This book presents, with the intimate freshness of a personal teaching, the main practices of the Mahayana Buddhist path. It details the attitudes cultivated in meditation ranging from turning away from cyclic existence, to developing love and compassion for all beings, to the profound view of emptiness.

Lekden embodied the total involvement of the mind as taught in the Mahayana tradition. His blend of compassion, wisdom and wit is most striking in the teachings. He was the Abbot of the Tantric College of Lower Lhasa prior to the Chinese invasion of Tibet. Renowned among the Tibetans as a great teacher, in this work he highlights the incisive and direct approach of mind transformation that runs contrary to the ordinary worldly perspective. he knew the meaning of applying the great teachings as precepts for practical application.


Jeffrey Hopkins is Professor Emeritus of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia, where he has taught Tibetan Studies and Tibetan language since 1973. At the University of Virginia he served as Director of the Center for South Asian Studies for twelve years and founded a program in Buddhist Studies.

Preface 7
Love 11
Compassion 23
Joy 35
Equanimity 49
Cyclic Existence 63
The Mind of Enlightenment 75
Mothers' Kindness 85
The Benefits of Love 95
Great Compassion 99
The Unusual Attitude 109
Wisdom 119
Nagarjuna 133
Are a Person and Mind and Body the Same or Different? 143
Nothingness Is Not Emptiness 155
The Supreme Practitioner 165
Selected Readings 175