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Into the Mirror: A Buddhist Journey through Mind, Matter, and the Nature of Reality
Into the Mirror examines the materialism of the modern world through the profound teachings of Mahayana Buddhism and offers an accessible and powerful method for investigating the way our minds construct our worlds.
Into the Mirror combines contemporary Western inquiries into the nature of consciousness, with classical Buddhist investigations into the nature of mind, to offer deep insights into the nature of reality. Andy Karr invites the reader to make this a personal, experiential journey through study, contemplation, and meditation.
The first part of the book presents the Mahayana Buddhist approach to the path of freedom from suffering. It explores foundational teachings, such as the four truths, the notion of enlightenment, and the practice of meditation, from a fresh perspective. The second part deconstructs assumptions about mind and the material world using easily understood tools from contemporary Western philosophy. Part three presents a series of contemplative practices, ethics, and insights, starting with the Middle Way teachings on emptiness and interdependence, through Yogachara’s subtle understanding of non-duality, to the view that buddha nature is already within us to be revealed rather than something external to be acquired.
Into the Mirror concludes with a call to cultivate compassion for beings and the environment right within this world of illusion.
Into the Mirror combines contemporary Western inquiries into the nature of consciousness, with classical Buddhist investigations into the nature of mind, to offer deep insights into the nature of reality. Andy Karr invites the reader to make this a personal, experiential journey through study, contemplation, and meditation.
The first part of the book presents the Mahayana Buddhist approach to the path of freedom from suffering. It explores foundational teachings, such as the four truths, the notion of enlightenment, and the practice of meditation, from a fresh perspective. The second part deconstructs assumptions about mind and the material world using easily understood tools from contemporary Western philosophy. Part three presents a series of contemplative practices, ethics, and insights, starting with the Middle Way teachings on emptiness and interdependence, through Yogachara’s subtle understanding of non-duality, to the view that buddha nature is already within us to be revealed rather than something external to be acquired.
Into the Mirror concludes with a call to cultivate compassion for beings and the environment right within this world of illusion.
272 pages, Paperback
Published May 23, 2023
25 people are currently reading
2439 people want to read
About the author
Andy Karr
5 books27 followersANDY KARR is a teacher, author, and photographer who offers profound and penetrating insights into dharma and mind. He trained at the San Francisco Zen Center under Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and under Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Boulder, Colorado. Andy co-founded the first Shambhala Centre in France and taught regularly in Paris and other European dharma centers for ten years.
After Trungpa Rinpoche passed away in 1987, Andy and his family moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1993 he began studying Mahamudra, and the stages of view and meditation, with Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. He later became a senior teacher in his sangha.
In the late 1990s, and early aughts, Andy studied contemplative photography with Michael Wood. This was an opportunity to bring together the Dharma Art teachings of Trungpa Rinpoche, the Mahamudra teachings of Khenpo Rinpoche, and Michael’s insights into photography as a contemplative practice.
Andy’s first book, Contemplating Reality, is a series of investigations into the nature of mind and the phenomenal world. Andy’s second book, written with Michael Wood, The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes, teaches the most essential photographic skill—clear seeing. His next book, Into the Mirror: A Buddhist Journey through Mind, Matter, and the Nature of Reality, shows how Mahayana teachings can meet modernity, without losing their profundity. The book is due out in the Spring of 2023.
Nowadays, Andy mainly teaches Mahayana view and meditation, and Mahamudra. To learn more about Andy’s work, go to www.andykarrauthor.com.
After Trungpa Rinpoche passed away in 1987, Andy and his family moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1993 he began studying Mahamudra, and the stages of view and meditation, with Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. He later became a senior teacher in his sangha.
In the late 1990s, and early aughts, Andy studied contemplative photography with Michael Wood. This was an opportunity to bring together the Dharma Art teachings of Trungpa Rinpoche, the Mahamudra teachings of Khenpo Rinpoche, and Michael’s insights into photography as a contemplative practice.
Andy’s first book, Contemplating Reality, is a series of investigations into the nature of mind and the phenomenal world. Andy’s second book, written with Michael Wood, The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes, teaches the most essential photographic skill—clear seeing. His next book, Into the Mirror: A Buddhist Journey through Mind, Matter, and the Nature of Reality, shows how Mahayana teachings can meet modernity, without losing their profundity. The book is due out in the Spring of 2023.
Nowadays, Andy mainly teaches Mahayana view and meditation, and Mahamudra. To learn more about Andy’s work, go to www.andykarrauthor.com.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 15, 2023
It was a good read.
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March 28, 2024I'll be honest - I didn't fully understand the whole book, but I did still get a lot out of it! Here are some of the ideas I found most impactful...
"We mistake causes of misery to be causes of happiness and endlessly chase after them, circling round and round in the wrong direction."
"All our experiences are tinged with suffering and dissatisfaction...We usually aren't aware of it, but even our peak experiences of joy and pleasure are tainted with the need to confirm how good the experience is, yearning for that joy and pleasure to continue, and subconscious fears that it will not."
"It might occur to you that a new home, a new relationship, or a new spiritual practice would improve your life considerably. You start hankering after this acquisition, and mental images of the object appear to you again and again. As you ponder the possible qualities and defects of what you crave, you don't realize that it's the mental images - your own projections - that are driving the show. You also don't realize that the self that is doing the craving is also a projection: a collection of mental images. Looked at from this perspective, the fundamental cause of suffering and dissatisfaction is ignorance: not recognizing the nature of what you are experiencing."
"It's commonly accepted that someone must be writing these words. If you ask me, I would say that I am writing them. But when I look closely, I can't find the writer. Thoughts that seem like words ripple in my mind. Conceptions of chapters bloom and fade. I see fingers moving across the keyboard of my laptop. Black shapes of letters and words appear on a white screen. That's it."
"The difference between the fabricated reality of the weather forecast, and the actual experience of weather, is profound. The forecast is useful. It lets you know how to dress for the day, when you will need to water the garden, and if you should prepare for a dangerous storm. But the forecast also tends to obscure the experience of actual weather. The actual experience of weather is real. It does not depend on imagination about the future. Science and technology are useful. But materialism tends to make you discount, or forget, the genuine reality of lived experience."
"To understand dependent arising, it helps to remember that the past is gone - it no longer exists. The future has not arisen - it does not yet exist. We can only experience present appearances. Everything else is mentally fabricated by the conceptual mind."
"All knowledge about reality begins with experience and terminates in it."
"You too might have lots of energy invested in ignoring death...Don't struggle with yourself, but come back to this reflection again and again until you develop some equanimity. As your emotional knots begin to untie, the release of bound-up energy might be painful. Don't be alarmed. This will pass, and the energy that was bound up in avoiding death will become available for living."
"No matter how much success we have in this life, and how much we manage to accumulate, none of it will provide lasting satisfaction, and we won't be able to take any of it with us."
"The first image, a buddha within a decaying lotus, symbolizes the way desire covers buddha nature (particularly when the desire's initial attraction fades). The second image, bees swarming around honey, symbolizes the way anger prevents us from tasting the sweet flavor of buddha nature..."
"We mistake causes of misery to be causes of happiness and endlessly chase after them, circling round and round in the wrong direction."
"All our experiences are tinged with suffering and dissatisfaction...We usually aren't aware of it, but even our peak experiences of joy and pleasure are tainted with the need to confirm how good the experience is, yearning for that joy and pleasure to continue, and subconscious fears that it will not."
"It might occur to you that a new home, a new relationship, or a new spiritual practice would improve your life considerably. You start hankering after this acquisition, and mental images of the object appear to you again and again. As you ponder the possible qualities and defects of what you crave, you don't realize that it's the mental images - your own projections - that are driving the show. You also don't realize that the self that is doing the craving is also a projection: a collection of mental images. Looked at from this perspective, the fundamental cause of suffering and dissatisfaction is ignorance: not recognizing the nature of what you are experiencing."
"It's commonly accepted that someone must be writing these words. If you ask me, I would say that I am writing them. But when I look closely, I can't find the writer. Thoughts that seem like words ripple in my mind. Conceptions of chapters bloom and fade. I see fingers moving across the keyboard of my laptop. Black shapes of letters and words appear on a white screen. That's it."
"The difference between the fabricated reality of the weather forecast, and the actual experience of weather, is profound. The forecast is useful. It lets you know how to dress for the day, when you will need to water the garden, and if you should prepare for a dangerous storm. But the forecast also tends to obscure the experience of actual weather. The actual experience of weather is real. It does not depend on imagination about the future. Science and technology are useful. But materialism tends to make you discount, or forget, the genuine reality of lived experience."
"To understand dependent arising, it helps to remember that the past is gone - it no longer exists. The future has not arisen - it does not yet exist. We can only experience present appearances. Everything else is mentally fabricated by the conceptual mind."
"All knowledge about reality begins with experience and terminates in it."
"You too might have lots of energy invested in ignoring death...Don't struggle with yourself, but come back to this reflection again and again until you develop some equanimity. As your emotional knots begin to untie, the release of bound-up energy might be painful. Don't be alarmed. This will pass, and the energy that was bound up in avoiding death will become available for living."
"No matter how much success we have in this life, and how much we manage to accumulate, none of it will provide lasting satisfaction, and we won't be able to take any of it with us."
"The first image, a buddha within a decaying lotus, symbolizes the way desire covers buddha nature (particularly when the desire's initial attraction fades). The second image, bees swarming around honey, symbolizes the way anger prevents us from tasting the sweet flavor of buddha nature..."
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews