Illuminations is a translation of: Thub pa'i dgongs pa rab tu gsal ba of Sa-skya Pandi-ta Kun-dga' rgyal-mtshan, 1182-1251. It is a useful, down-to-earth guide for beginning the process of mental and spiritual development as taught and enacted by the historical Buddha Sakyamuni and succeeding masters of India, Tibet, and the world. Neither abstruse nor mystical, it is directed toward those who wish to lay the necessary groundwork for advanced practice.
Sakya Pandita cast the present work in the form of a "stages of the, path" (lam rim) teaching. Such teachings are a reformulation of Sakyamuni's words into a complete and integrated system of practice. Sakya Pandita's presentation is comprehensive, yet it retains the informal flavor of a transcription of lectures for an introduction to basic Buddhism.