TSONGKHAPA : THE MIDDLE-LENGTH TREATISE ON THE STAGES OF THE PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT

Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), author of the well-known Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenmentand guru to the First Dalai Lama, is renowned as perhaps Tibet’s greatest scholar-saint. A dozen years after writing his Great Treatise, he wrote the Middle-Length Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, presented here in its first complete English translation. 

Less than half the length of the Great Treatise, this work similarly presents a systematic overview of the Buddha’s teachings. Tsongkhapa begins by abridging the longer work, distilling its meditations for quicker integration. After recognizing the rarity of our human existence and the great opportunities it affords, he follows with reflections on impermanence, suffering, and the promise of liberation from our past actions, proceeding then to the path of bodhisattvas, whose universal compassion seeks to free every being from suffering. Tsongkhapa gives especially detailed instructions on śamatha, the deep meditative concentration that is a precondition for the highest insight into the nature of reality. The final and largest section, on that very insight, is unique to this work, particularly Tsongkhapa’s presentation of conventional truth and ultimate truth. Beginners and longtime practitioners alike will cherish the clear guidance from one of Tibet’s great luminaries.

The Wisdom Culture Series, published under the guidance of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, provides English-language readers with key works for the study and cultivation of the Mahayana Buddhist path, especially works of masters within the lineage of Lama Tsongkhapa and the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism.

• Hardcover
• 488 pages, 6 x 9 inches
• ISBN 9781614294436

Tsongkhapa Losang Dragpa (1357–1419) was one of the finest scholar-practitioners in Tibetan Buddhism. Renowned for both his written works and his meditative accomplishments, he founded the Gelug school, which produced the lineage of the Dalai Lamas.

Other books by Tsongkhapa: 
Great Treatise on the Stages of Mantra (Sngags rim chen mo) 
Illuminating the Intent 
Brilliantly Illuminating Lamp of the Five Stages 
Illumination of the Hidden Meaning, Vol. 2 
Illumination of the Hidden Meaning, Vol. 1 
The Splendor of an Autumn Moon 
Tantric Ethics 
A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages 
Tsongkhapa’s Praise for Dependent Relativity

Philip Quarcoo began studying Tibetan Buddhism in London in the late 1990s. He earned his first degree in modern European languages at the University of Durham, UK, and in 2007 graduated with a masters degree in Tibetan studies from the University of Munich, Germany, where he is currently researching nineteenth-century Tibetan and Mongolian devotional poetry.