Karma Chagme's Naked Awareness reviews the spiritual beliefs of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, considering the two phases of Dzoghchen practice and perspectives on consciousness and philosophy.

This book is the second collaboration between Gelukba scholar and meditator Gen Lamrimpa and B. Alan Wallace. The first, Calming the Mind, remains the single most helpful book on meditation practice that I have read. While that book focused on stablizing meditation called Calm Abiding, this book focuses on the discursive analytic meditation on empiness known as Special Insight. Also included are two very interesting brief essays on the Nyingma tantric meditation technique Dzog Chen.

Realizing Emptiness is a very technical work and will be of particular benefit to those who have some familiarity with Madhyamaka, especially the Gelukba formulation of this philosophy. For those who do this book is an absolute treasure. Realizing Emptiness fills a conspicuous void in the western scholarly discussion of Madhyamaka -- namely, it contains a valuable discussion about how it is that conceptual thought relates to afflictive ignorance. This occupies the first forty pages or so, and the rest of the book goes through the technique and reasonings on emptiness.

This book is a guide to the development of tranquil abiding/meditative quiescence/samatha as taught in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. There is really nothing new here that cannot be found in standard lamrim texts, but the subject matter is fleshed out somewhat in a fairly nice fashion. Its main drawback stems from the conception of the book, which is just a reworking of a series of talks the author gave to a group of Westerners at the beginning of a year-long meditation retreat aimed at developing tranquil abiding. As such, some of what it has to say may not apply to the reader. Also, it will not address some of the peculiar problems any reader might encounter if they themselves set out to do such a retreat. Those wishing to develop tranquil abiding themselves will need to do their own retreat under the guidance of a teacher, but perhaps this book could prove useful by giving them the bare outlines of what it is they are to do and why. An added bonus is the gorgeous tangka on the cover.

Shamatha meditation, a Tibetan name for all meditations that settle, focus, and concentrate the mind, is not unique to Buddhism. In fact in many ways part of Buddhism's fresh approach is that it took this particular kind of meditation and in a sense "secularized" it - essentially removing some of the religious symbolism and esoterism that surrounded the development of concentration in India. Shamatha meditation is unique in that it's "contentless" and provides the foundation for all other religious practices.

I found this book to be a bit of a disappointment. I suppose if you want an over-view of scientific thought on the brain, then this might be interesting. The Dalai Lama mostly asked questions and the scientists spoke about science. Only once did a scientist ask the Dalai Lama a point about Buddhism, and then it was only to set him up to be debunked. The scientists just can't accept any view point that is not materialist. They don't even understand other viewpoints except as superstition. So there is no real dialogue.

Actually, I didn't really expect a dialogue when I bought this. I was hoping for some clarity and insight into Buddhist thoughts on consciousness, using Western terminology. No such luck.

Gave it a few stars because everyone was intelligent and articulate.

This book explains in a very clear and accesible way what are the differents viewpoints between Neuroscience and the Bhuddist religion. It discusses how the mind is conformed, how it learns, and the way it reorganizes itself.

This book is a very important door for the future of the humanity.

How often do you here "Save the whales" anymore? During the 1980's it was popular to care about whales. Now it seems just as popular to care about anything Tibetan. Especially if it's related to Buddhism and the celebrity monk with the shaved head and leather european shoes (perhaps loving kindness and the vow to liberate all sentient beings does not apply to cows). This text is bearable. A much more enjoyable and rewarding read is "Zen Speaks". I am not a Buddhist, or a follower of anyone except my own intelligence. However I admit when a book is good. The Bodhicaryavatara is an less than average book in my arrogant yet honest opinion (I have read two versions). One plus of reading this text for the average person is to be able to unintentionally amuse people with terms such as "Awakening Mind". Oh joy, one more parrot repeating half understood nonsense! I find it odd for a tradition which emphasizes impermanence and non attachement, like the Tibetan Buddhists do in theory, to still grasp at and mourn Tibet when it has been gone for over 40 years. Maybe they need to read this text more than I do. It also would not hurt to look at a modern recognized political map of the world and try to find Tibet.

This translation of the Bodhicaryavatara certainly consitutes the highest quality English translation. The coupling of the Sanskrit and the Tibetan versions provides a definitive accuracy in the meaning of the text. The Sanskrit version alone is cryptic from time to time so that relying on the Tibetan version is very helpful, through its closeness to the western way of expressing things.

Although i feel this translation is the best English one, this version should not be used as a first version of the Bodhicaryavatara by newcomers. The translation from Crosby and Skilton is better suited for people not used to the context and the meaning of this text...thanks to its many excellent comments.

Probably the most inspirational book I have ever read. If you have made your way through any of the Dalai Lama's books, especially "Transforming the Mind," you will notice that he quotes Shantideva constantly. It's great to be able to go back and refer to this book for further insight.

Compassion is a path that takes constant work in order to walk steadily upon it. Even then, it's a pretty rough road to travel in the beginning. It is my hope that books such as these will open some minds to that path, and also to the plight of the Tibetan people. Wiping this culture from the face of the earth would be a great detriment to all of humanity.

This book was a major disappointment to me. If I could have looked at the book for 5 minutes in a bookstore, instead of ordering it "blind" over the internet, I wouldn't have bought it. From the reviews of this book and some articles I've seen by Wallace on the web, plus the fact that Wallace has an excellent bio and is a fellow physicist, I was expecting something different than what I found here, something more honest and less radical in it's view of reality. Even the title of this book is deceptive since Wallace seems to be arguing that reality is just a illusion and he advocates instead a bizzare anti-realism. But the book is dishonest (or at least not as honest as it could be) in other ways too: he selectively quotes various famous 20th century physicists giving the false impression they support his radical views of reality, he gives the impression that there are multiple equally viable theories in all major areas of science, and he uses as his straw-man the most atheistic and reductionistic scientific materialism as the alternative to his radical epistemology. Most scientists I believe would reject both scientific materialism and Wallace's anti-realism, and instead subscribe to a non-reductionist critical realism. Yet Wallace never mentions critical realism.

Note that "critical realism" is a philosophical view of science and/or theology which asserts that our knowlege of the world refers to the way things really are, but in a partial fashion which will be revised as knowlege developes. Some of the most articulate advocates of critical realism are the scientist / theologians John Polkinghorne, Ian Barbour and Arthur Peacocke, and all strongly advocate critical realism as a "bridge" between science and religion. (See their books, especially Polkinghorne's "Belief in God in an Age of Science.") In addition, N.T. Wright advocates a critical realist approach to understanding history. (See Vol. 1 of his 5 volume epic.) Although critical realism is indeed congenial to some sort of monotheistic belief, and all four of the critical realists I've mentioned are in fact Christians, I see no reason why one couldn't be a critical realist and a Buddhist or an atheist, or whatever.

Allan Wallace would I think agree with John Polkinghorne when he says there appears to be no logically inevitable way to proceed from epistemology to ontology, from what we can know about entities to what they are actually like. That can be resolved only by an act of metaphysical decision. And I think they would both further agree that such an act cannot be logically determined a priori, but it can be rationally defended a posteri, by an appeal to the fruitful success of the strategy adopted. But this is where Wallace with his anti-realism, parts company with Polkinghore and most scientists. It appears to me that the decision made by the vast majority of working scientists, consciously or unconsciously, is to opt for critical realism, which (Polkinghorne defines as) "being the attempt to maximize the correlation between epistemological input and ontological belief." (Polkinghorne likes to say: "Epistemology models ontology.") It is Polkinghorne's belief (and I share it) that the cumulative success of science provides the necessary support for the pursuit of this strategy. This critical realism stategy appears much more believable and scientifically fruitful as an epistemology that Wallace's anti-realism. Indeed, this may be the main reason why science developed and flourished where realist philosophies / relgions have been accepted (the West) and not where anti-realist philosophies / religions have been accepted (the East). But unfortunately Wallace doesn't discuss this either.

So unless you are a fan of bizarre anti-realist philosophies, I recommend you avoid this book.

Although science has provided us with a wealth of knowledge about the physical world, it has reduced life to an epiphenomenal by-product of complex configurations of chemicals, therefore formulating a new article of faith: all of reality boils down to matter and energy, subject to the mindless, immutable laws of nature. However, Wallace advocates that a science that fails to investigate the subjective mental events is unnatural, therefore may be misleading. His proposed instrument to overcome this barrier and enrich science is the use of refined introspection, let the mind probe the mind, cultivate states of awareness that themselves transcend language, concepts, and sensory experience.

The first half of the book concentrates on the latest development of physics and the diversity of opinions concerning the nature of physical reality. Wallace debates on "scientific realism" versus "instrumentalis" and the flaws of each one (the former is unfounded and the latter is impotent). With a clear narrative (and sometimes repetitive) the author discusses concepts such as transcendent realism, retroduction, reification, principle of unknowability, anthropics, among others. The second half is dedicated to the explanation of the "centrist view," a concept developed by Wallace and based on Buddhism. The centrist view might be called conceptual reality and it fundamentally challenges the realist ontological assumptions underlying virtually all of Western science.

The is great, great reading! Thought provoking to say the least! The concept that nothing can be found that exists in its own nature independent of our conceptual designation, is in itself a challenge. You may not agree, you may be skeptical, you might have questions and doubts, but one thing is for certain: you neurons will be put to work!

This must be the clearest book yet on the relationship between science and Buddhism. The writer shows that the materialistic assumptions of science are untenable and lucidly explains some difficult Buddhist concepts.

When they read accounts of western near-death experience to the Dalai Lama all he had to say was that he didn't believe them because the people who experienced them reported being greeted by dead relatives and dead relatives "would have to have taken rebirth in some realm long before." He went on to say that this was "only barely possible." He didn't claim to have any firsthand knowledge of this whatsoever, and in fact when once asked if he could point to anyone he actually knew who had attained enlightenment all he could say was: "There MAY be someone in caves somewhere."

He also didn't buy that the light people see in near death experiences was the same as the "clear light of the void." He politely only said they could be considered "analagous" or something of that sort. And when asked in this book to point to even just very advanced meditators who could go into the "clear light" at will, he only said it would be very difficult because "they are all so scattered" and also that such people are uncooperative because they are "stubborn."

So, honestly, at this point one might as well be talking with the Pope or a methodist minister in the sense that here is someone with a belief system who never seriously questions it. In other words, his belief system is "gospel" which is of course a way of saying it's beyond question. Ok, everyone get angry at me, because I'm asking if we in the west haven't overrated the tibetans because of their huge reputation for esoteric knowledge bestowed on them by such questionable people as Madam Blavatsky and Gurdjieff. Thankyou and I apologize to those of you who are now angry because I have questioned the unquestionable.

Several moderm day researchers spend a week with the Dalia Lama and discuss the topics of the books title. The material delivered from the Dalai Lama himself is the best part of this book.

Can you imagine a conversation about the essence of art taking place between, oh, say, Picasso and art therapists who treat mental patients, and some chemists who concoct formulaes for oil paints? Something like that is taking place here. The title alone is enough to pique your interest, but the content is less than secret-divulging. If you're not a neurologist,or a specialist in a related area,then much of the material presented by the neurologist will be for all practical purposes useless. If you're not familiar with the basic assumptions of esoteric buddhist psychology, then much of what HH Dalai Lama has to say will sound like so much dogma or articles of faith. I know next to nothing about brain sciences, but am academically acquainted with the buddhist conception of reality, so I found what the Dalai Lama had to say both interesting and amusing. Interesting, because he speaks as plainly as he can about things that are usually wrapped in some hairy buddhist language. Amusing, becuase the Dalai Lama would show utmost courtesy in listening to all the dry academic presentations, which even I found somewhat tedious, and then offer his views about the matter at hand by often beginning with what sounds like a gentle correction rather than a positing of difference of perspective only. I paraphrase from memory: "Well, your numbers and theories are all very nice, but no, it's actually like this." Some of the discussions on REM, and animal responses to dream states are interesting, but just merely interesting. Better on the Discovery channel. Much of the philosopher Charles Taylor's presentations concerning the Western/Christian conception of the Self is reliable but elementary. And dealing with the subject matter at hand, even an eminent philosopher can do only so much with Ratio alone. The book is of some value if one is willing to be open to the possibility that the Dalai Lama may be speaking of things that are real but not measurable, at least not with knobs and dials. Not yet. He never mentions it specifically in the book, but the idea of rebirth and the attendant conditions are indirectly there, for example when he questions the authenticity of the phenomenon of seeing one's departed ones in a near-death experience. He says, "Maybe the person is hallucinating at that point or projecting a wish. They (the loved ones who departed long ago) would have found new bodies by then." Taken as an record of an encounter with the Dalai Lama, this book sheds some light into that aspect of the man that won't show up when he is on Larry King or speaking of compassion to the multitude in Central Park. The guy is a professional in his own field, after all, and he knows his chops. Here, refreshingly enough, he sheds some of his avuncular "hey, be cool, people!" image and divulges some of his professional knowledge at a speed and intensity of delivery considerably higher than the mass media have shown him to be capable.