"Wheel of Analytic Meditation" guides the student step by step from initial observation of the marks of existence
– compoundedness, impermanence, frustration, and emptiness – to a penetrating insight into the causes of suffering, while
refining concentration and observation into powerful tools for deepening meditation. "Instructions on the Middle Way" progresses to deeper levels of understanding until "unquestionable experience dawns." Translated by Tarthang Tulku, with his illuminating commentary on the stages of meditation experience. Includes Tibetan
text. Adopted for courses at eighteen universities. Demonstrates clearly how to combine study and practice. From the root verses of "The Wheel of Analytic Meditation," Seeing the image as a bubble or mirage, a banana tree or magical
illusion, there will be no desire for it. So let the stream of insight flow until it vanishes. Do not attempt to prolong the
glow, but proceed and examine another image, so that all corrupted perceptions are seen as unfounded fabrications. Watching
these baseless fabrications, seeing the insubstantial phenomena arise only to dissolve in an instant, is the right way of
contemplation… Throughout all previous lives, the 'I' distorting, obscuring and scattering, created a stream of daydreams
and mistakes. Composure must replace that delusion… Free from the breakers of passion, the ocean of mind is unruffled and
clear. Attuned to self-possessed purity, concentration in peace and calm are gained. One-pointed absorption in mind diffuses
in piercing insight. This is the way of initiation, the common door to the three careers… Gradually all trace of delusion
vanishes into the relief of Emptiness, and dispensing with the antidote of rejection, all 'I' and 'mine' is finally
destroyed. Clinging to nothing, but aspiring to compassion, like a bird in the sky of simplicity, gliding through life
without fear, the Buddha-son reaches the highest plane.
