Geshe Lhundub Sopa’s Steps on the Path to Enlightenment
is a landmark commentary on what is perhaps the most elaborate
and elegant Tibetan presentation of the Buddhist path,
Tsongkhapa’s monumental Lamrim Chenmo. In this third
volume of five, readers are acquainted with the bodhisattva’s
path and the altruistic desire to make service to others the
driving force of spiritual development.
It begins with an explanation of what distinguishes
the Mahayana practitioner from
other Buddhists. The nature of bodhichitta
is described in depth, and Geshe Sopa then
provides a detailed, contemporary commentary
on the two methods to develop this
attitude: the “sevenfold cause-and-effect
personal instructions” based on the teachings
of Atisha and the later Kadampa lineage, and the
“training to exchange self and other” based on Shantideva’s
Engaging in the Bodhisattva’s Deeds. While bodhichitta’s
significance in Mahayana Buddhism is universally known,
this attitude alone is not sufficient in the quest for complete
enlightenment. A practitioner must devote oneself to the
performance of actions motivated by bodhichitta, called the
bodhisattva perfections.
