Mesoscope’s Reviews > Mipham's Beacon of Certainty: Illuminating the View of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection > Status Update
Mesoscope
is on page 198 of 592
Reading Mipham's critique of Tsongkhapa carefully, it does not obviously hold. In "Beacon," as in his commentary to the Madhyamakavatara, his critique depends on a formulation that Tsongkhapa made only once, to my knowledge, in "Illumination": that "a pot is not empty of pot, it is empty of inherent existence." If you substitute Tsongkhapa's usual language, Mipham's argument doesn't obviously make contact.
— Jan 27, 2026 02:20AM
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Mesoscope’s Previous Updates
Mesoscope
is on page 298 of 592
Point three of Mipham's eight points is much more helpful and interesting - he clarifies the difference between the correct view and, for example, conceiving of an inexpressible ultimate that exists but is indescribable, or imagining nothingness. Those may sound like simple errors, but they can be very subtle - this is an exceedingly important clarification.
— Jan 28, 2026 12:32AM
Mesoscope
is on page 149 of 592
Now this is interesting: "Moreover, if negation applies only to true existence, and the appearance of the basis of negation is not eliminated, then emptiness of true existence would require the existence of something else—the basis of negation. Thus, emptiness would not be an absolute negation, as Gelugpas hold it to be, but an implicative negation (ma yin dgag)."
— Jan 26, 2026 08:32AM
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Jan 27, 2026 09:42AM
Mesoscope, in what order do you recommend I read Prasangika texts after Nagarjuna? I'm overwhelmed by the options: Candrakirti, Tsongkhapa, Mipham...
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One book I really liked as a supplement is Lobsang Gyatso's "The Harmony of Dependent-Arising and Emptiness", though it seems like it's hard to find now. It has a translation of a short but important work by Tsongkhapa, with an excellent commentary. Do you know Jeffrey Hopkins's "Emptiness Yoga"? I'd very highly recommend it - it goes through the Gelukpa account of Madhyamaka deeply, but also in an extremely practical way, extensively explaining how to undertake the actual analysis yourself. It's one of the all-time greats.
Basically everything by Hopkins and his students is worthwhile - Napper's "Dependent-Arising and Emptiness" was very, very helpful to me early on, as was Guy Newland's "The Two Truths".
Thinking about what other works by Tsongkhapa would be helpful, I think of volume three of the Great Exposition, which has his long discussion of special insight, it's one of the most important Tibetan works on Madhyamaka, and it's relatively straightforward and systematic.
I am not really aware of a great Madhyamaka work by Mipham in English that is great for people who aren't very deep into the material. His commentary on the Madhyamakavatara is really student notes from his lectures, and sometimes it's useful and clear, others not.
Seconding the rec for Emptiness Yoga: tho I never finished it, the first third was very useful.
Keith wrote: "Seconding the rec for Emptiness Yoga: tho I never finished it, the first third was very useful."This is another one you can skip around in if you need to - the last chapters on the reasoning of dependent-arising are, I think, more important than the argument from production, but then I've never clicked as much with that particular argument.
