"Cyrus Stearns, an eminent scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, presents a seminal manuscript history of its earliest practitioners and masters, and a detailed description of the Lam 'bras teachings. At the heart of the book is Stearns's translation of a newly-discovered text that records the words of the great teacher Sakya Pandita, featuring Tibetan and English on facing pages. This book will be of particular interest to students of the Sakyapa tradition."

– Tricycle

"Cyrus Stearns presents in this book a rare manuscript history of the Path with Its Fruit instructions, the teaching that is at the very heart of the Sa skya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He proves himself to be one of the best Tibetan translators working today, capturing faithfully and movingly both the spirit and literal sense of his thirteenth-century author. He also demonstrates his prowess as a text discoverer: as in his previous Hermit of Go Cliffs, Stearns here makes accessible a precious work that was until recently unavailable even to the masters of the tradition."

– David Jackson, Hamburg University

"Stearns' survey of the oldest Lam 'bras literature with the admirable translation of a collective biography of the early masters of the tradition is a wonderful contribution to our knowledge of an unexplored area in Tibetan cultural history. Stearns has an excellent control over his subject and this is a worthy successor to his Buddha from Dolpo."

– Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp, Harvard University