with Don Isaacson

Thursdays, 7:00pm – 8:30pm, Pacific Time

starting on April 3, 2025
online only

Program Category: Dharma Education — Intermediate

In this class we will study the eighth of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s series of books intended for Western and contemporary Asian students.

The Library of Wisdom and Compassion is a special multivolume series in which His Holiness the Dalai Lama shares the Buddha's teachings on the complete path to full awakening that he himself has practiced his entire life. The topics are arranged especially for people seeking practical spiritual advice and are peppered with the Dalai Lama's own unique outlook.

Assisted by his long-term disciple, the American nun Thubten Chodron, the Dalai Lama sets the context for practicing the Buddha's teachings in modern times and then unveils the path of wisdom and compassion that leads to a meaningful life and sense of personal fulfillment.

This series is an important bridge from introductory to profound topics for those seeking an in-depth explanation from a contemporary perspective.

Don Isaacson is an advanced Dharma student having followed the FPMT Basic Program courses in person for many years, and the FPMT Masters Program online, 2008 to 2013. Don currently serves on the Board of Directors at Ocean of Compassion Buddhist Center and at Vajrapani Institute in Boulder Creek.

In Realizing the Profound View, the second of three volumes on the nature of reality in the Library of Wisdom and Compassion series, the Dalai Lama presents analysis and meditations that challenge the ways we view the self and the world, bringing us closer to realizing the ultimate nature of reality.

With attention to Nagarjuna’s five-point analysis, Candrakirti’s seven-point examination, and Pali sutras, the Dalai Lama leads us to investigate who or what is the person. As we explore this and other fascinating questions, he skillfully guides us along the path, avoiding the chasms of absolutism and nihilism, and introduces us to dependent arising. We find that although all persons and phenomena lack an inherent essence, they do exist dependently. We discover that all phenomena exist by being merely designated by term and concept. We come to understand that emptiness dawns as the meaning of dependent arising, and dependent arising dawns as the meaning of emptiness. The ability to posit subtle dependent arisings in the face of realizing emptiness and to establish ultimate and conventional truths as compatible brings us to the culmination of the correct view.