Fathoming the Mind: Inquiry and Insight in Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence

Following his book 'Stilling the Mind' this book is a fantastic addition. Alan's ability to elucidate, make present and relevant Buddhist teachings in general and here Dudjom Lingpa's mind treasure is unparalleled. Alan keeps the book in constant dialogue with our modern world. Unlike the previous reviewer, this is not a strange fusion but an absolutely necessary dialogue. Keeping this text in dialogue with scientific materialism makes for a book that is real, relevant and applicable to our lives, meets us where we are rather than existing in a vacuum or some kind of dissociated spiritual life apart from where we live and work. 10/10

For advanced buddhist text studies

B. Alan Wallace is a profound interpreter of Buddhism, and this second volume following Stilling the Mind is quite extraordinary.

I have enjoyed other works by this author, but found this book off-putting. Fathoming the Mind opens with a lengthy and harsh criticism of Materialism, listing numerous supposed proponents of this view and how their narrow viewpoints have caused them to exclude empiricism and introspection as part of their methodology. He energetically argues, among other things, that Materialists have no proof that consciousness is generated by and contained within the physical brain. That in and of itself would have been fine, in my opinion, as I think it's fair to say that no one can yet say for sure what the nature of and mechanism for consciousness is. However, the author then refers throughout the remainder of the book to such concepts as karmic effects over multiple lifetimes, substrate and primordial consciousness, and re-birth as if these are accepted facts. Perhaps if Materialists are indeed skewed toward their approach of objective-only analysis, the author is equally aligned to the views of his contemplative tradition. In short, I think that if proof is demanded of the Materialists on topics such as consciousness, the author should equally offer sufficient and compelling evidence for his views as well.

Lots of coverage/ wide ranging very "mind-only"

As a translation of and commentary on an important and fascinating meditation manual and philosophical treatise this book deserves five stars. Unfortunately, Dr. Wallace pairs his commentary with a running critique of scientific bias regarding consciousness and the role of the brain with respect to mind. His critique is not unreasonable. Indeed this reviewer agrees with the majority of it. Nonetheless, this critique feels strangely out of place intermingled with a translation of a classic work of Buddhism. Overall this pairing makes for very awkward reading. Furthermore, few scientists will take this critique of scientific bias seriously because in this book Dr. Wallace openly embraces a number of phenomena (reincarnation, paranormal events, etc.) which will seem to most scientists as naive superstition. This reviewer is certainly open to the possibility of all the esoteric phenomena that Dr. Wallace discusses as fact. Nonetheless anecdotal evidence, however solid from the point of view of Dr. Wallace, falls far short of the sort of evidence required for science. In this way Dr. Wallace does a disservice to both science and the more mysterious phenomena revealed by Buddhist meditation practice.

mind boggling!

I like the original Dudjom Lingpa's text but Alan Wallace's commentary is basically just a rant against scientific materialism. Even though I do agree with most of his statements it's very odd to read about it at length in a commentary like that. Also, the author is clearly aware of Ken Wilber's work and is influenced by it but attribution to it nowhere can be found. Of course, Ken Wilber is more interdisciplinary and does not necessary fit into Buddhist sectarian perspective that the author seems to be subscribing to. At the same time, one would hope that a person criticizing dogmatism of scientists would be a little more flexible with dogma of their own - at least be flexible enough to give attribution where it's deserved. Anyway, this in not a really book about Vipassana but about analytical meditation - be warned. I was hoping to encounter some inspiring "pointing out" but it's just intellectual "grinding" about lack of intrinsic existence of self and phenomena. Critique of scientific materialism has lots of interesting anecdotes but it's very incoherent. For anyone interested in a very coherent and interdisciplinary vision that goes in depth into philosophy of science I recommend Ken Wilber's "The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion".