THE TRANSLITERATION OF SANSKRIT names and terms follows the IAST method, with the exception of ṛ, c, ch, ś, and ṣ, which are rendered as ṛi, ch, chh, sh, and ṣh, respectively. Sanskrit and Tibetan equivalents for important names and terms, along with birth and death dates when available, are provided on the first occurrence of the name or term in parentheses in italics. Both phonetic renderings and Wylie transliterations are provided for the Tibetan terms in the following format: (phonetic rendering/Wylie transliteration). In the main body of the text, root verses from the Entrance to the Middle Way are indented and bolded. When available, the name of a text quoted by the Karmapa is given in parentheses in italics, directly before the quotation, if it is not mentioned in the body of the text. Brackets enclose material inserted by the translator; text in parentheses in roman type is the original author’s material.
I have chosen not to crowd the text with references to Tibetan page numbers in addition to the already plentiful extraneous material in the body of the text. Also with the nonspecialist reader in mind, I have used brackets sparingly, opting not to use them in instances where the implied content of the Tibetan phrases could be reliably ascertained, and where there was no substantive scholarly concern to alert the reader to an insertion by the translator.