Customer Reviews

The Inner Science of Buddhist Practice: Vasubandhu's Summary of the Five Heaps with Commentary by Sthiramati (Tsadra Foundation)

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The Inner Science of Buddhist Practice: Vasubandhu's Summary of the Five Heaps with Commentary by Sthiramati presents English-language translations of two great texts by Indian Buddhist scholars: Vasubandhu's "Summary of the Five Heaps", and Sthiramati's commentary on Vasubandhu's root text. Additional appendices by translator and expert scholar of Buddhism Artemus B. Engle help the reader better appreciate this classic explanation of how the minds of all people, even at birth, hold instinctively ingrained predispositions that affect our perception, leading to such false beliefs such as the concept that entities persist indefinitely through time, that the personal pleasures one chases are truly satisfying, or that one's personal being is governed by a real self. The Inner Science of Buddhist Practice reveals how to reject such flawed beliefs, and reveals the doctrine of the Five Heaps - form, feeling conception, formations, and consciousness. An absolute "must-have" for intermediate to advanced Buddhist studies collections, highly recommended.

I love this book, "The Inner Science of Buddhist Practice". It is a good introduction to the Lam Rim Teachings (i.e., a description and a foundation for the Buddhist study and practice, which covers from the entry to the Path all along to the conscious realization of Buddhahood). In fact, I use it as a complement to the Lam Rim text of Gampopa ("The Jewel Ornament of Liberation", available in Amazon too). Together they make a great team of tools for the transformation of our traditional and compulsive construction of worldly reality (about and all around our ego), which is the main cause for our suffering, according to the fundamental Buddha teaching of the Four Noble Truth. Part One (chapters 1 to 4), are a course not only on Lam Rim Teachings, but a wonderful introduction to Buddhism itself, just from the fundamentals (karma, rebirth, suffering, Buddhist Refuge, renunciation, the practices of recollections, No-Self), to the descriptions of the Hinayana meditation practices (Shamata and Vipassana, quiescence and insight) as a preliminary to the Mahayana Practices (Great Compassion, Bodhicitta, No-Self and Vacuity, the Perfection of Wisdom). The Notes are abundant and very clear, almost another book on Buddhism by itself. One could say that "you get three Buddhist books for the price of one", which is helpful for middle and advanced students/practitioners alike. A Buddhist monk.