Introduction to Emptiness

Author: Guy Newland
Publisher: Snow Lion Publications, Incorporated
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 132

Book Description
Readers are hard-pressed to find books that can help them understand the central concept in Mahayana Buddhism--the idea that ultimate reality is emptiness. In clear language, Introduction to Emptiness explains that emptiness is not a mystical sort of nothingness, but a specific truth that can and must be understood through calm and careful reflection. Newland's contemporary examples and vivid anecdotes will be helpful to students trying to understand one of the great classic texts of the Tibetan tradition, Tsong-kha-pa's Great Treatise.

The Emptiness of Emptiness

Author: C. W. Huntington
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824817121
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
The Emptiness of Emptiness presents the first English translation of the complete text of the Madhyamakāvatāra (Entry into the Middle Way) a sixth century Sanskrit Buddhist composition that was widely studied in Tibet and, presumably, in its native India as well. In his lengthy introduction to the translation, Huntington offers a judiciously crafted, highly original discussion of the central philosophy of Mahāyāna Buddhism. He lays out the principal ideas of emptiness and dependent origination not as abstract philosophical concepts, but rather as powerful tools for restructuring the nature of human experience at the most fundamental level. Drawing on a variety of Indian and Western sources, both ancient and modern, Huntington gradually leads the reader toward an understanding of how it is that sophisticated philosophical thinking can serve as a means for breaking down attachment to any idea, opinion or belief. All of this on the Buddhist premise that habitual, unreflective identification with ideas, opinions, or beliefs compromises our appreciation of the ungraspable miracle that lies at the heart of everyday, conventional reality. The author shows how the spiritual path of the bodhisattva works to transform the individual personality from a knot of clinging into a vehicle for the expression of profound wisdom (prajñā) and unconditional love (karuṇā).

Emptiness and Omnipresence

Author: Brook A. Ziporyn
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253021200
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
This “rich and rewarding work” explores the connections between ancient Buddhist doctrine and contemporary philosophy (Publishers Weekly). Tiantai Buddhism emerged in sixth century China from an idiosyncratic and innovative interpretation of the Lotus Sutra. It went on to become one of the most complete, systematic, and influential schools of philosophical thought developed in East Asia. In Emptiness and Omnipresence, Brook A. Ziporyn puts Tiantai into dialogue with modern philosophical concerns to draw out its implications for ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. Ziporyn explains Tiantai’s unlikely roots, its positions of extreme affirmation and rejection, its religious skepticism and embrace of religious myth, and its view of human consciousness. Ziporyn reveals the profound insights of Tiantai Buddhism while stimulating philosophical reflection on its unexpected effects.

Insight into Emptiness

Author: Jampa Tegchok
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1614290229
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
A former abbot of one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world, Khensur Jampa Tegchok has been teaching Westerners about Buddhism since the 1970s. With a deep respect for the intellectual capacity of his students, Khensur Tegchok here unpacks with great erudition Buddhism's animating philosophical principle - the emptiness of all appearances. Engagingly edited by bestselling author Thubten Chodron, emptiness is here approached from a host of angles far beyond most treatments of the subject, while never sacrificing its conversational approach.

Emptiness

Author: Guy Armstrong
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1614293635
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Book Description
If everything is empty, then what ceases in Nirvana and is born in rebirth? How can you live in the world without feeling trapped by it? Guy Armstrong tackles these questions and more in this richly informed, practical guide to emptiness for the meditator. It may seem odd for emptiness to serve as the central philosophy of a major religion. In fact, emptiness points to something quite different than “nothingness” or “vacancy.” And by developing a richer understanding of this complex topic, we can experience freedom as we live consciously in the world. Guy Armstrong has been a leading figure and beloved teacher of insight meditation for decades. In this book, he makes difficult Buddhist topics easy to understand, weaving together Theravada and Mahayana teachings on emptiness to show how we can liberate our minds and manifest compassion in our lives.

Luminous Emptiness

Author: Francesca Fremantle
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834824787
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 554

Book Description
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a best-seller for three decades, is one of the most widely read texts of Tibetan Buddhism. Over the years, it has been studied and cherished by Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. Luminous Emptiness is a detailed guide to this classic work, elucidating its mysterious concepts, terms, and imagery. Fremantle relates the symbolic world of the Tibetan Book of the Dead to the experiences of everyday life, presenting the text not as a scripture for the dying, but as a guide for the living. According to the Buddhist view, nothing is permanent or fixed. The entire world of our experience is constantly appearing and disappearing at every moment. Using vivid and dramatic imagery, the Tibetan Book of the Dead presents the notion that most of us are living in a dream that will continue from lifetime to lifetime until we truly awaken by becoming enlightened. Here, Fremantle, who worked closely with Chögyam Trungpa on the 1975 translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Shambhala), brings the expertise of a lifetime of study to rendering this intriguing classic more accessible and meaningful to the living. Luminous Emptiness features in-depth explanations of: • The Tibetan Buddhist notions of death and rebirth • The meaning of the five energies and the five elements in Tibetan Buddhism • The mental and physical experience of dying, according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition

Ocean of Reasoning

Author: Tsong khapa
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199881952
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 958

Book Description
Tsong kha pa (14th-century) is arguably the most important and influential philosopher in Tibetan history. An Ocean of Reasoning is the most extensive and perhaps the deepest extant commentary on Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika (Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way), and it can be argued that it is impossible to discuss Nagarjuna's work in an informed way without consulting it. It discusses alternative readings of the text and prior commentaries and provides a detailed exegesis, constituting a systematic presentation of Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophy. Despite its central importance, however, of Tsong kha pa's three most important texts, only An Ocean of Reasoning remains untranslated, perhaps because it is both philosophically and linguistically challenging, demanding a rare combination of abilities on the part of a translator. Jay Garfield and Ngawang Samten bring the requisite skills to this difficult task, combining between them expertise in Western and Indian philosophy, and fluency in Tibetan, Sanskrit, and English. The resulting translation of this important text will not only be a landmark contribution to the scholarship of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, but will serve as a valuable companion volume to Jay Garfield's highly successful translation of The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.

Emptiness

Author: Geshe Tashi Tsering
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 145878360X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Book Description
In Emptiness, the fifth volume in The Foundation of Buddhist Thought series, Geshe Tashi Tsering provides readers with an incredibly welcoming presentation of the central philosophical teaching of Mahayana Buddhism. Emptiness does not imply a nihilistic worldview, but rather the idea that a permanent entity does not exist in any single phenomenon or being. Everything exists interdependently within an immeasurable quantity of causes and conditions. An understanding of emptiness allows us to see the world as a realm of infinite possibility, instead of a static system. Just like a table consists of wooden parts, and the wood is from a tree, and the tree depends on air, water, and soil, so is the world filled with a wondrous interdependence that extends to our own mind and awareness. In lucid, accessible language, Geshe Tashi Tsering guides the reader to a genuine understanding of this infinite possibility.

Elaborations on Emptiness - Uses of the Heart Sutra

Author: Donald S. Lopez (Jr.)
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691001883
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Book Description
Lopez reveals unexpected points of instability and contradiction in the Heart Sutra, which, in the end, turns out to be the most malleable of texts, where the logic of commentary serves as a tool of both tradition and transgression.

A Dose of Emptiness

Author: Mkhas-grub Dge-legs-dpal-bza?-po
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791407295
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 614

Book Description
This book is an annotated translation of one of the great Tibetan classics of Mahayana Buddhist thought, mKhas grub rje's sTong thun chen mo. The text is a detailed critical exposition of the theory and practice of emptiness as expounded in the three major schools of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy: the Yogacara, Svatantrika, and Prasangika. Used as a supplement to the scholastic debating manuals in some of the greatest monasteries of Tibet, the sTong thun chen mo is a veritable encyclopedia of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, dealing with such topics as hermeneutics, the theory of non-duality, the linguistic interpretation of emptiness, the typology of ignorance, logic, the nature of time, and the perception of matter across world spheres. This book is an indispensable source for understanding the Tibetan dGe lugs pa school's synthesis of the Middle Way (Madhyamaka) and Epistemological (Pramanika) traditions of Indian Buddhism. In addition, it is an unprecedented source for the philosophical polemics of fifteenth century Tibet.