Robert A. F. Thurman is Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University in New York City, where he has taught since 1988. He holds the first endowed chair in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in America. He received Upasika ordination in 1964 and Vajracharya ordination in 1971, both from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Among the foremost Buddhologists and interpreters of Tibet and its Buddhist civilization; he is also an ordained Buddhist layman. He is a cofounder of Tibet House in New York City, a cultural nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the endangered civilization of Tibet. Robert Thurman is the author of Essential Tibetan Buddhism (1996); Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness (1998), Circling the Sacred Mountain (1999), Why the Dalai Lama Matters (2008), and many other original books and translations of sacred Tibetan texts.

	Contents: Essential Tibetan Buddhism
	Introduction	1
1.	The Quintessence: The Mentor Worship	47
2.	Seeing the Buddha	61
3.	Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor	95
4.	Practicing Transcendent Renunciation	115
5.	Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment	135
6.	Practicing the Liberating Wisdom	169
7.	Practicing the Creation Stage	213
8.	Practicing the Perfection and Great Perfection Stages	249
9.	Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture	265
	Notes	291