Emptiness : The Foundation of... | Buy

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Geshe Tashi Tsering was born in Tibet in 1958 and received his Geshe Lharampa degree (similar to a doctorate in divinity) from Sera Monastery in India in 1987. Since 1994, he has been the guiding teacher of the Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London, while also teaching at other Buddhist centers worldwide.

Gordon McDougall was director of Cham Tse Ling, the FPMT's Hong Kong center, for two years in the 1980s and worked for Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London from 2000 to 2007. He helped develop the Foundation of Buddhist Thought study program and administered it for seven years. Since 2008 he has been editing Lama Zopa Rinpoche's lamrim teachings for Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive's FPMT Lineage series.

Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche is the Spiritual Director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a worldwide network of Buddhist centers, monasteries, and affiliated projects, including Wisdom Publications. Rinpoche was born in 1946 in the village of Thami in the Solo Khumbu region of Nepal near Mount Everest. His books include Transforming Problems into Happiness, How to Be Happy, and Ultimate Healing. He lives in Aptos, California.
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Foreword	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Editor's Preface	p. xv
The Revolution of Selflessness	p. 1
The Uniqueness of the Buddha's Concept of No-Self	p. 1
The Importance of Selflessness	p. 3
Selflessness in the Sutras	p. 5
Did the Buddha Invent Selflessness?	p. 5
Understanding Reality as It Is	p. 7
Selflessness in the Three Turnings of the Dharma Wheel	p. 11
The Commentaries that Deal with Emptiness	p. 14
The Prerequisites for Developing an Understanding of Selflessness	p. 19
The Perfection of Concentration	p. 19
Calm Abiding	p. 21
Cultivating Calm Abiding	p. 22
The Best Object of Meditation	p. 25
Mindfulness and Alertness	p. 27
Insight	p. 30
How Insight Is Cultivated According to Tibetan Buddhism	p. 32
The Concepts of Selfhood	p. 35
All Things Are No-Self	p. 35
Right View Is Supramundane Insight	p. 35
All Things Are No-Self	p. 36
Was the Prasangika View of Selflessness Taught by the Buddha?	p. 38
Levels of Selfhood	p. 39
The Two Types of Emptiness	p. 39
Acquired and Innate Self-Grasping	p. 41
The Self as an Unchanging, Unitary, and Autonomous Entity	p. 43
The Self as a Self-Sufficient, Substantial Entity	p. 46
The Self as an Intrinsic Entity	p. 48
Identifying the Thief	p. 50
Selflessness in the Four Buddhist Schools	p. 52
Selflessness in the First Three Schools	p. 52
Selflessness in Svatantrika Madhyamaka	p. 55
The Differences Between Svatantrika and Prasangika	p. 61
The Main Differences Between The Subschools of Madhyamaka	p. 61
The Difference in the Line of Reasoning	p. 61
The Difference in Direct Perception	p. 66
The Difference in Ultimate and Conventional Levels	p. 69
The Difference in the Understanding of Dependent Origination	p. 70
The Difference in Identifying the Two Obscurations	p. 71
Prasangika's Unique Presentation of Emptiness	p. 77
The Object of Negation	p. 77
Empty of What?	p. 77
Refuting the Referent Object	p. 81
The Object of Ultimate Analysis	p. 82
What Is Intrinsic Nature?	p. 85
Some Clarification of Innate Self-Grasping	p. 88
Establishing Emptiness	p. 91
Lines of Reasoning	p. 91
The Seven-Point Analysis	p. 93
The Chariot Cannot Be Identical with Its Parts	p. 95
The Self Cannot Be Identical with the Aggregates	p. 95
The Chariot Cannot Be Posited as Something Separate from Its Parts	p. 96
The Self Cannot Be Posited as Something Separate from the Aggregates	p. 97
The Parts of the Chariot Do Not Exist Intrinsically as the Base of the Chariot	p. 98
The Aggregates Do Not Exist Intrinsically as a Base of the Self	p. 98
The Chariot Does Not Exist Intrinsically Dependent on Its Parts	p. 98
The Self Does Not Exist Intrinsically Dependent on the Aggregates	p. 99
The Chariot Does Not Possess Its Parts	p. 99
The Self Does Not Possess the Aggregates in the Sense of Some Kind of Inherent Possession	p. 99
The Chariot Is Not Identical with the Collection of Its Parts	p. 100
The Collection of the Aggregates Cannot be Posited as the Self	p. 100
The Chariot Is Not Its Shape	p. 100
The Shape or Configuration of the Aggregates Cannot be Posited as the Self	p. 101
Refuting the Four Possibilities of Production	p. 102
The King of Reasons	p. 105
How The Person and Phenomena Appear Like an Illusion	p. 107
Emptiness and Dependent Arising	p. 109
The Three Levels of Dependent Arising	p. 109
The Impact of Dependent Arising	p. 109
The Three Levels of Dependent Arising	p. 110
Causal Dependency	p. 111
Mutual Dependency	p. 113
Merely-Labeled Dependency	p. 116
Emptiness and Dependent Arising	p. 118
The Merging of Emptiness and Dependent Arising	p. 121
Conclusion	p. 127
Appendix	p. 131
Glossary	p. 135
Bibliography	p. 143
Notes	p. 145
Index	p. 149
About the Authors	p. 157
The Foundation of Buddhist Thought	p. 159
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