Gen Lamrimpa

Gen Lamrimpa, born in Tibet in 1934, spent most of his life in meditative retreat in Dharamsala, India. He is the author of Calming the Mind, one of the clearest books in English on shamatha meditation.

B. Alan Wallace

B. ALAN WALLACE has authored, translated, edited, and contributed to more than forty books on Tibetan Buddhism and culture, as well as on the interface between science and religion, and he has spent many years in solitary meditation retreat. Having trained for many years as a Buddhist monk in India, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, and the United States, he then earned a BA in physics and the philosophy of science and later a PhD in religious studies. After teaching in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he founded the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and more recently the Center for Contemplative Research.

"Written by a genuine Buddhist master, How to Realize Emptiness gives accurate directions to explore the nature of reality and come to the correct view of the Middle Way." —Ven. Thubten Chodron, author of Buddhism for Beginners

"Not quite emptiness made easy—an impossibility—but it is at least emptiness made comprehensible." —Dharma Life

"An important commentary clarifying the Madhyamika view and synthesizing venerated scriptural references, enhancing understanding of the view of emptiness. Ven. Gen Lamrimpa's elucidation reflects his remarkable practice and life." —Tenzin Kacho, resident teacher of Thubten Shedrup Ling and Buddhist Chaplain with the United States Air Force Academy

"The teachings are profound and clearly guide one toward realizing the nature of emptiness. . . . Each chapter is a gem detailing in clear language the apparent nature of ignorance and its dependence on the individual for its existence." —Inner Directions

"Gen Lamrimpa has a down-to-earth approach to this difficult subject which is immediately accessible to beginning students, further clarified by B. Alan Wallace's translation. . . . Gen Lamrimpa's teachings, which combine analysis with practical exercises, are redolent with compassion and insight." —Mandala Magazine

"Some of the material is rather technical and merits several readings, but it is effort that pays off. In less than one hundred pages, Gen Lamrimpa manages to give the reader . . . a practical presentation of the reasoning commonly employed in Tibetan Buddhism to experience the way in which all things exist as dependently related events. In addition to the scholarly presentation of emptiness, this book also contains a brief but illuminating biography of Gen Lamrimpa and two appendixes; one on Dzogchen and the other on Madhyamaka and Dzogchen. That a traditionally trained Gelugpa scholar monk should take time out to discuss Dzogchen is refreshing and shows that Gelugpas are not necessarily in disagreement with the approach of Dzogchen. Perhaps it is not so surprising when one considers that Gen Lamrimpa is not just a scholar monk but a meditator with decades of experience much of it in retreat." —Buddhism Now