A Bodhisattva is a friend of the world who, motivated by compassion, seeks enlightenment to benefit all living beings. In this welcome guide to compassionate living, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso explains in detail how to take and keep the Bodhisattva vows, how to purify negative minds, and how to practice the Bodhisattva's actions of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration and wisdom. With this handbook as our companion, we can enter the Bodhisattva's way of life and progress along the path to full enlightenment.