How often do you hear the story of a man who was immaculately born from within a lotus flower with a thousand petals, in the middle of a lake, having been sent as a meteor from the heart of the Boudha of Boundless light? Lotus-Born is the fabulous story of the mystic, master scholar, and outrageous yogi, Padmasambhava, the Lotus-Born, who grew up an adopted prince, was banished, burned at the stake in a neighboring kingdom, and continued miraculously unscathed, wandering through cemeteries, dancing on corpses, and proceeded to live more than five hundred years. He is regarded by the most sane Tibetans as a real, historical figure, the founder of Buddhism in Tibet where he subjugated demons and taught the Buddha's teachings.
The complete story of how Buddhism was planted in Tibet is available in English for the first time with the publication of this book. Lotus-Born is a translation of a biography of the great master recorded in the ninth century by his foremost Tibetan disciple, the princess Yeshe Tsogyal. Many of these biographies were concealed as terma treasures to protect them against the changes of time.

This book main idea is that intrinsic to the heart, mind and spirit in every human being is an identical essence which can be realized. This realization makes any man or woman a Buddha. The focus of this book is the method of how to implement that through a system of training which is of timeless value, and not bound by cultural limitations. The timeless truth it conveys is as meaningful for a Westerner today as it was in India and Tibet.
During the centuries this system of effortless training has been applied by people from all any occupation -- tailers and kings, monks and business men - and provided them with a simple method to not only withstand the changes of life but also to transcend them. Like the waves on an ocean, the ups and downs, joys and sorrows, we meet in our lives can be seen as movements in the ocean, giving true peace and room for caring for others.
I will be hard to find another book which is as concise as Heart Lamp.
The audience is the steadily increasing followers of Buddhism in the Americas, Europe and Asia, which is grown in the wake of Tibetan masters' teaching outside of Tibet. Heart Lamp is unique in that its translator worked closely with several of the most respected meditation masters of recent times and was able to receive knowledge from the "lifeblood" of the living tradition.
Heart Lamp is unique in its brevity without losing the depth of a true spiritual lineage the training in which can bring about enlightenment in a single lifetime. And, it is being used as the textbook during meditation retreats around.