Geshe Lhundub Sopa’s Steps on the Path to Enlightenment is a landmark commentary on what is perhaps the most elaborate and elegant Tibetan presentation of the Buddhist path, Tsongkhapa’s monumental Lamrim Chenmo. In this third volume of five, readers are acquainted with the bodhisattva’s path and the altruistic desire to make service to others the driving force of spiritual development.

It begins with an explanation of what distinguishes the Mahayana practitioner from other Buddhists. The nature of bodhichitta is described in depth, and Geshe Sopa then provides a detailed, contemporary commentary on the two methods to develop this attitude: the “sevenfold cause and effect personal instructions” based on the teachings of Atisha and the later Kadampa lineage, and the “training to exchange self and other” based on Shantideva’s Engaging in the Bodhisattva’s Deeds. While bodhichitta’s significance in Mahayana Buddhism is universally known, this attitude alone is not sufficient in the quest for complete enlightenment. A practitioner must devote oneself to the performance of actions motivated by bodhichitta, called the bodhisattva perfections.