One of the foremost texts of the Mahayana tradition is Shantideva's A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. The book consists of ten chapters which deals with Benefits of Awakened Mind; The Confession of Negative Deeds; The Full Acceptance of Awakened Mind Conscientiousness Guarding Alterness; The Perfection of Patience; The Perfection of Enthusiasm; The Perfection of Meditation; The Perfection of Wisdom and Dedication. The book also contains notes, glossaries, and bibliography
Very Venerable Ninth Khenchen Thrangu Tulku, Karma Lodrö Lungrik Maway Senge (Tibetan: ཁྲ་འགུ་, Wylie: khra 'gu) is a prominent tulku (reincarnate lama) in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.
At the age of four he was formally recognized by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and Eleventh Tai Situpa as the ninth incarnation of the great Thrangu tulku, the abbot of Thrangu Monastery, whose root incarnation was Shüpu Palgyi Sengé, one of the twenty-five disciples of Guru Rinpoche. Forced to flee to India in 1959, he went to Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, where the Karmapa had his seat in exile. Thrangu Rinpoche then served as the main teacher of the four principal Karma Kagyü tulkus of that time—the four regents of the Karmapa (Shamar Rinpoche, Tai Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and Gyaltsab Rinpoche). In 1976 he began to teach in the West and became the abbot of Gampo Abbey—a Buddhist monastery in Nova Scotia, Canada—as well as to take charge of the three-year retreat centre at Samyé Ling in Scotland.
He is also the author of the widely studied The Practice of Tranquility and Insight, a commentary on the eighth chapter of Jamgön Kongtrul'sTreasury of Knowledge, on shamatha and vipashyana.
How do you review a book like this? There are so many books on Buddhist practice, and so many ways to approach it. Whether one is "better" than another depends on whether it "speaks" to the reader...i.e. whether it helps the reader gain a better understanding of the path. This book speaks to me in a way that is clear and helpful.