This complete textbook on classical Tibetan is suitable for beginning or intermediate students. It begins with rules for reading writing and pronouncing Tibetan, gradually carrying the reader through the patterns seen in the formation of words and into the repeating patterns of Tibetan phrases, clauses, and sentences. Students with prior experience will find the seven appendices--which review the rules of pronunciation grammar and syntax--provide an indispensable reference. It balances traditional Tibetan grammatical and syntactic analysis with a use of terminology that reflects English preconceptions about sentence structure. Based on the system developed by Jeffrey Hopkins at the Unversity of Virginia, this book presents in lessons with drills and reading exercises a practical introduction to Tibetan grammar syntax and technical vocabulary used in Buddhist works on philosophy and meditation. An extremely well designed learning system, it serves as an introduction to reading and translating and to Buddhist philosophy and meditation. Through easily memorizable paradigms the student comes to recognize and understand the recurrent patterns of the Tibetan language. Each chapter contains a vocabulary full of helpful Buddhist terms.

An absorbing exposition of the methods of realization of the Middle Way Consequence School (Prasangika Madhyamika) by Jeffrey Hopkins--considered by many the foremost Western authority on Tibetan Buddhism. His presentation is based on Jang-gya's famous work--the original and translation are included. The reasonings used to analyze persons and phenomena to establish their true mode of existence are discussed in the context of meditative practice. This exposition includes a masterful treatment of the compatibility of emptiness and dependent-arising.