This small collection of commentaries and verse by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one of the greatest spiritual leaders of the twentieth century, contains exposition on different stages of the Buddhist path from the perspective of meditative experience and actually putting the teachings into practice. Originally given orally to Western students, the texts afford a rare glimpse into the direct transmissions of a master teacher. The commentaries are on ? • The Wheel of Investigation and Meditation That Thoroughly Purifies Mental Activity by Jamgön Mipham • The Lamp That Dispels Darkness by Jamgön Mipham • A Wondrous Ocean of Advice for the Practice of Retreat in Solitude by Jigme Lingpa.These, along with the five selected poems in the final section, provide an introduction to the wisdom and compassion of Khyentse Rinpoche.
His Holiness Khyabjé Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoché (Tib.: དིལ་མགོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ། Wylie: dil mgo mkhyen brtse), born Tashi Peljor (བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་འབྱོར། bkra shis dpal 'byor) and ordained a monk as Jigme Rabsel Dawa Kyenrab Tenpa Dargye (འཇིགས་མེད་ རབ་གསལ་ཟླ་བ་ མཁྱེན་རབ་ བསྟན་པ་དར་རྒྱས། 'jigs med rab gsal zla ba mkhyen rab bstan pa dar rgyas) and later Gyurme Labsum Gyeltsen (འགྱུར་མེད་ ལབ་ སུམ་ རྒྱལ་མཚན། 'gyur med lab sum rgyal mtshan), was a Vajrayana lama and 2nd Supreme Head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism from 1987 until 1991. He was held to be the "mind emanation" of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820–1892). Having escaped Tibet close behind the Dalai Lama, he settled in Bhutan in 1965, where he maintained his primary residence for the rest of his life.