Mipham Rinpoche, a 19th century Tibetan scholar and practitioner, gives a definitive explanation of the Middle-way Instructions. For a few years of his life he stayed at the Tenth Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery, where he was supplied with the materials for his prolific writing. One of Mipham Rinpoche's encyclopedic works on Buddhism was the Gateway to Knowledge and it is from this text that the Middle-Way Instructions come.

In this book Thrangu Rinpoche in his own words explains the meditation techniques for developing compassion and expanding this state into the aspiration of bodhichitta. This text gives a detailed explanation of how one meditates to develop this wisdom. While all three vehicles were practiced in Tibet, the Middle-Way Instructions are like the background of a tapestry that allows the integration and display of its parts into a whole.

In this book, Rinpoche discusses the four common foundations, which are the four thoughts to contemplate before beginning a spiritual practice.

The first foundation, precious human birth, explains in detail why practice is important. The second foundation, impermanence, teaches us to find something meaningful in life.

The most difficult to understand foundation, karma, is lucidly explained by Thrangu Rinpoche. Because of karma, we can determine if we will have a fortunate or unfortunate future. Then, after we have practiced, we must return to conventional reality (samsara) and so the fourth reminder is a review of the characteristics of samsara.

This book also includes Khenpo Karpo's excellent survey of the points of meditation and practice to round out the four foundations.

This e-book is in the Kindle format (mobi) and can be read on many ebook readers.

The paperback book is available on the Book section of this website.