In this major work, Jeffrey Hopkins, on e of the world's foremost scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, offers a clear exposition of the Prasangika-Madhyamaka view of emptiness as presented in the Ge-luk-ba tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In bringing this remarkable and complex philosophy to life, he describes the meditational practices by which emptiness can be realized and shows throughout that, far from being merely abstract, these teachings can be vivid and utterly practical. Presented in six parts, this book is indispensable for those wishing to delve deeply into Buddhist thought.

About The Author

Jeffrey Hopkins

Jeffrey Hopkins was Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia, where he taught Tibetan studies and Tibetan language for more than thirty years. He received a BA magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1963, trained for five years at the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America (now the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center) in New Jersey, and received a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1973. From 1979 to 1989 he served as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s chief interpreter into English on lecture tours in the U.S., Canada, Southeast Asia, Great Britain, and Switzerland. He published more than fifty books, including Meditation on Emptiness, a seminal work of English language scholarship on Tibetan Madhyamaka thought, as well as translations of works by Tsongkhapa, Dolpopa, and His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. At the University of Virginia he founded programs in Buddhist Studies and Tibetan Studies and served as Director of the Center for South Asian Studies for twelve years. Jeffrey passed away on July 3, 2024.

Product Details

Publisher: Wisdom Publications (April 1, 2014)
Length: 992 pages
ISBN13: 9780861717057

Raves and Reviews

"One of the great classics... Few subsequent works can be said to equal it in profundity and accessibility."

– Jose Ignacio Cabezon, University of California, Santa Barbara

"It brought for the first time a sophisticated account of Tibetan interpretrations of Madhyamaka, which was an enormous resource for those interested in Buddhist philosophy."

– Georges Dreyfus

"An important and invaluble work."

– Tibet Journal

"Hopkins succeeds in bringing this remarkable and complex philosophy to life."

– MLBD Newsletter

"An essential book for anyone interested in Tibetan Buddhism or Madhyamika philosophy...and an inexhaustible resource for the study of the Dharma and a major contribution to Buddhist studies."

– Buddhist Studies Review

"This is an extremely practical book. Mr. Hopkins' mind is so infused with Buddhist teachings that he readily translates arcane concepts into practical solutions for the myriad problems of daily existence."

– The Beacon

"A rich, comprehensive treatment of emptiness in the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition by the remarkable Western scholar and frequent English translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This is still the standard text on the subject, twenty-five years after its initial publication."

– Rev. Danny Fisher