Customer Reviews

Ocean of Nectar: The True Nature of All Things

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

 

 

With characteristic clarity and insight, the author has presented a very profound subject in an extremely straightforward way. This book provides a comprehensive explanation of the Bodhisattva's path to enlightenment. Guided by his own complete experience of the subject, Geshe Kelsang skillfully explains Buddha's ultimate intention, the subtle view of the "middle way" or Madhyamika.

I feel it's difficult to read this book too many times. In a word, this book is deep ... very deep. "Ocean of Nectar" is a delight to study and learn from.

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's Ocean of Nectar, is the first complete commentary in English to the famous Buddhist text, Guide to the Middle Way by Chandrakirti. Guide to the Middle Way is regarded to this day as the principal text on emptiness, the ultimate nature of reality.

In Geshe Kelsang's completely new and authoratative translation of Chandrakirti's root text, he explains clearly and completely, the philisophical reasoning establishing Buddha's most profound view of the middle way, a term that means: anything that is free from the two extremes of existence and non-existence. These different reasonings are indispensable in improving our ability to cut the root of our ignorance and understand the selflessness of all phenomena.

Not only does Geshe Kelsang provide the reader with a faultless presentation of the most profound view of emptiness, he also gives a clear explanation of the stages of the vast path.

I recommend this book to the serious student interested in improving their knowledge, understanding, and experience of emptiness, the ultimate nature of reality. This is an advanced text on the subject of emptiness, so I would not recommend this to a beginner. For someone wanting to learn what emptiness is, I would recommend one of Geshe Kelsang's other books that include the subject such as Transform Your Life, or Joyful Path to Good Fortune.

This book is the definitive guide to the ultimate nature of reality.

There is at least one reviewer who thinks this is a bit too sectarian in its approach. Who cares! The beauty of the broad availablity of ancient and modern commentaries on the esoteric Dharma-teachings is a great blessing. Those who have an intellect capable of understanding such deep concepts as set out by Chandakirti in the "Guide to the Middle Way" are quite capable of extracting the wheat from the chaff.

There is enough wheat in this book to satisy most enquiring Dharma-minds. The book is eminently readable and is a more than useful addition to a Dharma-library.

Four and a half stars would be fairer, but at least this 5-rating balances another reviewer's 3 to some extent.

From the "humble monk" comes Ocean of Nectar, which would have better titled, Ocean of Gyatso, because that is what this book is about... more Gyatso than Chandrakirti's Guide to the Middle Way. There are no modern sources quoted for this commentary (as is always the case with this author), as if he does not need any support for his opinions. I use the word "opinions" because despite the fact he uses the title of "Geshe" the reality of the matter is he was offered the Geshe test, refused it, but decided to use the title anyway. This is kind of like calling yourself a doctor when you have no diploma to back up your claim... ugh!

As a previous reviewer states, comprehension of this muddy volume would probably be enhanced if one were a member of his group, the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), as this title (like all of his books), assumes you follow that sect. For a newcomer to Buddhism or any member of a truly traditional, mainstream Buddhist tradition, this title is self-serving and ultimately meaningless. It does not limit itself to commentary on Guide to the Middle Way, but drags in the usual NKT formula for practice and enlightenment... irrelevant at best.

Furthermore, while the translation may be adequate, one has to remember the author can barely speak English, so it is an uncredited translator who actually did the work.

[I bought this book by Gyatso 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.]

This profound book is like a great treasure chest full of definitive gems. It takes contemplation to understand and time to incorporate the concepts, but it is well worth the effort required. Why? The result is beneficial - a peaceful and happy mind and a loving and kind heart.

This book is a mixed bag.

The fact that this book represents one specific and accutely sectarian viewpoint is made abundantly clear by both the translators and Kelsang himself throughout the book. This is unfortunate and detracts from its readability for anyone who is not a member of the New Kadampa Tradition that Kelsang heads.

This book is a translation and commentary on the Entrance to the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara) by Indian Madhyamika Chandrakirti. Chandrakirti offers a strong interpretation of Nagarjuna in this work and in his commentary to Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way entitled Clear Words.

The root text translated herein is a summation of what Chandrakirti saw to be the philosophical essence of Nagarjuna's teachings. The presentation is organized using the structure of the ten progressive Bodhisattva Grounds by which the yogi is said to progress on the path to Buddhahood. Most of this book is occupied with an analysis of the Sixth Bodhisattva Ground, wherein the yogi completes the perfection of wisdom.

Chandrakirti (and Kelsang) present their interpretation of emptiness, which came to be called Prasangika-Madhyamaka by Tibetans, and seek to refute rival interpretations of Buddhist scripture, particularly those espoused by the Mind Only idealist school of Indian philosophy.

Kelsang Gyatso's commentary does not view itself as an interpretation; rather it is framed as an explication of the actual meaning of Chandrakirti's text. A reader new to the material may be surprised to learn that the commentary goes well beyond the scope of what Chandrakirti could have argued. Nor does he distinguish between issues that Chandrakirti may have been addressing and those which arose centuries later in Tibet.

The result of this is that the reader is left with little sense of the widely divergent uses to which Nagarjuna's thought has been put throughout the Buddhist world.

One might think from reading this book that the arguments which Kelsang recasts against holders of other tenet systems are current. In fact, no Buddhist school has defined itself as Cittamatrin for many centuries, and no school has defined itself as Svatantrika ever.

I wonder why so much energy is spent reliving debates that have been over for more than a thousand years, and so little energy is spent understanding competing views that are actually propounded by living people.

In any case, this book contains a strong translation of the root verses, and the commentary is serviceable, though it is strongly patterned after Je Tsong Khapa's commentary and is not particularly orignal.

I am personally turned off by the quiet (but ubiquitous) sectarianism of this work, but I value it as a good translation of an important Madhyamaka text. The commentary is also useful as a methodical presentation based on Ge-luk-ba sources.

For an very different (but also flawed) translation and commentary of the Madhyamakavatara, see Huntington's The Emptiness of Emptiness. For a Ge-luk presentation of the sixth chapter, see Geshe Rabten's Echoes of Voidness. The first through the fifth chapter are translated with Tsong-kha-pa's commentary in Jeffrey Hopkins' Compassion in Tibetan Buddhism. A wonderful but extremely challenging study of the issues can be found in the magnificent Path to the Middle by Kensur Yeshe Thubten and Anne Klein.

Using prior works, the author extensively (in great detail) explains Chandrakirti's "Guide to the Middle Way" a compilation of prior works--esp. Nagarjuna's "Fundamental Wisdom." This seminal work in the Gelugpa tradition explains the 10 Bodhisattva grounds emphasizing the Madhyamaka-Prasangika (M-P) emptiness of self & objects. It is a highly structured, many-leveled, & Sensate (detail-oriented per the Myers-Briggs) logic-based (Rationalist epistemology) philosophical treatise. There's no attempt to update a medieval text aimed at refuting mostly defunct Buddhist schools--no comparison with contemporary Tibetan ones. It's sectarian, but as a Rime (non-sectarian Vajrayana) proponent, I can still study sectarian texts for ecumenical learning. As "honest broker," I note that Tsele Natsok Rangdrol in "Empowerment," Anne Klein in Newland's "Changing Minds," & Klein & Tenzin Wangyal in "Unbounded Wholeness") find M-P incompatible with Mahamudra & Dzogchen, and some contemporary schools have 8 consciousness levels vs. M-P's 6. Also, Geshe Gyatso says Masters Dignaga & Vasubandhu presented systems other than Nagarjuna. In addition, the Geshe not only includes the root text but "A Brief Summary of Buddhist Tenets" for all the schools addressed which was IMHO helpful & informative. Further, the highly condensed, medieval root text is virtually impossible to understand without his explication.

It also includes many legends, myths, metaphors. It's interrogatory structure is reminiscent of the Talmud & some of its arguments resemble pilpul (VERY miniscule arguments ~ Western medieval debate over the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin)--philosophy without the balancing epistemology of empiricism (though the author's view of time (p. 221) resembles some quantum mechanics' theorists!) there's circular reasoning (p. 168), binary assumption (vs. Normal Distribution), misuse of Truth Tables, & implication that (self's/objects') existence depends on their being named--vs. Shakespeare's rose by any name & that the sun shined prior to any concepts/names. It's ancient/medieval assumptions existed long before set theory, systems analysis, pattern recognition, gestalt/synergy, information technology, synchronicity & archetypes, & Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason." Overall, I found the book maddening & informational--useful but annoying to my Intuitive (big picture) & scientific views. I like Geshe Gyatso's other books much better (esp. Meaningful to Behold: The Bodhisattva's Way of Life & Clear Light of Bliss : The Practice of Mahamudra in Vajrayana Buddhism).

This man has had a thorough monastic education (although I think his monastary has officially given him the boot over the practice of a controversial "dharma protector"). The book was one of the first translations of this text, and comes with a comprehensive commentary. The subject is a work of Nagarjuna, the famous Indian master virtually responsible for what is now known as "madhyamaka," or the middle-way philosophy of Buddhism.