| List of Photographs |
xv |
| Foreword |
xvii |
| Acknowledgments |
xix |
| Technical Note |
xxii |
| Note to the Reader |
xxiii |
| Introduction: The Tradition, the Teachings, and the Teacher |
xxvii |
| A Priceless Jewel in a Garbage Heap |
3 |
| Reveling in the Wine of Bliss |
11 |
| First Things First and Last Things Last |
25 |
| Climbing a Steep Ladder without Hands |
31 |
| The Umbrella of Refuge |
45 |
| Holding Fast until Enlightenment Is Won |
53 |
| Suppose You Own a Fine Horse |
61 |
| The Needle Point of Worldly Existence |
69 |
| Sheer Pain |
75 |
| The Forest of Swords |
83 |
| Ignoble Stinginess |
93 |
| From Celestial Mansions to Murky Depths |
101 |
| No Rest from the Dance |
109 |
| A Fish Cast Up on Hot, Dry Sand |
119 |
| Careless Craving |
127 |
| Ceaseless Roaming |
135 |
| Imagine a Blind Tortoise |
143 |
| A Lump of Charcoal and a White Conch |
151 |
| Just Somebody Dressed in Red |
159 |
| The Great Fisher, Death |
169 |
| Discarded in Some Dark Hole |
175 |
| A Protector, an Island, a Great, Friendly Host |
185 |
| Deeds, Like a Shadow, Will Follow |
197 |
| A Great Vessel Filled by Drops of Water |
211 |
| Black Pebbles and White Pebbles |
223 |
| As Helpless as a Worm |
233 |
| Giving Our Parents a Piggyback Ride |
247 |
| A Mind Like an Overturned Pot |
257 |
| The Flavor of Compassion |
261 |
| Rudderless on the Sea of Life |
269 |
| A Coiled Rope in the Gloom of Night |
277 |
| "Beloved Daughter" Kicks His Mother |
285 |
| The Hand Must Help the Foot |
293 |
| A Cloud of White Light or a Sudden Dawn |
303 |
| Turning the Wheel of the Rat Race |
313 |
| Doing What Bodhisattvas Do |
321 |
| A Protector of the Protectorless |
327 |
| Seeing Things Exactly as They Are |
337 |
| Insight Yoked with Calm |
345 |
| Pouring Water into a Vase with a Hole in It |
351 |
| A Four-Petaled Blue Flower |
359 |
| The Monkeys Were Perplexed |
367 |
| The Flame of a Lamp in a Windless Place |
375 |
| A Storm of Thought Processes |
379 |
| Ten Million Blind Men |
389 |
| Rebirth as a Woodchuck |
397 |
| Samsara Falls Apart Like a Tattered Rag |
407 |
| If You Think of Yourself as a Tiger |
417 |
| It Is "Natural" Not to Be Natural |
423 |
| Paying the Tax of Compulsiveness |
429 |
| Awakening Certitude |
435 |
| Tasting Sugarcane for the First Time |
441 |
| A Chamberpot, an Offering Bowl, a Buddha |
453 |
| The Dreaming Mind Deludes Itself |
465 |
| Tuning the Violin of Meditation |
475 |
| The Sharpness of a Thorn, the Roundness of a Pea |
483 |
| Outline of the Text |
493 |
| Notes |
497 |
| Bibliography |
511 |
| Tibetan Names and Terms |
523 |
| Index |
529 |
