A profound and accessible addition to any Buddhist library by the late 9th Traleg Rinpoche. Traleg was one of what can truly be called a genuine Kosmopolitan - a truly universal human who had a deep understanding not only of Eastern culture and practices, but a genuinely profound grasp of the West and its various philosophical strands.  (Ken Wilber) Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche (1955-2012) was the ninth incarnation of the Traleg tulku line, a line of high lamas in the Kagyu lineage of Vajrayana, receiving the full traditional Tibetan monastic education.  A married lay teacher with a Masters degree in Comparative Philosophy from La Trobe University, he was a pioneer in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to Australia and taught widely in the U.S. and around the world, renowned for his fresh and accessible teaching style.  

Four Dharmas of Gampopa: May my mind become one with the Dharma, May the Dharma make success on the path, May the path clarify confusion, May confusion dawn as wisdom.

"Gampopa's Four Dharmas is closely related to his Jewel Ornament of Liberation, a text that deals with the stages in our spiritual development. First you begin to discover the Dharma, then you make a good job of it, then the Dharma becomes applicable on the path so you begin to clarify confusion on the path, and finally you transmute that confusion into wisdom.  Those are the four Dharmas and they really relate to the development of the individual on the path."

Traleg Kyabgon Influence of Yogacara on Mahamudra: A unique and interesting look at how Yogacara philosophy influenced the development of tantra and Mahamudra.  Developed by Asanga and Vasubandhu as a reaction to over theorization, Yogacara emphasizes individual experience and practice.

Asanga's Abhidharmasamuccaya: Traleg Kyabgon presents the Abhidharma system of Asanga in clear and uncomplicated language so that students of the mahayana can easily employ its insights to understand their own minds. The Yogacara view of mind provides a model for understanding our construction of reality.  Its understanding of how the mind operates is a guide for how we can properly assess our lives and develop in more psychologically wholesome ways without getting bogged down by past experience.  Rinpoche shows that this kind of reflection on ourselves will reveal how our whole conscious evolution has taken place and where we have mismanaged certain things.

Wangchuk Dorje's Ocean of Certainty: Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche's commentary to the sixteenth century work Pith Instructions of Coemergent Wisdom, Entitled the Profound Essence of the Ocean of Certainty, by the Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje, provides meditators with an overview of the path leading to the realization of mahamudra, the self-liberated and all-encompassing nature of reality.  Beginning with ngondro practice, Traleg Rinpoche guides students through the conditions needed to fully integrate the practice, along with instructions for shamatha and vipashyana meditation, which includes visualizations and exercises.  A section devoted to strengthening practice lays out common pitfalls and wrong views and how to avoid them.  Finally, Rinpoche teaches on the four yogas of mahamudra one-pointedness nonconceptuality, one-flavoredness, and nonmeditation and the ground, path, and fruition of mahamudra in relation to the individual practitioner.