Realizing the Profound View

Thubten Cnodron, Dalai Lama, Thubten Chodron

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781614298403
• eBook ISBN: 9781614298618
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

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.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Preface by Bhikṣuṇī Thubten Chodron
• Abbreviations
• Introduction by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
• 1 The Seven-Point Analysis: How Does a Car Exist?
• 2 Refutations Similar to Candrakīrti’s Seven Points
• 3 The Selflessness of Persons: Seven Points
• 4 The Person Is Not the Six Elements
• 5 Ultimate Analysis and Conventional Existence
• 6 The Selflessness of Phenomena: Diamond Slivers
• 7 Does the World Exist Objectively?
• 8 The Selflessness of All Existents: Dependent Arising
• 9 Gaining the Correct View
• 10 The Path Pleasing to the Buddha
• 11 Illusion-Like Existence
• 12 Self and Selflessness in the Pāli Tradition
• 13 The Pāli Tradition: Eliminating Defilements
• 14 The Pāli Sūtras and the Prāsaṅgika View
• Notes
• Glossary
• Recommended Reading
• Index
• About the Authors
• Copyright