The Lamp that Integrates the Practices is a systematic and comprehensive exposition of the most advanced yogas of the Esoteric Community (Guhyasamaja) Tantra as espoused by the Noble Tradition, an influential school of interpretation within the Mahayoga traditions of Indian Buddhist esoterism. Equal in authority to Nagarjuna’s famous Five Stages (Pañcakrama), Aryadeva’s work is perhaps the earliest prose example of the “stages of the mantra path” genre in Sanskrit. Its studied gradualism exerted immense influence on later Indian and Tibetan tradition, and it is widely cited by masters from all four major lineages of Tibetan Buddhism.

This volume presents the Lamp in a tri-lingual format: its Sanskrit original critically-edited from recently-identified manuscripts, a critical edition of the eleventh-century Tibetan translation by Rin-chen Bzang-po (including notes on readings found in “lost,” alternative translations), and a thoroughly-annotated English translation.

Includes an introductory study discussing the history of the Guhyasamaja and its exegetical traditions, surveying the scriptural and commentarial sources of the Noble Tradition, and analyzing in detail the contents of the Lamp. Features a detailed, tri-lingual glossary.

Christian Konrad Wedemeyer (born 1969) is an American scholar and politician. He is Assistant Professor of the History of Religions at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

His work within the field of the history of religions has largely been concerned with the history, literature, and ritual of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. In addition to historical and philological studies of Sanskrit and Tibetan religious literature, he has written on the historiography of Esoteric Buddhism and its antinomianism currents, textual criticism and strategies of legitimating authority in classical Tibetan scholasticism, and the semiology of esoteric Buddhist ritual.

He is Buddhism editor for Religious Studies Review (Blackwell), serves on the editorial boards of, and acts in a consulting capacity for a number of academic journals and presses.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He is member of the American Oriental Society, the American Academy of Religion, the International Association for Tibetan Studies, the International Association of Buddhist Studies, and the North American Association for the Study of Religion.

He has consulted for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, CNN, and the United States Department of Justice. He is listed in several Marquis' Who's Who editions, including Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Education, and Who's Who of Emerging Leaders.