Here is an authentic presentation of the fundamental aspects of the practice and theory of Tibetan Buddhism, set down in a beautiful text especially useful to those interested in the study and practice of this tradition. The first part of the book, a meditation manual written by the Fourth Panchen Lama (1781-1852), covers much of the daily practice of Tibetan monks and yogis. It details how to prepare for and how to conduct a meditation session that contains within it the important essentials of the entire scope of the Buddhist path. It is a highly practical text with nothing said that does not fit into a meditation. It gives instruction on the preparations for a session of practice and then how to develop an intention to leave cyclic existence, how to cultivate love, compassion, and altruistic intention to highest enlightement, how to meditate on selflessness, and what to do at the end of the session. The second part presents a solid introduction to the theory behind the practice. Written by Gon-chok-jik-may-wang-bo in the eighteenth century, it covers the entire spectrum of the Indian schools of tenets as they were viewed in Tibet. The topics include the two truths, consciousness, the hindrances to enlightenment, the paths to freedom, and the fruits of practice.

Cutting Through Appearances, Geshe Lhundup Sopa and Jeffrey Hopkins, Snow Lion Publications, 359 pages, $29.95.

Geshe Lhundub Sopa is the main teacher at Deer Park, Abbot of Evam monastery and a Professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin. He was born in 1923 in Tsang province in western Tibet, joined Sera Monastery in Lhasa, and attained highest honors in his Geshe exams. Like the Dalai Lama and so many other Tibetans, he fled to India in 1959. In 1962, Geshe Sopa was asked by the Dalai Lama to accompany three young Tulkus (reincarnate lamas) to America, where they would receive both Western and Buddhist education. In 1967, he was invited by Professor Richard Robinson, founder of the Buddhist Studies Program of the University of Wisconsin, to come to the Madison campus to teach.

Jeffrey Hopkins (1940-2024), PhD, served for a decade as the interpreter for the Dalai Lama. A Buddhist scholar and the author of more than thirty-five books, he is Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, where he founded the largest academic program in Tibetan Buddhist studies in the West.