unique and friendly books are based on the curriculum of a popular course of the same name, developed by Geshe Tashi himself. Geshe Tashi's presentations combine rigor and comprehensiveness with lucidity and accessibility, never divorced from the basic humanity and warmth of his personality. In Geshe Tashi, we encounter the new generation of Tibetan monk-scholars teaching in the West who are following in the footsteps of such revered and groundbreaking teachers as Geshe Wangyal and Geshe Sopa.

Awakening the Mind, Lightening the Heart is His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s gentle and profoundly eloquent instruction for developing the basis of the spiritual path: a compassionate motive. With extraordinary grace and insight, His Holiness shows how the Tibetan Buddhist teachings on compassion can be practiced in our daily lives through simple meditations that directly relate to past and present relationships. This illuminating and highly accessible guide offers techniques for deepening and heightening compassion in our lives and the world around us.

In this journey of samsaric life, which is full of dissatisfaction, sufferings, and uncertainties, let’s make these wisdom messages of the Buddha our beacon of hope and light. While Khenpo Rinpoche writes these lines, we are living in an unusual era of a global pandemic, the COVID-19. So through this book, Rinpoche wishes to send us a message of hope and healings. In our struggles in battling this deadly pandemic, he sincerely hope and pray that we could mask-up ourselves with the practice of mindfulness, to purify (“sanitize”) our mind-streams with the medicine of Dharma and also to “distant” ourselves from anything or anyone that is unwholesome or non-virtuous. By doing these spiritual practices, added with following the medical advices given by the health experts, the author truly believe that we could definitely win against all illnesses and dis-eases of all kinds, be it physical or mental, worldly or spiritual. Khenpo Rinpoche dedicates all merits to all patients, front-liners, doctors, healers and all sentient beings, may this pandemic quickly vanish and may we all live a normal, healthy and productive life – in its own perfect timing, for the highest good of all!

Lama Surya Das, author of the bestselling Awakening the Buddha Within, is the most highly trained American lama in the Tibetan tradition. In this elegant, inspiring book, he integrates essential Buddhist practices with a variety of other spiritual philosophies and wisdom traditions, to show you how to create a personalized spiritual practice based on your own individual beliefs, aspirations, and needs. Through reflections on his own life quest, thoughtful essays, and entertaining stories, Surya Das examines the common themes at the heart of any spiritual path, including faith, doubt, love, compassion, creativity, self-inquiry, and transformation. He then explores prayer, yoga, chanting, guided meditations, breathing exercises, and myriad other rituals, providing practical examples of each that we can use day-to-day to nurture our inner spirit.

Essence of Ambrosia is a guide to Buddhist meditation, composed by the prolific and eclectic Tibetan scholar and practitioner Taranatha (1575-1634). Following the lead of Atisha, Taranatha expounds a graduated approach (known as lam rim) to cognitive and meditative development designed to address the needs of three types of person: the person of lesser, average and greater capacity. Taranatha's innovative contribution to this genre is to instruct the student in "contemplation sessions", that specifically guide a beginning Buddhist practitioner through the traditional practices of meditation, beginning with devotional reflection up to the apex of Buddhist meditation, insight (vipassana) meditation. The result is a remarkably accessible and concise insider's guide to the Mahayana Buddhist path.

This concise and comprehensible text, titled “The Essence of the Stages of the Path,” is dedicated to the outlines of the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, a profound work that is attributed to the four greatnesses, embodying the entirety of all sutras and tantras in their authenticity and completeness. Within the pages of this highly abridged text lies the purest wisdom of the ages, offering a more accessible guide to fathoming the intricacies of three huge volumes for a wider audience across the world. Any individual of great, medium, or lesser mental capacity that is able to study the text will easily be able to understand the entire path. The effort of translating this condensed text into English is not merely a linguistic conversion but an aspiration, which will certainly benefit many. May this endeavour bring transformation, igniting the spark of enlightenment in the hearts of all who encounter its luminous wisdom. Geshe Gyaltsen Tsering LTWA

The Awakening of the West is an insightful and elegantly written history chronicling the developing relationship between Buddhism and Western culture. As anyone familiar with the work of Stephen Batchelor (best-selling author of Buddhism Without Beliefs) would expect, The Awakening of the West is presented in a fresh and lively way and backed by thorough research. Using the innovative approach of starting with the present and working back in time, Batchelor makes it easy to connect familiar contemporary Buddhist teachers to their historical roots. He breathes life into history by capturing the personalities and times of famous and lesser-known but important Buddhist figures. After absorbing these stories and their context, readers will not only have a greater appreciation of Buddhism as a religion but can gain insights that can help them develop their own discerning wisdom. The Awakening of the West is a unique, engaging and important book for anyone seeking a greater understanding of Buddhism.

This book is intended to engender debate. Its subject, faith in a modern Buddhist context, almost always carries with it the widespread but erroneous assumption that it is completely unimportant to the Buddhist path. Without really knowing what it is and how it differs from theistic versions, faith has been given a bad name. Moreover, naivety regarding the colonial orientalist agenda and bias of early Zen exegetes in the West has allowed modern Zennists to accept, almost unquestioningly, the view that faith and knowledge occupy opposite ends of the practice spectrum. As a result, trusted and authentic sources of authority, Zen ancestors and sutras, have often been prevented from speaking about a doctrinally sound and legitimate tool of realization mentioned in a stunningly large amount of sutras. It has also resulted in an erroneous and often condescending view of “faith schools” of Buddhism. Now is the perfect time in Zen’s journey in the West to reassess and address these shortcomings.

The Full Moons is an exploration of the Sun the Moon, the Truth and their interrelation, and it is the culmination of over ten years of letters the author has written on esoteric astrology. A compendium of topics in esoteric astrology, it explores the emerging universal spirituality, gradually unfolding through the current decades as seen from the perspective of topical world events, even though the principles investigated therein are timeless. The twelve astrological signs each give a unique insight into various aspects of spirituality, and each one has its own story to tell on the great evolutionary path of the soul. Because the soul is so dear to us, even though the subject matter of the book is esoteric in its presentation, there is something in its pages for everyone, whether or not you have an astrological background. Ultimately, this book can be used as reference material for the times of the full moon each month and for specified times in between. The book is extensively indexed for ease of reference and it contains abundant reference material in the appendices, along with a glossary of esoteric terminology.

In 1838, Choying Tobden Dorje, a Buddhist yogi-scholar of eastern Tibet, completed a multivolume masterwork that traces the entire path of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from beginning to end. Written by a lay practitioner for laypeople, it was intended to be accessible, informative, inspirational, and above all, practical. Its twenty-five books, or topical divisions, offer a comprehensive and detailed view of the Buddhist path according to the early translation school of Tibetan Buddhism, spanning the vast range of Buddhist teachings from the initial steps to the highest esoteric teachings of great perfection. Choying Tobden Dorje’s magnum opus appears in English here for the first time. In Foundations of the Buddhist Path, which covers the first ten of the treatise’s twenty-five books, the author surveys the scope of the entire work and then begins with the topics that set the cornerstones for all subsequent Buddhist practice: what constitutes proper spiritual apprenticeship, how to receive the teachings, how to make the best use of this life, and how to motivate ourselves to generate effort on the spiritual path. He then describes refuge and the vows that define the path of individual liberation before turning to the bodhisattva’s way—buddha nature, how to uplift the mind to supreme awakening, the bodhisattva’s training, and the attainments of the paths leading to supreme awakening.