Geshe Gedun Lodro (1924-1979) entered Drebung Monastic University near Hla-sa at the age of nine as a novice monk. He gained the degree of ge-shay in 1961 in exile in India as the first among three scholars who were -awarded the number one ranking in the highest class. A scholar of prodigious intellect, he was famed for his wide learning and ability in debate. In 1967 the Dalai Lama sent him to teach at the University of Hamburg, where he learned to speak German fluently and became a tenured member of the faculty. He served as Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia in 1979, when he gave the lectures that comprise this book. Jeffrey Hopkins is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, where he has taught Indo-Tibetan Studies and Tibetan language since 1973, and was Director of the University's Center for South Asian Studies for twelve years. He received a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1963, trained five years at the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America (now the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center) in New Jersey, and received a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin in 1973.
He has published seventeen articles and twenty-three books, including Emptiness Yoga, Fluent Tibetan, and Buddhist Advice for Living and Liberation.