Book two: The light of the world. Our teacher's path to awakening -- The Buddha's enlightenment -- The Buddha's twelve deeds -- Enlightenment's bodies and pure realms -- Book three: What the Buddha taught. What are the sacred teachings? -- Cycles of scriptural transmission -- Compilations of the Buddha's word -- The origins of the early translations' ancient tradition -- Book four: Buddhism resplendent in the world. Buddhism in the land of exalted beings -- How Buddhist monastic discipline and scriptural transmissions came to Tibet -- The history of lineages of meditation practice in Tibet, the eight major chariots -- A history of Buddhist culture -- Appendix 1: the root text of books two, three, and four -- Translator's postscript: reflections on each chapter.