Our true spiritual friends are the positive potentials in our minds, which will never never disappoint us and never desert us. Similarly, the generous and personal meditations offered in this book help us develop these potentials and thus are true friends to whom we can always turn. Likewise, the Sangha, as the ordained followers of the Buddha upon whom the continuity of the Buddha's teachings depend, are spiritual friends who encourage us and inspire us to transform our minds.

This unique book - the first from the International Mahayana Institute - contains meditations written by eighteen nuns and monks of the IMI Sangha as well as an autobiographical essay from each in which these nuns and monks share how they came to the ordained life.

Praise & Reviews "The contributors have not just copied words from the texts but have meditated extensively upon the topics about which they write. Furthermore, they have not only visualized these meditations but have also tried as hard as they can to integrate the meaning of the words into their lives. This meditation book will prove useful to many readers."—Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from the foreword

Thubten Dondrub, Editor ,