Atisa's Stages of the Path to Awakening

“Atisa’s Stages of the Path to Awakening is the latest of James Apple’s publications dedicated to the works of Atisa Dipa?karasrijñana. The book presents Stages of the Path to Awakening for the first time in full to an Anglophone readership, together with translations of several commentarial and instructional works and accompanied by a detailed introduction by the author. I am delighted to see these little-known texts from the tradition of the famous Buddhist master finally receiving the attention they deserve.”–Ulrike Roesler, University of Oxford“The lamrim, or ‘stages of the path, ’ is one of Tibet’s most important and popular methods of self-transformation. Based on the works of the eleventh-century Bengali saint Atisa, it is practiced in every school of Tibetan Buddhism. In this book, James Apple translates and brings to life hitherto unknown writings of Atisa on the lamrim. This is a tremendously important contribution to Indo-Tibetan religious literature, and a great gift to those of us who study and practice the stages of the path.”–José Ignacio Cabezón, distinguished research professor of religious studies, Dalai Lama Professor Emeritus, UC Santa Barbara

James B. Apple is a professor of Buddhist studies at the University of Calgary. He received his doctorate in Buddhist studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His current research focuses upon the critical analysis of Mahayana sutras and topics within Indian and Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism. He has published over seventy-five articles in the study of Buddhism. His books include Stairway to Nirvana (2008), A Stairway Taken by the Lucid: Tsong kha pa’s Study of Noble Beings (2013), Jewels of the Middle Way: The Madhyamaka Legacy of Atisa and His Early Tibetan Followers (2018), Atisa Dipamkara: Illuminator of the Awakened Mind (2019), and An Old Tibetan Dunhuang Manuscript of the Avaivartikacakrasutra (2021).