The Prayer of Maitreya, found in the forty-first chapter of the Ratnakuta Great Vehicle Sutra, is one of the five great prayers of the Great Vehicle tradition and, after Samantabhadra's Prayer, one of the most popular prayers for all followers of that tradition. It is recited every day without fail by many Tibetan followers and we think would be recited more often by non-Tibetans if they had access to a reliable translation with a clear explanation. The prayer is approximately half the size of Samantabhadra's Prayer, though the content of the two prayers is sufficiently similar that learning about one considerably enhances an understanding of the other. Thus, this text of Maitreya's Prayer will be an excellent support for those trying to understand more of Samantabhadra's prayer and vice versa. Maitreya's Prayer is a little less complicated than Samantabhadra's Prayer and hence easier to understand and also easier to use as a prayer. Essentially, it consists of the seven limbs followed by an explanation of emptiness followed by explanations of the six paramitas. The prayer itself contains many prayers within its twenty-four verses, so a guide to it is needed. There are not many commentaries available, though a highly informative one by the great Drukpa Kagyu author Padma Karpo is very useful. Thus, the book is a very rich collection of materials, containing two previously un-translated Great Vehicle sutras, plus the prayer of Maitreya, plus a major commentary to it. A long introduction clarifying all these materials is also included. Finally, all of the Tibetan sources are included in Tibetan script to assist translators and those studying the Tibetan language.

This book presents a Great Vehicle sutra of the third turning of the wheel of dharma which has not been translated until now and which is regarded as specially important for two reasons. Firstly the sutra deals with the issue of whether a bodhisatva can live a householder's life and effectively practice dharma at a high level. In the time when the Buddha gave this discourse it was regarded in Indian culture as a whole that it was necessary to leave the household and additionally to become ordained as a monk or nun in order to practice dharma at the highest level. The Buddha ends the sutra by saying that not only is it possible to practise whilst living as a householder but that a householder bodhisatva can be a much more capable and effective bodhisatva than a bodhisatva living the celibate life of an ordained bodhisatva. The person who petitioned the Buddha for his authoritative statements on this matter was a householder bodhisatva named "Uncouth." His concerns, which are the main issues in the sutra, result in the sutra fitting very closely with the situation of today's Western Buddhists, most of whom do not wish to leave home and become mendicants and most of whom are equally determined that this should not mean that they are relegated to a life which has been officially stamped as lesser than that of an ordained life. These have become prominent issues for Western Buddhists at this time and a careful consideration of the actual meaning embodied in this sutra can be a very fruitful exercise for today's Western Buddhists. I have found that investigating the sutra carefully raises many issues of great relevance and interest to today's Western Buddhists, but more than that, the issues are raised in the environment of the Buddha giving his authoritative statements about them. We found it to be very provocative but very rich at the same time.