Barry Kerzin - 27 Aug

Advance praise for

Ngrjunas Wisdom

With these luminous and carefully constructed explanations, Barry Kerzin offers us the vast and profound insights of his teachers on one of the most fundamental Buddhist texts elucidating the nature of reality, Ngrjunas famed Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way . With loving patience and enthusiasm, he helps us recognize the way suffering arises and guides us through the process to uproot its deep-seated causes through lucid reasoning and wisdom: a must-read for anyone who wishes to gain a genuine understanding of Buddhist philosophy and practice.

Matthieu Ricard, translator of Enlightened Vagabond and The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin

Venerable Barrys wonderful book on the Middle Way is especially valuable as his unique personal transmission of His Holiness the Dalai Lamas way of opening the door into Ngrjunas masterwork. Its twenty-seven critiques, deconstructing everything in the universe, from causation via self and nirva all the way to worldviews, are the arch pattern of the meditation on emptiness and compassion. Ven. Barry channels His Holiness and leads us right into it. His work is to be cherished.

Professor Robert Thurman, Columbia University

With guidance from classical commentaries and oral instructions of great Tibetan teachers, and relating these to decades of meditative reflection, Venerable Barry Kerzin offers a remarkable guide to the key insights and reasoning that are at the heart of Ngrjunas famed Middle Way philosophy. Thanks to this book, any serious Buddhist practitioner can now appreciate why the Tibetan tradition makes so much fuss about Ngrjuna and his wisdom.

Thupten Jinpa, principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and author of Self, Reality, and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy

Dr. Barry Kerzin articulates a crisp and clearheaded analysis of key concepts like emptiness, conventional and ultimate reality, and self for those of us who so easily muddy them. In Ngrjunas Wisdom he kindly offers us clarity to sweep away our confusion.

Daniel Goleman, author of A Force for Good: The Dalai Lamas Vision for the World

Ngrjunas Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way , the basis of Madhyamaka thought, is a profound but difficult philosophical text. One can work so hard to understand the ideas that the relevance to practice may not be apparent. Nonetheless, this text is indispensable to Mahyna Buddhist practice. In this volume, Barry Kerzin offers a discussion that is precise but highly readable, one that reflects Dr. Kerzins years of study with great Tibetan masters.

Jay Garfield, Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities, Smith College and the Harvard Divinity School

My longtime spiritual brother, the US doctor Barry Kerzin, has written a succinct book on Madhyamaka philosophy and its background, historical development, and critique of the different schools within a limited space of less than three hundred pages for general and seasoned readers. I am confident of its immense benefit to whoever goes through it, as it contains the wisdom of a great Tibetan Buddhist master, Gen Wangchen-la, whose depth and breadth of Buddhist knowledge and modern science was without limit. This book confidently traverses the terrain of philosophy from an Indo-Tibetan perspective that is closer to the concept of nonobjectivity in things well-known in quantum physics. I hope the readers would comprehend the wisdom of parallelism between emptiness and dependent arising from this work.

Tenzin Tsepag, English translator for His Holiness Dalai Lama

Barry Kerzin, a physician turned Tibetan Buddhist monk, brings alive key portions of the extraordinary treatise of the great Buddhist philosopher Ngrjuna, the Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way , in this accessible book. This is a practical guide to understanding one of the most important insights in the Buddhist tradition emptiness and helps the average reader appreciate the relevance of this realization to everyday life. A must-read for anyone interested in Buddhist philosophy or psychology.

Richard J. Davidson, director, Center for Healthy Minds, University of WisconsinMadison, coauthor of Altered Traits

I cannot speak authoritatively about a subject so deep and the pyrotechnics of its logic so incisive that I stand in awe at what the author has done under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his other teachers. But my impression is that Ngrjunas Wisdom is analytical meditation at its best a pointer for all who care deeply to recognize our habitual dualistic tendencies as intrinsically incomplete, inaccurate, and ignoring of what is most fundamental. Here is praj pramit , wisdom beyond wisdom, mapped out in its full expression, to whatever degree it is even possible to use words to point beyond words. Like the sun, be prepared to burn if you get too close. In this case, what will be illuminated and then incinerated are your attachments to anything, including who you think you are. And this cannot but be of benefit to all.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Falling Awake and The Healing Power of Mindfulness

I learned so much from this methodical, vernacular lesson in the Middle Way from one of the Dalai Lamas most trusted emissaries.

Fred de Sam Lazaro, correspondent, PBS NewsHour , and executive director, Undertold Stories Project

With loving patience and enthusiasm, [Barry Kerzin] helps us recognize the way suffering arises and guides us through the process to uproot its deep-seated causes through lucid reasoning and wisdom. A must-read for anyone who wishes to gain a genuine understanding of Buddhist philosophy and practice.

MATTHIEU RICARD, translator of Enlightened Vagabond and The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin

Venerable Barrys wonderful book on the Middle Way is especially valuable as his unique personal transmission of His Holiness the Dalai Lamas way of opening the door into Ngrjunas masterwork... Ven. Barry channels His Holiness and leads us right into it. His work is to be cherished.

PROFESSOR ROBERT THURMAN, Columbia University

Venerable Barry Kerzin offers a remarkable guide to the key insights and reasoning that are at the heart of Ngrjunas famed Middle Way philosophy. Thanks to this book any serious Buddhist practitioner can now appreciate why the Tibetan tradition makes so much fuss about Ngrjuna and his wisdom.

THUPTEN JINPA, principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and author of Self, Reality, and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy

Dr. Barry Kerzin articulates a crisp and clearheaded analysis of key concepts like emptiness, conventional and ultimate reality, and self for those of us who so easily muddy them. In Ngrjunas Wisdom he kindly offers us clarity to sweep away our confusion.

DANIEL GOLEMAN, author of A Force for Good:The Dalai Lamas Vision for the World

Here is praj pramit, wisdom beyond wisdom, mapped out in its full expression, to whatever degree it is even possible to use words to point beyond words.

JON KABAT-ZINN, author of Falling Awake and The Healing Power of Mindfulness

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2019 Barry Kerzin

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kerzin, Barry, author.