Awakening the Mind: Basic Buddhist Meditations

This book by Geshe Namgyal Wangchen is a must have for everyone interested in the Buddhist path. His explainations are clear and easy to understand. For beginners you can trust the root of Geshe Wangchen's knowledge and for everyone this book can bring you new insights to benefit your meditations. Geshe Wangchen has given a gift to us and this is a must for your library. Through many years and many books I have read on the Buddhist Path I find Awakening the Mind to Enlightenment a true classic to rely upon.

This book presents the classical curriculum for Buddhist meditators of the Gelugpa Scool of Tibetan Buddhism. I have studied for several years with a Lharampa Geshe of this same school, and found that this book followed not only the same subject matter which my teacher was giving to me in the traditional oral teaching method, but was presented in the same sequence as well. Even more surprising, the author in many cases used the exact phrasing and the same analogies as my teacher. I think that this must not only be a testament to the superior educational experience inside of the Gelugpa monasteries, but also to the impeccable quality of this particular author and his exposition of the material. As a Buddhist practitioner, meditator, and student of the Gelugpa school of thought, I must highly recommend this book. As an aside, several of my non-Buddhist friends have read this book also and all have been very excited about the "accessibility" of its' approach to meditation in general. A nice one.