Synopses & Reviews
This is one of the best introductions to the philosophy of emptiness I have ever read. Although many books about emptiness now exist in Western languages, few manage to convey the meaning of this profound idea as clearly as Insight Into Emptiness. Khensur Jampa Tegchok manages to explain even the most difficult aspects of Middle Way thought in a way that is both accessible and lucid.”
José Ignacio Cabezón, religious studies department chair, UC Santa Barbara
Khensur Rinpoche Jampa Tegchok is renowned among the great monastic universities for his keen understanding of philosophy, and of Madhyamaka in particular. Here you will find vital points and reasoning for a clear understanding of emptiness.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, author of Transforming Problems into Happiness
This jewel of a book contains the essence of the teachings on emptiness that Khensur Jampa Tegchog has been imparting to Westerners for over thirty years.”
Kathleen McDonald, author of How to Meditate
It is wonderful to see these authoritative and extremely clear teachings. They ease us, step by step, into deeper understanding of emptiness and its liberating power. Highly recommended!”
Guy Newland, author of Introduction to Emptiness
Khensur Jampa Tegchok became a monk at the age of eight. He studied all the major Buddhist treatises at Sera Jé Monastery in Tibet and received the Acharya degree in Varanasi. In 1993, His Holiness the Dalai Lama appointed him the abbot of Jé College of Sera Monastic University in India, a position he held for six years. Both a scholar and practitioner, he is a a beloved teacher who has taught at many Dharma centers in the West and is the author of Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage and The Kindness of Others.
Thubten Chodron is the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey in eastern Washington and has an active teaching schedule worldwide. She is the author of Buddhism for Beginners, Working with Anger, and How to Free Your Mind.
Review
"Khensur Rinpoche Jampa Tegchok is renowned among the great monastic universities for his keen understanding of philosophy, and of Madhyamaka in particular. Here you will find vital points and reasoning for a clear understanding of emptiness."
Review
"One of the best introductions to the philosophy of emptiness I have ever read."
Review
"It is wonderful to see these authoritative and extremely clear teachings. They ease us, step by step, into deeper understanding of emptiness and its liberating power. Highly recommended!"
Review
"This jewel of a book contains the essence of the teachings on emptiness that Khensur Jampa Tegchog has been imparting to Westerners for over thirty years, opening the door to this challenging topic for thousands of people. His approach is straightforward, down-to-earth, compassionate, and rich with practical examples that help to clarify the most profound and complex points."
Review
Khensur Rinpoche Jampa Tegchok is renowned among the great monastic universities for his keen understanding of philosophy, and of Madhyamaka in particular. Here you will find vital points and reasoning for a clear understanding of emptiness.”Lama Zopa Rinpoche, author of
How to Be Happy"One of the best introductions to the philosophy of emptiness I have ever read." José Ignacio Cabezón, Dalai Lama Professor and Chair, Religious Studies Department, UC Santa Barbara
"It is wonderful to see these authoritative and extremely clear teachings. They ease us, step by step, into deeper understanding of emptiness and its liberating power. Highly recommended!"
Guy Newland, author of Introduction to Emptiness
"This jewel of a book contains the essence of the teachings on emptiness that Khensur Jampa Tegchog has been imparting to Westerners for over thirty years, opening the door to this challenging topic for thousands of people. His approach is straightforward, down-to-earth, compassionate, and rich with practical examples that help to clarify the most profound and complex points."Ven. Sangye Khadro, author of Awakening a Kind Heart
Review
“Ironically, Gay Watsons book on emptiness is wonderfully full. Its overflowing with clarity, insight, dry humor, and sheer verve in its explorations of reality and our consciousness of it. Its rare to find a book so saturated with scholarship to be also so encouraging and helpful for those whose interest in impermanence and interdependence is more than academic. This wide-ranging examination of existence and experience is both contemporary and likely to become a classic.”
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
A Philosophy of Emptiness offers an alternative view, a path without foundation or guarantor. Via a tour of early and non-Western philosophy, Watson uncovers a rich history of emptiness, taking us from Buddhism, Taoism, and religious mysticism to the contemporary world of philosophy, science, and art practice. Most Western philosophies explicitly or implicitly, are concerned with substance and foundation yet the 20th century has seen the resurgence of emptiness: Watson offers reasons why such an apparently unappealing concept might have attracted modern musicians, artists, and scientists, as well as pre-eminent thinkers throughout the ages.
Synopsis
We often view emptiness as a negative condition, a symptom of depression, despair, or griefan assessment furthered by authors like Franz Kafka or the existentialists, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Offering an alternative view,
A Philosophy of Emptiness reclaims these hollow feelings as a positive and even empowering state, an antidote to the modern obsession with substance and foundation.
Digging through early and non-Western philosophy, Gay Watson uncovers a rich history of emptiness. She travels from Buddhism, Taoism, and religious mysticism to the contemporary world of philosophy, science, and art practice. Though most Western philosophies are concerned with substance and foundation, she finds that the twentieth century has seen a resurgence of emptiness and offers reasons why such an apparently unappealing concept has attracted modern musicians, artists, and scientists, as well as preeminent thinkers throughout the ages. Probing the idea of how a life without foundation might be livedand why a person might choose this pathA Philosophy of Emptiness links these concepts to contemporary ideas of meditation and the mind, presenting a rich and intriguing take on the concept of emptiness and the history of thought.
About the Author
Born in 1930, Khensur Jampa Tegchok became a monk at the age of eight. He studied major Buddhist treatises at Sera Monastic University in Tibet for fourteen years before fleeing his homeland in 1959. The former abbot of the Je College of Sera Monastic University in India, he has also been a beloved teacher at several FPMT centers including the Masters Program at Instituto Lama Tsongkhapa in Italy, Land of Medicine Buddha in California, and Nalanda Monastery in France.Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron has practiced the Buddha's teachings for more than thirty-five years. A native of Los Angeles, she ordained as a nun in the Tibetan tradition in 1977 and received the full ordination of a bhikshuni in Taiwan in 1986. Venerable Chodron has studied extensively with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsenzhap Serkhong Rinpoche, Zopa Rinpoche, and Lama Thubten Yeshe among many other Tibetan masters. With a clear, practical, and humorous style, she teaches Buddhist philosophy and meditation worldwide. Her numerous books, published in several languages, include Buddhism for Beginners, Taming the Mind, and most recently Don't Believe Everything You Think. Venerable Chodron has been the resident teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore and was the resident teacher and spiritual adviser for Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle for ten years. She is currently the abbess of Sravasti Abbey, a Buddhist monastic community in Newport, Washington, which she founded in 2003. Many of her teachings are available on her website, <>, and on the Sravasti Abbey Youtube Channel.
Table of Contents
Introduction
One: Experience
Two: The Buddhist Philosophy of Sunyata
Three: Following the Tao
Four: Moving Westwards
Five: Philosophic Modernity
Six: Scientific Indeterminism
Seven: Artistic Emptiness
Eight: Empty Conclusions
References
Bibliography
Acknowledgements