Mountain Doctrine: Tibet's Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha Matrix

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 832 pages
• Published by: Snow Lion Publications June 25, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 155939238X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1559392389
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 2.4 inches
• Weighs: 3 pounds

Product Review
"Another amazing translation from J. Hopkinsrepresents a major advancerelevant, expressive and readable." -- Religious Studies Review, March 2008

Contains mountains of material for deep philosophical reflectionA awesome volume. -- Georg Feuerstein, PhD in Traditional Yoga Studies

Jeffrey Hopkins deserves our sincere gratitude for making this profound message finally available to students of the Dharma outside Tibet. -- Cyrus Stearns, author of The Buddha from Dolpo

This monumental publication will serve as an invaluable source on emptiness and buddhanature for generations to come. -- Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly

Product Description
The fundamental text of the most controversial view of reality found in Tibetan Buddhism.

Reader Reviews
Here is a book I never expected to find in English in my lifetime. Dolpopa (1292-1360) was one of the most brilliant and influential Buddhist monks in Tibetan history, yet till recently his contributions have been largely ignored by scholars. Dolpopa was aligned with the Jonangpa lineage, an unpopular sect in western Tibet since the time of the 5th Dalai Lama. This was due to its political connections with Mongolia, and because its doctrines veered dangerously close to Hindu Vedanta. Yet in their heyday, the Jonangpas were famous as Tibet's most advanced yogis and accomplished meditators. I've always had reservations about the Buddhist understanding of "ultimate reality." It was a relief to discover that a master of Dolpopa's caliber shared the same qualms. He argued that some Buddhist philosophers took the concept of the "emptiness" of reality to a unrealistic extreme. He urged them to penetrate more deeply into the insights of the Buddha to discover a more profound truth. My one complaint about Hopkins' translation is that an English and Sanskrit glossary of Buddhist terminology would have gone far in helping non-Buddhists understand specific technical points. If you're not highly literate in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, you'll want to read Cyrus Stearns' superb "The Buddha from Dolpo" first. If the length or cost of "Mountain Doctrine" turns you off, try Hopkins' "The Essence of Other-Emptiness" in which the 17th century sage Taranatha summarizes Dolpopa's most important teachings. As a student of comparative religions, I find Dolpopa's beliefs to be the most interesting and exciting of any major Buddhist thinker. He steers students away from over-reliance on verbal sophistry, into the living truth we experience in our meditation practice. In so doing he comes daringly close in some respects to the equally fascinating insights of Hindu meditation masters like the Kashmiri Shaivites and Shakta Advaitins.