In this luminous presentation, the Dalai Lama lays out the Middle Way, "the way of the intelligent person" who approaches all matters, including matters of faith and devotion, with the highest spirit of critical inquiry and does so without falling into the traps of fixed ideas or extreme views. With fresh emphasis, this peerless and beloved teacher links Tibetan Buddhism to its deep roots in the ancient scholastic tradition of Nalanda University and to the profound analytical teachings of the seminal Indian master Nagarjuna. As the Dalai Lama explores in depth Nagarjuna's Fundamental Stanzas on the Middle Way-a text of radical importance to the entirety of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition-he illuminates such subtle and easily misunderstood topics as the nature of self and no-self, dependent origination, and the differing roles of relative and absolute truths. This volume also includes a rich exploration of the Tibetan master Tsongkhapa's Three Principal Aspects of the Path, offering the reader an opportunity to put these matters of deepest philosophical import into direct practice.
The Middle Way: Faith Grounded in Reason, Dalai Lama, Wisdom Publications, Hardcover, 2009, 184 pages, $19.95
Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, was born in northeastern Tibet in 1935. He is widely recognized as both the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. In 1950, Tibet was invaded by China, leading to His Holinesss flight into India in 1959. Since then, His Holiness has resided in Dharamsala, India, the site of the Tibetan-government-in-exile. In recognition of his tireless work for the liberation of Tibet, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
Geshe Thupten Jinpa (translator) has been a principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for nearly two decades and has translated and edited numerous books by the Dalai Lama, including 'The World of Tibetan Buddhism, Essence of the Heart Sutra, and Ethics for the New Millennium. His own works include Songs of Spiritual Experience (co-authored) and Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy. He is currently the president of the Institute of Tibetan Classics and lives in Montreal with his wife and two daughters.
|
Translator's Preface
|
vii
|
|
Prologue
|
1
|
Part I |
An Exploration of Nagarjuna's Fundamental Stanzas on the Middle Way
|
|
| 1. |
Approaching the Profound
|
13
|
| 2. |
Twelve Links of Dependent Origination
|
29
|
| 3. |
The Analysis of Self and No-Self
|
65
|
| 4. |
Establishing Conventional Truth
|
93
|
Part II |
An Exploration of Tsongkhapa's Three Principal Aspects of the Path
|
|
| 5. |
Practicing the Profound
|
119
|
Appendix 1 |
Three Principal Aspects of the Path
|
149
|
Appendix 2 |
Praise to Seventeen Nalanda Masters
|
153
|
|
Notes
|
163
|
|
Bibliography
|
169
|
|
Index
|
173
|
|