"The great Indian master Kamalashila's Stages of Meditation in the Middle Way School opens the door of philosophy and practice to meditators at all levels. With brevity and clarity, it covers all the main topics one needs to know from developing compassion, through numerous methods of meditation, to the ultimate realization of full awakening. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche has an unique ability to bring forth the central issues of a text and make them available to a contemporary audience. This text will certainly bring great benefit to all those who encounter it."
--The Seventeenth Karmapa Ogyen Trinle Dorje

"In presenting the very first meditation instruction crafted for Tibetans by the master Kamalashila, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche distills the wisdom of India in an intimate, personal instruction, as true for the contemporary western practitioner as it was in eighth century Tibet. This text is a must for every serious Buddhist meditator." --Judith Simmer-Brown,

"Centuries ago, the Indian master Kamalashila taught Tibetans the essential points of Mahayana practice in a clear, step-by-step, and easy-to-follow way. Now, the great scholar and meditation master Thrangu Rinpoche makes these profound teachings readily accessible to Western students. I encourage all those interested in beginning or deepening their practice of the Mahayana path of wisdom and compassion which leads to the highest enlightenment for the benefit of all beings to read this book." --Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

"Essential Practice is an accessible and authoritative portrait of a bodhisattva's view, meditation, and conduct by one of the foremost masters of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and the tutor of H.H. the Seventeenth Karmapa. Teaching on Kamalashila's treatises outlining the stages of meditation, Thrangu Rinpoche explains the need for compassion and the way to develop it, the necessity for a bodhisattva's vast and durable altruism, as well as the means to generate, stabilize, and fortify it, and the elements key to the meditative practices of calm abiding and insight.-- Library Bookwatch

This book translated by Jules Levinsion and published by Snow Lion is 216 pages long and includes notes, an glossary, a Tibetan glossary, extensive notes, and a bibliography.

There is a downloadable PDF of this book available on this website for $ 1.25.