The most extensive teaching given by the Dalai Lama in the West on a seminal Tibetan Buddhist text--now included in the Core Teachings of the Dalai Lama series When the Dalai Lama was forced to go into exile in 1959, he could take only a few items with him. Among these cherished belongings was his copy of Tsong-kha-pa's classic text The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment . This text distills all the essential points of Tibetan Buddhism, clearly unfolding the entire Buddhist path. In 2008, ...
Read More
The most extensive teaching given by the Dalai Lama in the West on a seminal Tibetan Buddhist text--now included in the Core Teachings of the Dalai Lama series When the Dalai Lama was forced to go into exile in 1959, he could take only a few items with him. Among these cherished belongings was his copy of Tsong-kha-pa's classic text The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment . This text distills all the essential points of Tibetan Buddhism, clearly unfolding the entire Buddhist path. In 2008, celebrating the long-awaited completion of the English translation of The Great Treatise , the Dalai Lama gave a historic six-day teaching at Lehigh University to explain the meaning of the text and to underscore its importance. It is the longest teaching he has ever given to Westerners on just one text, and the most comprehensive. From Here to Enlightenment makes the teachings from this momentous event available for a wider audience.
Read Less
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. The book is nice and 100% readable, but the book has visible wear which may include stains, scuffs, scratches, folded edges, sticker glue, torn on front page, highlighting, notes, and worn corners.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fine. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 232 p. Core Teachings of Dalai Lama. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
New. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 232 p. Core Teachings of Dalai Lama. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used textbooks may not include companion materials such as access codes, etc. May have some wear or limited writing/highlighting. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fine. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 232 p. Core Teachings of Dalai Lama. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
The Dalai Lama has become a revered spiritual teacher to many people, Buddhist and non-Buddhist. Some of his many books are written on an almost secular, general level with little explicitly sectarian content, for example "Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World". Other books deeply explore Buddhism, specifically Tibetan Buddhism. The book under review here, the Dalai Lama's "From Here to Enlightenment: An Introduction to Tsong-Kha-Pa's Classic Text 'The Great Treatise on the stages of the Path to Enlightenment" is in the latter category. The book is based on the Dali Lama's 2008 lectures at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania.
Some background is necessary to understand the scope of the Dalai Lama's teaching in this volume. Tsong-Kha-Pa was a Tibetan monk who wrote prolifically about Buddhism, with his "Great Treatise" appearing in 1402. It is a massive work of 1200 pages. A committee of scholars translated the work into English for the first time in three volumes published in 2000, 2002, and 2004: "The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Volume 1)" ; "The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Volume 3);" "The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Volume 2)". The Dalai Lama agreed to give a series of teachings on the book to celebrate the completion of the translation. The "Great Treatise" was personally important to the Dalai Lama as it was one of the few works he was able to carry with him into exile when he fled Tibet in 1959. He has taught the book several times but never in the United States with the degree of detail of the 2008 lectures.
The lectures were given through an interpreter. Then, Guy Newland, Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Philosophy of Religion, Western Michigan University, translated and edited the work for publication from the Dalai Lama's Tibetan manuscript. Newland also added extensive notes and cross-references to other Tibetan and Indian sources. Newland participated in the translation of the "Great Treatise" and he has written on the concept of emptiness which plays the central role in "The Great Treatise."
At about 200 pages, the Dalai Lama's book is short but dense and difficult. The "Great Treatise" was written to synthesize the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and its different schools and the Indian philosophy from which Tibetan Buddhism derived. The Dalai Lama begins with a long introduction about the book and how it presents themes of interdependence and religious harmony which he finds critically important. He advises his audience that Tibetan teachings differ substantially from the theism of Judaism and Christianity in its stress on causality and interdependence as opposed to a transcendent creator God. The goal of the lectures is not to convert, which the Dalai Lama in fact discourages, but to explain.
The Dalai Lama quotes heavily and expounds on Tsong-Ka-Pha's text and discusses as well many other early Tibetan and Indian sources. The book moves from the relatively simple to the profoundly difficult. The Dalai Lama finds the key teaching of Buddhism to lie in the nature of selflessness, a difficult teaching with many possible interpretations that will be hard to grasp for Westerners. The Dalai Lama discusses at length the Buddha's teaching of Dependent Origination which is likewise central to the book and, as the Buddha himself warned his followers, deep and difficult. The book then ties these broad teachings into an exploration of the Four Noble Truths, into a discussion of the meaning of life, the path of the Bodhisattva, serenity and insight meditation and -- the nature of emptiness which is derived largely from the doctrine of Dependent Origination. The latter parts of the book explore briefly notoriously difficult eptistemological, metaphysical, and logical questions that arise from the teaching of emptiness.
The book is written lucidly, with modesty, and with the Dalai Lama's wonderful good humor and kindness. As an oral introduction to a long unfamiliar text, it is difficult reading indeed. The Dalai Lama advises his hearers that the Tsong-Kah-Pah's teachings take months if not years to understand and to try to practice. The effort is ongoing. For readers emboldened to read the three-volume work for themselves, the Dalai Lama counsels slow, deliberate reading studying perhaps one page per day. This pace would require between three and four years to work through the book.
Throughout the book, the Dalai Lama emphasizes his belief in reason, analysis, and critical thinking as a means to understanding, religious and otherwise. The book includes small sections of question and answer sessions between the Dalai Lama and his audience. In a passage I thought captured much of the book, an interlocutor says he is new to the study of Buddhism and asks the Dalai Lama how he might attain greater understanding. Here is part of the Dalai Lama's response.
"Read more. There are translations of Buddhist texts into English, as well as French, German, Spanish, and of course Chinese-- although I think there are fewer translations into Chinese than into English. There are many new translations into English. Read such texts daily for an hour or at least a half hour. Then turn your mind inward and contemplate what you have learned. Examine and investigate, comparing what the text says with your usual way of thinking and living."
This daunting book by the Dalai Lama is for readers with a serious interest in Buddhism and in Tibetan texts. Careful reading offers great insight into Tibetan Buddhism and, for those readers so inclined, into one's own practice.