Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path To Enlightenment (Volume 3), The

The third volume of the fifteenth-century spiritual classic that condenses the enormous breadth of Buddhist teachings into one easy-to-follow meditation manual. The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Tibetan title: Lam rim chen mo) is one of the brightest jewels in the world's treasury of sacred literature, and certainly in the world of Tibetan Buddhism. The author, Tsong-kha-pa, completed this masterpiece in 1402 to help lead people along a series of progressive stages from this-worldly self-centeredness to cosmically altruistic expansiveness. For centuries it has continued to be essential reading for any student of Buddhist thought who wants to put the Buddha's teachings into practice. Volume Three contains a presentation of the two most important topics in the Great Treatise: meditative serenity (samatha) and supramundane insight into the nature of reality (vipasyana).