A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom: Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practices

The foundations of Vajrayana practice are laid out with eloquence and precision here by one of the greatest Tibetan Buddhist masters of our age. His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche’s commentary on the preliminary practices (ngöndro) is informed by his profound realization and wide-ranging scholarship, and illuminated with an array of quotations from the Vinaya, Sutra, and Tantra traditions. In addition to the commentary on the outer and inner preliminary practices, he provides other invaluable instructions on the correct view, conduct, and activity of a practitioner. Dudjom Rinpoche taught that the realization of the teachings of the Great Perfection depends entirely on the practice of these preliminary practices, thus his compassionate exposition of them here makes this book a particularly precious resource for anyone who seeks to remove the obstacles between themselves and the total freedom of enlightenment.

Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje (1904-1987) was a highly revered Buddhist meditation master and the leader of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He also traveled and taught extensively, proving instrumental in bringing Buddhism to people in Europe, North America, and other parts of Asia. He founded a teaching and meditation center in Dordogne, France, in 1980, where he lived until his death in 1987.