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Practicing the Path

A Commentary on the Lamrim Chenmo

By Yangsi Rinpoche
Edited by Miranda Adams / Foreword by Lhundub Sopa / Preface by Thubten Zopa Rinpoche / Translated by Tsering Tuladhar

The Lamrim Chenmo, or Great Treatise on the Steps of the Path, by Je Tsongkhapa is a comprehensive overview of the process of individual enlightenment. Meditation on these steps has been a core practice of Tibetan Buddhists for centuries. The Lamrim Chenmo presents the Buddha's teachings along a continuum of three spiritual attitudes: the person who worries about rebirth, the person who wants to escape rebirth, and finally the person who strives for buddhahood in order to relieve the suffering of all beings--this is the supreme aspiration of the bodhisattva. Given over two months to a group of Western Students in Dharamsala, India, Yangsi Rinpoche's commentary revitalizes our understanding of Tsongkhapa's work, giving readers renewed inspiration.
Yangsi Rinpoche

Yangsi Rinpoche was born in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1968 and recognized as a reincarnate tulku at age six. At the age of ten, he entered Sera Je Monastery in South India, and in 1995 graduated with the highest degree of Geshe Lharampa. In 1998, Rinpoche came to America, where he lived and taught for several years at Deer Park Buddhist Center near Madison, Wisconsin. He now lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is president and professor of Buddhist Studies at Maitripa College, a Buddhist institute of higher education.

"The Lamrim Chenmo is one of the great classics of Tibetan literature. This contemporary commentary by an erudite, younger scholar of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition brings Tsong kha pa's work to life. Readable, accessible and to the point, Yangsi Rinpoche's book eloquently shows us the relevance of the lam rim to our day-to-day lives. To resort to a Tibetan image, it brings this great classical tradition 'into the very palms of our hands.'

– Jose Ignacio Cabezon, XIVth Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

"Western students will welcome Geshe Sopa's Steps on the Path to Enlightenment and Yangsi Rinpoche's Practicing the Path They will serve their readers as indispensable companions to Tsongkhapa's elegant and elaborate Great Exposition on the Stages of the Path, without which the entry into a text of such rigorous thoroughness may seem overwhelming. Students newer to the endeavor will receive a wonderful education from reliable guides. All of us will find our attention focused upon matters of importance."

– Buddhadharma: The Practitioners' Quarterly, in a joint review of two of Wisdom's books on the lamrim

Practicing the Path

A Commentary on the Lamrim Chenmo

By Yangsi Rinpoche
Edited by Miranda Adams / Foreword by Lhundub Sopa / Preface by Thubten Zopa Rinpoche / Translated by Tsering Tuladhar