For many Tibetans, the phrase "the Kadam masters" evokes a spiritual golden age in Tibet--an image of a community simple monks devoted to humble rectitude in the service of others. These Tibetan masters are particularly famed for their pithy spiritual sayings, poignant utterances that capture essential teachings in digestible bites. The sayings reveal an absence of confusion about what makes for a truly happy life, one grounded in ethics, love, and insight borne of meditation.

The teachings of the Kadam masters have spiritually nourished the Tibetan people for nearly a millennium. The Kadampa tradition began in the eleventh century with the arrival in Tibet of the Indian Bengali teacher Atisa, who heralded a large-scale revival of Buddhism there with a return to the basics. Although these Tibetan teachings emerged nearly a thousand years ago, within a specific historical cultural context, like many of the world's great spiritual teachings, the teachings of the Kadam masters embody wisdom that resonates beyond the boundaries of time, culture, and language.

To modern-day Tibetan Buddhists, this volume will offer in an accessible format some of the most loved teachings of the Tibetan tradition. For practitioners of other religious traditions, the texts collected in this special anthology will provide a glimpse into the rich world of Tibetan Buddhist teachings and practice, possibly offering insights and approaches that could easily be incorporated into the practices of one's own cherished faith. To those readers who have no particular religious inclination, these teachings could be approached as part of humanity's accumulated wisdom, which represent the long history of human being's quest to better understand their own existence and its meaning.
Wisdom of the Kadam Masters, Thupten Jinpa (Translator), Wisdom Publications, Paperback, 232 pp, $16.95

Thupten Jinpa was trained as a monk at the Shartse college of Ganden Monastic University and holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Cambridge University. He has been the principal English-language translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama for more than two decades and has translated and edited numerous bestselling books by the Dalai Lama. Jinpa's own works include "Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy" and several volumes in "The Library of Tibetan Classics." An adjunct professor at McGill University and a scholar at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University, Jinpa is currently the president of the Institute of Tibetan Classics in Montreal, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

CONTENTS: Wisdom of the Kadam Masters
Preface		ix
Introduction		1
Part I: Sayings of the Kadam Masters
WISE WORDS		17
1.	The Sayings of Master Atisa	23
2.	The Sayings of Dromtonpa	37
3.	The Sayings of Other Early Kadam Masters	47
4.	The Numerical Sayings of Kharak Gomchung	99
5.	The Sayings of Chegom	109
Part II: The Book of Kadam
The Book and Its Spiritual Legacy		117
THE FATHER TEACHINGS		129
6.	How All Blames Lies in a Single Point	135
7.	Cutting the Root of Suffering	143
8.	The Two Examinations	159
THE SON TEACHINGS
9.	The Spiritual Mentor's Birth as Prince Saranadatta	175
Notes		189
Glossary		201
Bibliography		209
Index		213
About Thupten Jinpa		219