The Abhisamayalamkara summarizes all the topics in the vast body of the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. To understand this extraordinarily condensed text, it is necessary to have the assistance of reliable Indian and Tibetan commentaries. Together, they not only discuss the "hidden meaning" of the Perfection of Wisdom sutraspaths and groundsbut also serve as a basis for further reflection on the explicit topic of these sutrasthe principle of emptinessand how it is to be understood on the progressive levels of realization of bodhisattvas. Thus, these texts describe what happens in the mind of a bodhisattva who meditates on emptiness, making it a living experience from the beginner's stage up through buddhahood.

Gone Beyond contains the first in-depth study the Abhisamayalamkara (the text studied most extensively in higher Tibetan Buddhist education) and its commentaries in the Kagyu School. This study (in two volumes) includes translations of Maitreya's famous text and its commentary by the Fifth Shamarpa, Goncho Yenla (the first translation ever of a complete commentary on the Abhisamayalamkara into English), which are supplemented by extensive excerpts from the commentaries by the Third, Seventh, and Eighth Karmapas and others. Thus, it closes a long-standing gap in the modern scholarship on the Prajnaparamita Sutras and the literature on paths and bhumis in mahayana Buddhism.

The second volume presents an English translation of the final five chapters and its commentary by the Fifth Shamarpa.

Karl Brunnholzl was trained as a physician and presently works as a Tibetan translator and Buddhist teacher. He studied Tibetology, Buddhology, and Sanskrit at Hamburg University and Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators in Kathmandu. Currently he works as a translator and interpreter for the Tsadra Foundation, Nalandabodhi, and the Nitartha Institute. In 2009 he was appointed as the first Western khenpo (abbot in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages) by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. He is the author and translator of The Center of the Sunlit Sky (2004), the first in-depth study of the Kagyu interpretation of Madhyamaka in a Western language; Straight from the Heart (2007) with commentary by the Third Karmapa; and Luminous Heart (2009), the Third Karmapa on buddha nature, consciousness, and wisdom.