Cyrus Stearns has been a student of Tibetan Buddhism for over thirty-five years. His main Tibetan teachers were Dezhung Rinpoche Chogye Trichen Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He received a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Washington and is the author of several books including Taking the Result As the Path and King of the Empty Plain. He is currently a fellow at the Tsadra Foundation and lives in the woods on Whidbey Island north of Seattle Washington.
Stearns, one of the most respected translators of classical Tibetan texts, beautifully brings to life the story of one of Tibet's most inspiring and loved personalities. This book is a must for anyone who is interested in Tibetan culture and history, as well as those who wish to see how the altruistic ideals of the bodhisattva path can be concretely applied in socioeconomic and humanitarian action. --Thupten Jinpa, translator to H.H. the Dalai Lama and author of Self, Reality, and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy This represents the culmination of many years of patient scholarship and contemplation of the problems of meaningful translation into English. . . . The author has selected a figure of enormous importance for the cultural context of Tibetan Buddhism. This is a book that will last. --E. Gene Smith, executive director of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center