Karma Chagme was a brilliant practitioner and teacher who was of great help to the Tenth Karmapa. He held the teachings of both the Kagyu and Nyingma Lineage. Khenpo Karthar on Karma Chagme's Mountain Dharma at the request of the 17th Karmapa over four years. These teachings covered on what to do in a retreat in every imaginable situation.

I can think of no lama who could have explained these four volumnes more clearly and carefully to the ordinary practitioner than Khenpo Karthar. These four volumes also include information that cannot be found in other Dharma texts and the lucidity of Khenpo Karthar's teachings can be seen in the questions and answers to his students which fortunately were included at the end of each chapter.

In this first volume covers entering the Gate of Dharma, making and protecting vows, doing refuge and developing bodhichitts in great detail, how to deal with the three kinds of vows which are based on the Hevajra Tantra, purifying and developing generosity in the Vajrasattva and Mandala practice. This book is 367 pages long and even contains an index of the 16 Buddhist stories that Khenpo Karthar told to illustate the text.