The most important commentary on Vajrayana from the founder of the Dalai Lama's school of Buddhism. The Brilliantly Illuminating Lamp of the Five Stages (
rim lnga rab tu gsal ba'i sgron me) is Tsong Khapa's most important commentary on the perfection-stage practices of the
Esoteric Community (
Guhyasamaja), the tantra he considered fundamental for the practice of the "father tantra" class of unexcelled yoga tantras. It draws heavily on Nagarjuna's
Five Stages (
Pañcakrama) and Aryadeva's
Lamp that Integrates the Practices (
Caryamelapakapradipa), as well as a vast range of perfection-stage works included in the Tibetan canonical (Kangyur and Tengyur) collections. It is an important work for both scholars and practitioners. A reader of this work will find in it convincing evidence for Tsong Khapa's own yogic experience and attainment, in coordination with his better-known philosophical and scholarly achievements.
The present revised edition of the work is a cornerstone of the
Complete Works of Jey Tsong Khapa and Sons collection, a subset of the
Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences series. Comprised of the collected works of Tsong Khapa (1357-1419) and his spiritual sons, Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen (1364-1432) and Khedrup Gelek Pelsang (1385-1438), the numerous works in this set of Tibetan treatises and supercommentaries are based on the thousands of works in the Tibetan Buddhist canon.