Tsongkhapa's Lamp is one of the most comprehensive and detailed presentations of the highest yoga class of Vajrayana Buddhism, especially the key practices in the advanced phase of Guyhasamaja tantra. Tsongkhapa draws extensively from Indian sources, especially the writings of Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Candrakirti, and Naropa, to systematize this quintessential practice of Buddhist esoterism. Traditionally the work belongs to a class of hidden texts that are to be read only by those who have received initiations. Of the two stages of generation and completion, this volume focuses on the latter stage. In the generation stage, meditators visualize the Buddha in the form of the deity Guhyasamaja residing in a mandala palace. In the completion stage, meditators transcend ordinary consciousness and actualize the state of a buddha themselves. In tantra, this is achieved through manipulation of a subtle physiology of internal winds, or prana, and the channels they run through, and the highest realization occurs when the wind energies dissolve in the central channel at the heart chakra. For on the winds ride the consciousness, like a rider on a horse, and this dissolution initiates a dissolution of ordinary conceptuality and the dawning of the intrinsic nature of the mind, which is empty and luminous. Other topics, such as the Buddhist understanding of the process of death and dying, the intermediate state of existence, and rebirth, as well as complex theories of human psychology such as the scope and dynamic of the emotions, dream states, and near-death experiencesare also addressed in detail in this work. This work was Tsongkhapa's last major composition, completed in 1419, the year of his death.

Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa (1357-1419) is among the most influential and renowned of Tibet's sages, founder of the lineage of the Dalai Lamas and a peerless commentator on all aspects of Buddhist thought and practice. Known as a great reformer and a consummate scholar, his writings on Madhyamaka philosophy, tantric practice, and the bodhisattva path are held as seminal both within and beyond the ranks of his spiritual descendants. Of his many works, quite a few are available in English translation, includingThe Great Treatise of the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, Tantric Ethics and Ocean of Reasoning.

Contents: A LAMP TO ILLUMINATE THE FIVE STAGES: Teachings on GUHYASAMAJA TANTRA by Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa
General Editor's Preface	xiii
Translator's Introduction	1
Technical Note	17
A LAMP TO ILLUMINATE THE FIVE STAGES
Core Teachings on the Glorious Guhyasamaja, King of Tantras
1. Homage and Introduction	21
PART 1. Divisions of Highest Yoga Tantra
2. The Two Types of Tantra	25
3. Specific Explanation of Guhyasamaja Method Tantra	43
4. Praise of Guhyasamaja	55
5. Commentarial Traditions	59
PART 2. The Path of Guhyasamaja
6. Training in the Guhyasamaja	75
7. The Two Stages	83
8. Explanation of Evam and of Bliss and Emptiness	91
9. The Necessity of Penetrating Vital Points on the Body	123
PART 3. The Divisions of the Completion Stage
10. The Core Instructions	137
11. The Five Stages	143
PART 4. Body Isolation
12. Identifying Body Isolation	167
13. Types of Body Isolation	181
14. How Body Isolation Is Incorporated into the Six Yogas	191
15. The Practice of Body Isolation	199
PART 5. Speech Isolation
16. Identifying Speech Isolation	213
17. Divisions, Functions, and Movement of the Winds	217
18. Significance of the Mantras	253
19. Pranayama Meditations	267
20. Vajra Repetition	295
21. Experiences in Pranayama Meditation	309
PART 6. Mind Isolation
22. The Nature of Mind Isolation	333
23. The Three Appearances and the Intrinsic Natures	341
PART 7. The Conventional-Truth Illusory Body
24. Gaining Instructions on the Illusory Body	379
25. Methods of Attaining the Illusory Body	387
26. The Mixings	419
PART 8. The Ultimate-Truth Clear Light
27. Stages of Attainment	443
28. The Outer and Inner Mastery	447
29. The Two Meditative Absorptions	453
30. How the Path of Tantra Must Occur on the Sutra Path	463
31. How Clear Light Is Incorporated into the Six Yogas	475
PART 9. The Stage of Union
32. The Two Truths Inseparably Combined	483
33. How the Stage of Union Fits into the Six Yogas	503
PART 10. Tantric Activities
34. General Presentation of Activities	509
35. Highest Yoga Tantra Activities	527
36. Rituals for the Three Activities	541
37. The Attainment of Complete Enlightenment	559
Colophon and Dedication	563
Table of Tibetan Transliteration	567
Notes	569
Glossary	605
Bibliography	617
Index	629
About the Contributors	649