An important part of the path of meditation in the Kagyu Lineage is to do the Common Preliminaries and then to do the Special Preliminaries called ngondro in Tibetan.

The consists of doing 100,000 prostations and recitation of refuge to develop basic faith in Buddhism, Purication practice by doing 100,000 Vajrasattva Mantras, Developing generosity by my doing 100,000 mandala plate offerings and visualizing giving everything away, and Guru Yoga practice which is developing great faith in your guru.

This book The Torch of True Meaning is a original, basic text of this practice which was written by Jamogon Kontrul, the Great.