Contemplating Reality
By Andy Karr
Foreword by Dzogchen Ponlop
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Shambhala Publications04/10/2007Pages: 272Size: 5.5 x 8.5ISBN: 9781590304297DetailsThis book is for intermediate and advanced Buddhist practitioners who wish to deepen their understanding by joining practice with study of traditional ideas. It introduces the reader to contemplations that investigate a series of views of reality as they evolved in the Buddhist tradition. These views are explained in plain English, with contemporary metaphors and examples to bring out their meaning for modern Buddhists. Quotations from both historical and living meditation masters and scholars are presented as examples of key principles. Topics include
- Egolessness
- Appearances and reality
- Methods of investigation
- Enlightenment
- Tenets of different schools through the centuries
- The root of compassion
- The origin of thoughts
Guided exercises encourage the reader to trust in experiential understanding through deep contemplation of complex concepts. The book is structured as a guide for the reader’s journey.RelatedCheck items to add to the cart orAuthor BioAndy Karr is a teacher, author, and photographer whose works explore profound and penetrating insights into dharma and mind. At an early age, he dreamed of becoming a Zen master—as he describes, probably the result of reading Zen in the Art of Archery as a teenager and watching too many samurai movies. His interests led him to read Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind and to train under Shunryu Suzuki Roshi at the San Francisco Zen Center and under Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Boulder, Colorado.
Andy attended Trungpa Rinpoche’s three-month seminary in 1976, where intense periods of meditation practice alternated with intense periods of study. The message for him was clear: practice and study go together like the two wings of a bird. This became the guiding principle for his own journey. After moving to Paris in 1979, Andy cofounded the first Shambhala Centre in France.
After Trungpa Rinpoche passed away, Andy and his family moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1993 he began studying Mahamudra and the progressive stages of view and meditation with Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. He became a senior teacher in Khenpo Rinpoche’s sangha and also taught at Gampo Abbey’s monastic college, including extended courses on Chandrakirti’s Introduction to the Middle Way and Shantarakshita’s Adornment of the Middle Way.
Andy is the author of Into the Mirror and Contemplating Reality and the coauthor of The Practice of Contemplative Photography. He continues to teach meditation, the Mahayana view, and Mahamudra. To learn more about Andy’s work, go to www.andykarrauthor.com.Praise"Karr is a friendly teacher of difficult material: exercises offer ways of helping students reach conclusions; demanding chapters of philosophical explication are relieved by quirky 'interludes' of poetry and comedy; and appendixes contain helpful biographies of historical Buddhist teachers and a chart of philosophical systems. . . .Contemplating Reality will challenge the advanced student of Buddhism interested in the historical and intellectual richness of this wisdom tradition." —Publishers Weekly
"This book clearly introduces the main points of Buddhist philosophical inquiry and the key methods for how to contemplate them and gain certainty in them." —Dzogchen Ponlop, author of Wild Awakening
"This book will be tremendously helpful for anyone who encounters it." —Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, author of The Joy of Living
"I can't emphasize enough during this transitional time as Buddhism is being established in the West that at least some of us focus on the Buddhist view. I welcome this book as a sign of the dawn of appreciation of Buddhist wisdom, not just for its exotic aspects but as a philosophy that is up-to-date and even more relevant now than ever." —Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, author of What Makes You Not a Buddhist
"A jewel of a book, introducing contemplative meditation in a way that's both close to Tibetan tradition and accessible to a Western meditator. This guide provides the missing link that allows us to deeply personalize the Buddhist teachings." —Judith Simmer-Brown, author of Dakini's Warm Breath
Selected Reader Reviews