Realizing the Profound View (8) (The Library of Wisdom and Compassion)
"This second of three volumes on emptiness presents the analysis and meditations necessary to realize emptiness by forcefully and completely negating inherent existence. With attention to Candrakåirti's seven-point examination, Nåagåarjuna's five-point analysis, and Påali såutras, we investigate who or what is the person and if there is an inherently existent I, thereby gaining clarity on two diverse meanings of "self": the person and inherent existence. Not finding the person under ultimate analysis, and having negated inherent existence, it is equally important to establish what does exist-illusion-like dependent arisings-for it is the dependently existing person that carries the karmic seeds from one lifetime to the next. And so we learn the three levels of related dependent arising as noted by Tsongkhapa, as well as His Holiness's way of delineating them, his spectacular explanation of how, for a person who has realized emptiness, emptiness dawns as the meaning of dependent arising, and dependent arising dawns as the meaning of emptiness, which is the culmination of the correct view according to the Pråasaçngika Måadhyamaka tradition"--
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The eighth volume in the Dalai Lama’s definitive and bestselling Library of Wisdom and Compassion series, and the second of three focusing on emptiness.In Realizing the Profound View the Dalai Lama presents the analysis and meditations necessary to realize the ultimate nature of reality. With attention to Nagarjuna’s five-point analysis, Candrakirti’s seven-point examination, and Pali sutras, the Dalai Lama leads us to investigate who or what is the person. Are we our body? Our mind? If we are not inherently either of them, how do we exist, and what carries the karma from one life to the next? As we explore these and other fascinating questions, he skillfully guides us along the path, avoiding the chasms of absolutism and nihilism, and introduces us to dependent arising. We find that although all persons and phenomena lack an inherent essence, they do exist dependently. This nominally imputed mere I carries the karmic seeds. We discover that all phenomena exist by being merely designated by term and concept—they appear as like illusions, unfindable under ultimate analysis but functioning on the conventional level. Furthermore, we come to understand that emptiness dawns as the meaning of dependent arising, and dependent arising dawns as the meaning of emptiness. The ability to posit subtle dependent arisings in the face of realizing emptiness and to establish ultimate and conventional truths as non-contradictory brings us to the culmination of the correct view. The second of three volumes on the nature of reality in the Library of Wisdom and Compassion series, Realizing the Profound View challenges the ways we view the self and the world, bringing us that much closer to liberation.
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