In this first part of a two-part paper, Broido tries to understand Padma Karpo's (pad ma dkar po) explanation of tantra in general as ground, path and goal (gzhi, lam, 'bras bu) found within his treatise on Vajrayāna entitled Jo bo nāropa'i khyad chos bsre 'pho'i gzhung 'grel rdo rje 'chang gi dgongs pa gsal bar byed pa. Broido explores the interpretation of these concepts by several other commentators before going into an extended analysis of Padma Karpo's comments. The Tibetan text of Padma Karpo's summary of ground, path, and goal are given in an appendix. (BJN)