In this new book, Walking with the Buddha, we excerpted the stories from the 8th or 9th century commentary by Prajnavarman and combined them with the verses from the Udanavarga (The Collection of Purposeful Verses) from the time of the Buddha.

The Udanavarga is the earliest collection of the Buddha's teachings, compiled by the arhat Dharmatrani while the Buddha was still alive. It contains both the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha and many previous buddhas. The Udanavarga was completely translated for this book.

The commentary on the Udanavarga is a body of work encompassing two volumes in Tibetan and was composed by the Acharya Prajnavarman. This work was translated into Tibetan in the 11th century.

Walking With The Buddha: Stories with Their Teachings in English, Dharmatrani, Jeweled Lotus Publishing, Paperback, 385 pages, $18.95

Khenpo Shenga, Shenpen Ch�kyi Nangwa (1871-1927). The renowned scholar and adept Khenpo Shenga was the reincarnation of Gyals� Shenpen Thaye, an influential Nyingma master of the early 19th century associated with the Longchen Nyingthik teachings and Dzogchen monastery. His predecessor's works greatly impacted Nyingma study and practice. Shenpen Thaye founded Dzogchen Monastery's Sri Singha Monastic College, a famed center of Nyingma scholarship. He helped establish an emphasis on monastic discipline within the Nyingma, which has historically been less grounded in monasticism than Tibet's other three lineages. He also gathered the Kama teachings, the Nyingma lineage's canonical scriptures, into one collection. Khenpo Shenga followed in his predecessor's footsteps by further strengthening the Nyingmapa traditions of scholarship and monastic discipline. Khenpo Shenga's main achievement was the large body of commentarial literature he composed. His most important works concern the Thirteen Great Treatises, texts composed by Indian Buddhist masters concerning core Buddhist topics, from the Vinaya to Madhyamaka. These treatises comprise the main curriculum of Nyingma monastic colleges. Khenpo Shenga's commentaries on these texts remain amongst the most widely studied texts in these institutions.

Gerry Wiener is a software engineer working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. He began his Buddhist studies with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1971 and studied under Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche until his parinirvana in 1987. Gerry received teachings from His Holiness, the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje in 1974 and in 1980 during the times His Holiness was visiting the United States. Gerry has continued his Tibetan Buddhist studies under Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche focusing on Tibetan translation