Samsara, Nirvana, and Buddha Nature

The material in this volume is invaluable for those who sincerely wish to understand the Buddhist path and begin to follow it.

–Venerable Sangye Khadro, author of How to Meditate The third volume in the Dalai Lama’s definitive and comprehensive series on the stages of the Buddhist path, The Library of Wisdom and Compassion.

Knowledge of buddha nature reveals and reconciles the paradox of how the mind can be the basis for both the duhkha of samsara (the unpurified mind) and the bliss and fulfillment of nirvana (the state of true freedom and peace). To illustrate this, Samsara, Nirvana, and Buddha Nature first takes readers through Buddhist thought on the self, the four truths, and their sixteen attributes. It then explains afflictions–including how they arise and their antidotes–followed by an examination of karma and cyclic existence, and, finally, a deep and thorough elucidation of buddha nature. Samsara, Nirvana, and Buddha Nature shows us how to purify our minds and cultivate awakened qualities.

This book is a veritable tour de force in its explanation of the role of the mind in samsara and the realization of nirvana, which is the mind’s own ultimate nature. In its examination of buddha nature–spanning early discussions of the mind’s potential in the Pali canon through to the teachings of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection–it casts a bright light to dispel the darkness of materialism, which deludedly reduces the mind to a mere epiphenomenon or emergent property of the brain. Books such as this are urgently needed to trigger a true revolution in the mind sciences. –B. Alan Wallace, founder and president, Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies