Fathoming the Mind: Inquiry and Insight in Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence

by B. Alan Wallace, Dion Blundell (Editor), Eva Natanya (Editor)

Overview

Bestselling author B. Alan Wallace delivers the long-awaited followup to his Stilling the Mind: Shamatha Teachings from Dudjom Lingpa’s Vajra Essence (2011).

Fathoming the Mind continues the commentary to Dudjom Lingpa’s Vajra Essence that appeared in Stilling the Mind, daringly contextualizing Buddhist teachings on the Great Perfection as a revolutionary challenge to many contemporary beliefs. This companion volume stems from an oral commentary that B. Alan Wallace gave to the next section of the Vajra Essence, on the cultivation of contemplative insight, or vipashyana, that fathoms the nature of existence as a whole. Dudjom Lingpa’s revelation consists of a fascinating dialogue that occurred during his pure vision of Samantabhadra, personification of primordial consciousness, manifesting as the youthful form of the Lake-born Vajra emanation of Padmasambhava, in dialogue with an entourage of bodhisattvas symbolizing various aspects of Dudjom Lingpa’s mind.

In continuing to reflect on Dudjom Lingpa’s writings and their relevance to the modern world, Wallace was inspired to elaborate extensively on his original commentary. This book includes introductory essays and an afterword, which explore how the insights discussed here might contribute to yet a new “contemplative revolution,” one that would be as far-reaching in its implications as the scientific revolutions triggered by the discoveries of Galileo, Darwin, and Einstein.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614293293
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	10/09/2018
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

B. Alan Wallace is president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. He trained for many years as a monk in Buddhist monasteries in India and Switzerland. He has taught Buddhist theory and practice in Europe and America since 1976 and has served as interpreter for numerous Tibetan scholars and contemplatives, including H. H. the Dalai Lama. After graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College, where he studied physics and the philosophy of science, he earned his MA and PhD in religious studies at Stanford University. He has edited, translated, authored, and contributed to more than forty books on Tibetan Buddhism, medicine, language, and culture, and the interface between science and religion. Alan is also the founder of the Center for Contemplative Research (CCR), which has retreat center locations in Crestone, Colorado and Castellina Marittima, Italy and a center in New Zealand slated to open soon. The CCR is dedicated to researching the role and methods of the ancient contemplative practices of shamatha and vipashyana, and their involvement in mental health and wellbeing, as well as their role in fathoming the nature and origins of human consciousness.

Eva Natanya is a scholar of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, Christian theology, and comparative religion, and has served in many capacities as a spiritual teacher, translator of Tibetan texts, author, and retreat leader. Following a nine-year career as a professional ballet dancer with both the New York City Ballet and the Royal Ballet of England, she earned an MA in Christian Systematic Theology at the Graduate Theological Union, and a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. Her dissertation examined the complex interactions of Madhyamaka, Yogacara, and Abhidharma teachings as they underlie the Vajrayana philosophy of Je Tsongkhapa. She has spent more than four years in solitary meditation retreat, is the co-founder of the Center for Contemplative Research, and currently serves as resident teacher at the CCR’s Miyo Samten Ling Hermitage in Crestone, Colorado, while continuing her solitary retreat practice.

Table of Contents

Foreword Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoché ix

Foreword Tsoknyi Rinpoché xiii

Preface xv

Introduction 1

A Serviceable Mind 2

The Current Dark Age of Materialism 11

1 The Nature of the Mind 29

The Phenomenological Nature of Consciousness 30

The Essential Nature of the Mind 38

The Ultimate Nature of the Mind 44

The Transcendent Nature of Consciousness 48

2 Revealing Your Own Face as the Sharp Vajra of Vipasyana 55

3 Revealing the Ground Dharmakaya 71

Determining the Identitylessness of Persons as Subjects 71

Determining the Identitylessness of Phenomena as Objects 85

Coarse and Subtle Considerations for Determining Emptiness 116

How All Phenomena Arise and Appear 124

The Point of Realizing the Emptiness of Phenomena 180

Epilogue 191

Afterword: New Frontiers in the Collaboration of Buddhism and Science 197

Glossary 209

Notes 231

Bibliography 245

Index 257

About the Translator 269

Editorial Reviews

“Fathoming the Mind lucidly focuses Buddhism’s present-day encounter with modernity on one of the most potent possibilities: that cognitive science is poised on the threshold of major revolution and the Buddhist worldview offers a profound opportunity to expand into radically new and necessary territory. This book contains a map of what Buddhist teachings about mind and reality can offer contemporary science. And Alan Wallace, with his deep understanding of both physical science and Buddhist philosophy and practice, is an exceptional guide.

David E. Presti

"This book invites us to enjoy an illuminating journey through the terrain of a classic Tibetan text on the nature and practice of insight meditation.

Like an experienced trekking guide who knows the territory well, Alan Wallace points out features of the landscape with easeful erudition and the deft use of analogy. Along the way, he comes up with all sorts of useful tools and materials just when the reader needs them—these being the words of Western scientists and philosophers, and Eastern sages and adepts, which he draws on with equal familiarity and adroitness."

Ajahn Amaro

"This is a fascinating book. Continuing his impressive unpacking of the legacy of Dudjom Lingpa, Alan Wallace has produced a fine contribution to the long history of oral commentary on source texts. His grasp of the subject matter is impressive, as is the way he weaves in references to Western thought and scientific inquiry that places Dudjom Lingpa’s text in a more relevant context. I highly recommend this book to all who are serious about having a mind and working with it."

Richard Barron (Chökyi Nyima)

"This is a fascinating book. Continuing his impressive unpacking of the legacy of Dudjom Lingpa, Alan Wallace has produced a fine contribution to the long history of oral commentary on source texts. His grasp of the subject matter is impressive, as is the way he weaves in references to Western thought and scientific inquiry that places Dudjom Lingpa’s text in a more relevant context. I highly recommend this book to all who are serious about having a mind and working with it."

Richard Barron (Chökyi Nyima)