Buddhism teaches with simple means how to live day by day with joy and peace. It also teaches with the deepest means how to liberate our mind from the clinging and grasping that form the intricate nets of irritating thoughts and emotions that ensnare us. We liberate our mind through developing a powerful antidote to clinging and grasping. This powerful antidote is the thorough and deep wisdom that sees the truth of reality--the way things really are as opposed to how we ordinarily and naively perceive and believe.

The truth of reality has two levels that hold true in all time, space and conditions. Gaining full knowledge and experience of the two levels of reality is the only means to liberate our mind from clinging and grasping--the two chronic inner mental illnesses. The two levels of reality are impermanence and emptiness. This book offers a clear explanation of subtle impermanence and emptiness, avoiding the use of complicated philosophical terms, so a modern mind can understand the deepest meaning of what Buddha, out of his universal compassion, taught of impermanence and emptiness as his ultimate message to the confused world.

Two Subtle Realities: Impermanence and Emptiness, Geshe Dakpa Topgyal, Radiant Mind Press, Paperback, 230 pages, $19.75

Geshe Dakpa Topgyal, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, was born in the Western region of Tibet and fled to India at the age of six with his family due to the Chinese invasion of Tibet. At ten years old, he entered Drepung Loseling Monastery, which was re-established in exile in India after the invasion. Twenty-two years later he received his Geshe Degree (Doctorate of Religion and Philosophy), the highest earned degree in the Buddhist system of higher education. In fluent English and with a broad understanding of western culture, Geshela skillfully teaches both beginner and advanced students in the same tradition as His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He has lectured throughout the U.S. and Europe, serves as spiritual director of the Charleston Tibetan Society and the South Carolina Dharma Group, and is on the faculty of the Drepung Loseling Monastic University. In addition to his years of education and experience, Geshela brings a kind heart and a sense of humor to Buddhist teachings that is both disarming and endearing. He has written a number of Buddhist practice books as well as books on meditation, health, ethics, mind, refuge, the traditional Tibetan Buddhist altar, preparing for a peaceful death, and the subtle realities of impermanence and emptiness.