The following is an excerpt from the second revised edition of Meditation on Emptiness by Jeffrey Hopkins.
Preface to the New Edition
Dependent-Arising is the heart and core of the Buddha’s teaching. It is the key to meditation on emptiness. The great Indian sage Nāgārjuna explains dependent-arising in his famous Sixty Stanzas of Reasoning with the following words:
Tat tat prāpya yadutpannaṃ notpannaṃ tat svabhāvataḥ
That which is produced having met this and that [collection
of causes and conditions] is not inherently produced.
But what do these words mean? Why are they important? Are they still relevant? I have been studying Nāgārjuna and other sages for over six decades and have found their ideas to hold a profound and immense transformative power, capable of changing the way our minds work to an almost unimaginable degree. But before we dig deeper into the explanations presented in this book, let me tell you where my fascination with dependent-arising and emptiness arose, how it led to writing Meditation on Emptiness and more than sixty other books about Dharma.
From early childhood I was often drawn into wondering how things exist. Very young, looking over the handlebars of my tricycle, I was doing an analysis of motion, trying to figure out what the wheel would be presently going over. Also, I remember meditating on the mantle above the fireplace in our living room as being designated in dependence upon a collection of parts. Later, in the fifth grade, we were taught cause and effect. Cause and effect being one of the meanings of dependent-arising, that grade school lesson had a tremendous impact on me, drawing me into all sorts of thoughts. I have many more such memories, yet my life had to take many turns before I could direct my mind toward these matters more seriously. Still these early analyses stirred something in me.
It was in my college years, when I entered Harvard in 1958, that I started to meditate again. I often meditated on the sky, practiced visualizations, and did dark retreats; but despite moving experiences, I wasn’t satisfied. I was looking for something more. A close friend who wanted to help had heard about a Buddhist monastery in New Jersey. We traveled there and saw Ge-she Wangyal, a skillful Kalmyk Mongolian adept-scholar who had studied in Tibet for thirty-five years. Upon my second visit I asked, “What is emptiness?” He teased, “You should know what shūnyatā [the Sanskrit word for emptiness] is. You are at Harvard.” Then he taught me many meditations on compassion, and later also about emptiness. Soon, I moved to the monastery and stayed for five years. At the monastery, I learned Tibetan and practiced forms of meditation that are known throughout the vast Tibetan cultural region. Since then, I have spent my life studying, practicing, translating, and teaching Tibetan texts.
After my stay at the monastery, I enrolled in the doctoral program of Buddhist studies at the University of Wisconsin. After extensive study with many exceptional Tibetan scholars, I defended my dissertation in 1973, which formed the basis for the first edition of the book Meditation on Emptiness in 1983. The second printing was released in 1996, and now fifty years since the completion of the dissertation, I am thrilled to have completed a new edition of Meditation on Emptiness. Immersion in the book has moved me as I hope it will move you. The topics inspired fifty years of meditation and publication and are alive in me now, more than ever.
What I wrote four decades ago in the first published edition of Meditation on Emptiness stands: “This book on Prāsaṅgika-Mādhyamika is written with the intent of presenting not only what emptiness is but also how emptiness is realized in meditation, so that emptiness may become more than a concept of abstract philosophy.” To bring meditation on emptiness close to you, let me offer this advice: Be happy to pick up a morsel of insight amid a complex argument. Pick up what you can and move on—and come back again and again. Each time you will discover more.
In Memory of Professor Jeffrey Hopkins
1940–2024
I met Jeffrey in 1969 while he was still a graduate student working on his dissertation, which over a period of years and some revision gave rise to his seminal work, Meditation on Emptiness. It is a remarkable text, made more so by the fact that it was written in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a time when there was nothing at all like it in print. Also remarkable is that, in order to show the background for the presentation of the philosophical system at the apex of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as studied by those in the Ge-luk lineage, he included a thorough presentation of tenet systems that includes all the schools of the Buddhist tradition as understood by that lineage.
Remarkable as this is, more remarkable still is that the book has withstood the test of time and is yet again being republished. I helped to edit the first edition for Wisdom Publications, and I relied on it as I wrote my own dissertation some years later. It was and remains an extraordinary text.
Jeffrey passed away in July 2024, not living long enough to see the new edition published, but he had seen a prepublication copy that he proudly shared with friends during the last weeks of his life. Despite serious health challenges in his last years, Jeffrey’s dedication to advancing his lifework remained unwavering. Even during this time, he continued to work on translations and remained engaged in teaching, leading classes regularly until the very last week of his life. His contribution to field of Tibetan Buddhist Studies was immense and his legacy remains in the many works he published during his very productive life.
Elizabeth Napper, PhD
"With one voice all the Mahāyāna masters proclaim that analysis of objects, and not mere withdrawal of the mind from them, is the path to liberation."
1 | Purpose and Motivation
Sources
Jang-kya’s Presentation of Tenets
Ngag-wang-leg-dan’s oral teachings
Jam-yang-zhay-pa’s Great Exposition of Tenets
The Perfection of Wisdom Sutras set forth emptiness as the final mode of existence of all phenomena. Nāgārjuna explained the approaches to that emptiness, and Buddhapālita and Chandrakīrti lucidly commented on Nāgārjuna’s explanations in exact accordance with his thought. It is necessary to rely on the perfection of wisdom as these masters explain it, not only to attain omniscience, but even to attain liberation from cyclic existence. One who wishes to become a Hearer Superior, Solitary Realizer Superior, or Bodhisattva Superior must rely on this perfection of wisdom. The Eight Thousand Stanza Perfection of Wisdom Sutra (Aṣhṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) says:
Subhuti, one who wishes to realize the enlightenment of a
Hearer is to learn just this perfection of wisdom. Subhuti,
one who wishes to realize the enlightenment of a Solitary
Realizer is to learn just this perfection of wisdom. The
Bodhisattva, the Great Being who wishes to realize the
supreme perfect complete enlightenment, is also to learn
just this perfection of wisdom.
Nāgārjuna’s works teach that realization of the subtle emptiness of all phenomena is a prerequisite for the path of liberation from cyclic existence. His Precious Garland says:
As long as the aggregates are conceived,
So long thereby does the conception of I exist.
One cannot free oneself from cyclic existence merely through cognition of the coarse selflessness of the person. One must realize the final subtle suchness of the person and of the mental and physical aggregates.
"It is meditation on emptiness that puts an end to the elaborations of misconception."
One must eradicate the innate non-analytical intellect that misconceives the nature of the person and other phenomena. It is not sufficient merely to withdraw the mind from conceiving a self of persons and of phenomena, or merely to stop the mind’s wandering to objects, for these do not constitute realization of emptiness. If they did, then deep sleep and fainting would absurdly involve realization of emptiness. Āryadeva says:
When selflessness is seen in objects,
The seeds of cyclic existence are destroyed.
Chandrakīrti says in his Supplement to (Nāgārjuna’s) ‘Treatise on the Middle’ (VI. 116):
[Extreme] conceptions arise with [the conception of inherently
existent] phenomena.
It has been thoroughly analyzed how phenomena do not [inherently]
exist;
When [the conception of an inherently existent] phenomenon
does not exist.
These [extreme conceptions] do not arise, just as there is no fire
when there is no fuel.
Bhāvaviveka says:
With the mind in meditative equipoise,
Wisdom analyzes in this way
The entities of these phenomena
Apprehended conventionally.
Shāntideva says:
When one has searched [for these] as realities,
Who desires and what is desired?
Dharmakīrti says:
Without disbelieving the object of this [misconception]
It is impossible to abandon [misconceiving it].
With one voice all the Mahāyāna masters proclaim that analysis of objects, and not mere withdrawal of the mind from them, is the path to liberation.
One must analyze well whether the inherent existence of phenomena, as it is conceived by the innate non-analytical intellect, exists or not. Through reasoning and scriptural citation one must ascertain that objects do not exist as conceived and penetratingly understand the falseness of inherent existence. It is very important to analyze again and again with discriminating wisdom. The King of Meditative Stabilizations Sutra (Samādhirāja) says:
If the selflessness of phenomena is analyzed
And if this analysis is cultivated,
It causes the effect of attaining nirvana.
Through no other cause does one come to peace.
The Cloud of Jewels Sutra (Ratnamegha) says, ‘Analyzing through special insight and realizing the lack of inherent existence constitute understanding of the signless.’ The Questions of Brahmā Sutra (Brahmāparipṛchchhā) says, ‘The intelligent are those who correctly analyze phenomena individually.’
The great Mahāyāna masters taught many forms of reasoning, directed toward the ascertainment of suchness, in order to illuminate the path of liberation for the fortunate and not for the sake of mere disputation. Tsong-kha-pa says, ‘All of the analytical reasonings set forth in Nāgārjuna’s Treatise on the Middle (Madhyamakashāstra) are only for the sake of sentient beings’ attaining liberation.’ The wish to attain liberation from cyclic existence is the motivation for entering into analysis of phenomena and attaining realization of emptiness.
"Be happy to pick up a morsel of insight amid a complex argument. Pick up what you can and move on—and come back again and again. Each time you will discover more."
Among Buddhist practitioners, those of lesser capacity enter into religious practice for the sake of attaining a happy migration in a future life. They have seen the sufferings of bad migrations and seek to avoid pain through endeavor at virtue. One cannot make effort at religious practice merely for the sake of improving the present lifetime and be considered a practitioner of Buddhism; at least, a Buddhist’s motivation is aimed at attaining a happy migration as a human or a god in a future life. Others, who have greater capacity, seek to leave cyclic existence completely. They see that the attainment of a happy migration in the next life is not sufficient because they must still grow old, become sick, die, and be reborn again in accordance with their former deeds. Their motivation for practice is the wish to attain liberation from cyclic existence for themselves. Still others, who have even higher capacity, realize the extent of their own suffering, infer the suffering of others, and practice so that they may become free from cyclic existence and attain Buddhahood in order to help all sentient beings to do the same.
Continue Reading
Jeffrey Hopkins’s Meditation on Emptiness is a comprehensive and in-depth survey of the philosophical underpinnings of the Dalai Lama’s Geluk tradition written by one of the founding figures of Tibetan Buddhist studies in the West.
In this classic work of Buddhist studies scholarship, Jeffrey Hopkins—one of the world’s foremost scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism—offers a clear exposition of the Prāsaṇgika-Madhyamaka view of emptiness as presented in the Geluk 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 scholasticism, these classic teachings can be vivid and utterly practical.
Treating subjects ranging from the progressive path of meditation to the nature of emptiness and how it can be directly realized, this wide-ranging book guides the reader on an itinerary of intellectual and spiritual discovery, unpacking the distinctive Geluk synthesis of scholastic and meditative practices. The first study in any Western language to provide a comprehensive treatment of the doctrines and practices of a Tibetan Buddhist school, this book is indispensable for those wishing to delve deeply into Buddhist thought and its practical relevance.
| There are no products in your cart. |