I need to reread this--I read it quickly during His Holiness the Dalai Lama's week-long teachings from it--and perhaps I appreciate this text more for the explanations His Holiness offered during those teachings, but this book is, so far, one of the two most profound and instructive guides to formal meditation I've read yet. It's not for beginners, because I feel some background in Buddhist philosophy and/or meditation practices will be useful, but it's not for experts, either--I'm certainly no expert!--so it's worth picking up and keeping around until you're ready to read it. For me, I was fortunate to have received this text at exactly the right point in my declining practice, and it clarified a lot for me and kick-started my regular practice. An excellent, beautiful book. ( )

This is a teaching by HHDL on Kamalashila's 9th Century "Intermediate" Stages of Meditation, with emphasis on the interplay between Calm Abiding (Shamata) and Special Insight (Vipassana) meditation practices. These are balanced with teachings on Wisdom (emptiness/dependent arising) and Skillful Means (Compassion) to provide an excellent overview of the Mahayana path.

Though the teachings by HHDL date to 1989, they were just published in 2002.

The reading by Ken McLeod is excellent. ( )