The Excellent Path to Enlightenment: Oral Teachings on the Root Text of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo

by Dilgo Khyentse, Konchog Lhadrepa (Illustrator), Padmakara Translation Group (Translator)

The vow to perfect oneself in order to perfect others is called the thought of enlightenment or bodhichitta. This implies that every single action word or thought even the most trivial is dedicated to the good of all beings. To accomplish the good of others, we must first perfect ourselves by purifying and transforming our minds. This is the aim of what we call the preliminary practices, which establish the foundations of all spiritual progress. In this book, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche explains a key practice text composed by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820–1892) on the Vajrayana preliminaries: taking refuge, generating the thought of achieving enlightenment for the sake of all beings, performing the meditation, and recitation of Vajrasattva to remove hindrances on the path to enlightenment, offering the mandala to accumulate merit and wisdom, and developing proper reliance on a spiritual teacher. Clear, direct, and personal, these instructions illuminate the heart of Vajrayana practice. Included here are the Tibetan text as well as the mantras and prayers commonly recited in conjunction with this practice.

Genres: Buddhism

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1987

About the author

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.