Essential Teachings presents the first English translation of a series of talks given in 1974 by the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya, India--the site of the Buddha's enlightenment--to a gathering of Tibetan refugees and Western Buddhists. His precise and eloquent commentary on the "Path of the Bodhisattva," one of the most important teaching texts of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, offers a step-by-step guide to thirty-seven practices designed to help cultivate the spirit of compassion for all life and service to others that is at the heart of Buddhism.