Gen Lamrimpa, B. Alan Wallace - 2010 - How to Realize Emptiness.epub

Gen Lamrimpa, B. Alan Wallace - 2010 - How to Realize Emptiness.epub

Paperback: 136 pages
Publisher: Snow Lion; 2nd Edition edition (September 16, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1559393580
ISBN-13: 978-1559393584

Realizing emptiness or grasping the true nature of reality lies at the heart of the Buddhist path. In this book, Gen Lamrimpa offers practical instruction on Madhyamaka, insight meditation aimed at realizing emptiness. Drawing on his theoretical training as well as his extensive meditative experience, he explains how to use Madhyamaka reasoning to experience the way in which all things exist as dependently related events.

The concept of "emptiness" is mentioned a lot by Buddhist teachers but it is often given a short explanation that remains cryptic to someone that has not yet realized it experientially. Whenever I read these explanations I struggled to understand, for instance, how we can say "I" or the "self" doesn't exist or how we can say that all phenomena is empty of inherent existence. These claims seem to defy logic, intuition, and experience. The short treatment is unfortunate because the concept is so central to the Buddha's teachings and personal progression along the path.

In this book Lamrapa breaks the concept down into somewhat excruciating detail. This isn't a book you can skim or read through quickly. It is dense and I found myself restarting from the beginning several times to make sure that I was grasping everything. But, it solidified my understanding many times over. In the past I would ponder the concept and try to guess at it's application and exact meaning but never felt confident that I was interpreting and applying it correctly. This detailed account was more helpful than anything else I've read on the topic and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the Dharma with the only warning being that it is concept heavy and you should come into it knowing that you'll have to intellectually struggle to grasp its meaning simply because of the complexity of the subject (the perceptual and conceptual mind interacting to create illusion and ignorance).

I am impressed with Wallace's skill as a translator. It's amazing how precise the language is and without a very accurate translation this book could easily have been more confusing than helpful. I'll definitely be seeking out other translations by him.

B. Alan Wallace began his studies of Tibetan Buddhism, language, and culture in 1970 at the University of Göttingen and then continued his studies over the next fourteen years in India, Switzerland, and the United States. After graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College, where he studied physics and the philosophy of science, he went on to earn his Ph.D. in religious studies at Stanford University. He then taught for four years in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and is now the founder and president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies (http://sbinstitute.com). He is also Chairman of the Thanypura Mind Centre (http://piamc.com) in Thailand, where he leads meditation retreats.