Customer Reviews

Heart of Wisdom: The Essential Wisdom Teachings of Buddha

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the clearest and most accessible commentary on this, Buddha's highest teachings, that I have ever encountered. This is a remarkable, beautiful book. Geshes Kelsang is truly a rare and precious jewel of a teacher.

In Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's book Heart of Wisdom, he gives a commentary to the famous Essence of Wisdom Sutra, explaining the very essence of the perfection of wisdom teachings. Geshe Kelsangs Gyatso explains that by studying, contemplating, and meditating on the Sutra itself and his commentary, we can gain a perfect understanding of the nature of reality, which will help us overcome the problems and difficulties we experience in our daily life, as well as overcome obstacles preventing us from realizing our full spiritual potential.
The subject of emptiness, the ultimate nature of reality, is not an easy thing to understand. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso reveals the explicit and implicit meanings of the Essence of Wisdom Sutra in a way that is accessible and applicable in today's modern world.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to contemplate deeply, how things really exist.

Geshe Kelsang's books are written with uppermost profound clarity and wisdom. This book is a rare and precious jewel, it is truly profound!

This book explains Buddha's most profound teaching perfectly. This is the best modern day explanation of the Heart Sutra.

The bullets for this book say things like Are things as solid and real as they appear? Realize the truth behind appearances. Discover the dream-like nature of our world. Cultivate the wisdom that liberates the mind. I couldn't resist reading the book after this, and I was not even slightly let down - the author delivers answers. It requires careful reading, but is well worth the effort - showing how we are the architects of our own reality on every single level. Quantum physicists would love this book. So would anyone who is really seeking to understand the relationship between our mind and our world.

This is a very clear explanation of Buddhist emptiness according to the Madyamika-Prasangika view. It is simple, powerful and succinct. No excessive or flowery words. Straight to the point.

I feel that this book is an expression of the great compassion and kindness of the author in wanting us to realize this profound reality quickly and thus be free of every suffering.

This book is not to be regurgitated at parties to impress our friends with how much spiritual knowledge we possess but to actually understand the wisdom realizing emptiness with our heads and then, finally with our hearts. Then we can help others in the same way. How wonderful.

This book is very special to me, I will never forget the feelings that developed after studying it, I come back to it all the time.

Yet another in a long line of books by Kelsang Gyatso, this time commenting on the Heart Sutra. As is always the case with his books, the reviews are across-the-board 5-stars. Seeing the reviewers' other postings reveals a steady diet of Gyatso books, all with gushing 5-star reviews. I can't help but wonder what it is that they are actually reviewing (the book or the author)?

FYI... I bought this book by Gyatso (and many others) when a member of Gyatso's New Kadampa Tradition. After April 22, 2008 (Google the date and the Dalai Lama), I came to realize the true nature of NKT and walked away from it. It is because I was once like the other 5-star reviewers that I can see both sides of the coin and as a result, know the answer to the question posed in the first paragraph.

Considering the massive volume of other books commenting on the Heart Sutra, reading any one of those versus this nonsense would be preferable to get an authentic understanding. The author of this title is the same character who claimed swatting a mosquito in anger will result in eons in the hell realm in his New Meditation Handbook. There is no discussion of karma or purification. He has a tendency to ignore some sides of an important issue like this.

The presently reviewed title suffers from the same problem. Comparing this interpretation to genuine and authentic Buddhist authors will instantly reveal the inadequacies of this volume. It is "pop" Buddhism for the "new age" Western Buddhist mind and not a serious commentary.