The Edge of Certainty: Dilemmas on the Buddhist Path

by Peter Fenner

This intriguing book challenges common conceptions and misconceptions about traveling the Buddhist path to enlightenment. The author asks the questions that some dare * Is spiritual freedom gained through effort and struggle, or by giving up our need for things to be different?
Peter Fenner approaches these questions by first providing clear and illuminating summaries of the orthodox and unorthodox ways of the many different Buddhist traditions. He traces his own experiences with such practices as mindfulness meditation, Vipassana, the transformational tools of Tantra, and the natural meditations of the Dzogchen tradition. He contrasts the traditional approach of change-through-practice with the non-traditional, Western need for immediacy. Fenner shows us how the paradoxes that emerge on the spiritual path can be used to deconstruct our fixations about "getting it" or "losing it": if I give up everything, will I gain fulfillment? Ultimately, he provides answers that are as proactive as his questions.

Genres: Buddhism

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Peter is a leader in the adaption and transmission of Asian nondual wisdom worldwide. He is a pioneer in the development of nondual therapy and creator of the 9 month Radiant Mind Course® and the Natural Awakening: Advanced Nondual Training. He was a celibate monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for 9 years and has a Ph.D. in the philosophical psychology of Mahayana Buddhism. Over a period of 40 years Peter has distilled the essence of traditions like Zen, Dzogchen and the Buddhist Middle Way, and adapted them to suit our post-modern culture.

Reviews

[Gabby Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Fenner posits that there are two divergent roads on the Buddhist path. The "discourse of change" revolves around the "orthodox" belief in the practice of ethical and mindful self-cultivation. The "discourse of immediacy" revolves around the "unorthodox" belief that there is nothing whatsoever to be attained, and thus any attempt at purposeful self-cultivation merely leads to further reification of dualistic classifications. The lineages of these two paths are traced throughout the history of Buddhism, then they are pitted against each other in a sort of ideological cage-match. This produces a frustrating conundrum, which the author then uses to show the reader their own motivations for picking up and reading the book in the first place. Mr. Fenner then employs madhyamaka methods to utterly exhaust the absurdity of the conundrum. In typical Buddhist fashion, we go through a long, at times seemingly pointless journey, only to find ourselves ideologically right back where we started, completely confused, armed with a refreshing new uncertainty that serves to invigorate our practice. For anyone who has been practicing on the Buddhist path for several years and is wondering why the hell to keep going with it, this book will provide the no-answer you aren't looking for.

[Yeshe Nyima · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is meant to be frustrating, as it gives no positive answer to any of the questions we are asking. But it leads us to question ourselves to the need/validty of the question itself.