The Essence of Tsongkhapa's Teachings: The Dalai Lama on the Three Principal Aspects of the Path

Learn from the Dalai Lama the three steps to awakening: 1) renunciation, 2) the awakening mind, and 3) emptiness.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama's commentary on Tsongkhapa's Three Principal Aspects of the Path helps us integrate the full Buddhist path into our own practice. His Holiness offers a beautiful elucidation of the three aspects of the path: true renunciation based on the wish for freedom, the altruistic awakening mind ( bodhichitta ), and the correct view of emptiness. These three aspects of the path are the axis of all the practices of both sutra and tantra, and they encapsulate Tsongkhapa's vision of the Buddhist path in its entirety. In their absence, it is impossible for us to develop the great compassion that aspires to liberate other sentient beings from samsara and we will not be able to go beyond this cycle of existence.

Practitioners will find The Three Principal Aspects of the Path invaluable as a manual for daily meditation. The universal and timeless insights of this text speak to contemporary spiritual aspirants, East and West. The root verses are presented in both Tibetan and English translation to accompany these profound teachings.