Appearance and Reality: The Two Truths in the Four Buddhist Tenet Systems

If you are planning on taking any classes with a Tibetan geshe, then you need to read this short book. It will save you an enormous amount of time. Guy distills into this highly readable volume his several-decades worth of investigation of the genre of Tibetan literature that analyses the various Buddhist philosophical positions. Even if you have encountered this material before, Guy will help you synthesize it and figure out how it all fits together in a remarkably clear way. The author and editor deserve a big thumbs up for their efforts. This volume will help in your study not only of the philosophical tenets, but in the study of the collected topics (dura) and of Buddhist phenomenology and logic. It is a gem.

Good things come in small packages. This is a very useful book. Read carefully, it shows a stair step through the four major "tenet systems" in Buddhist philosophy, each penetrating more deeply into the actual psychological experience of the illusion of reality. In his introduction, Newland describes how studies of the "tenet systems" might be considered merely academic classification of schools of thought. However, by presenting the tenet systems as a succession of solutions to the problem of why appearances don't correspond to the results logical reasoning, Newland fulfills his assertion that tenet studies can help people "arrive at conclusions...(at least tentatively) in weeks, days or hours" that might otherwise take years. While this book requires perhaps more than "familiarity with Buddhism", I believe it should be possible for those "genuinely interested in the philosophical aspects" to use this as a powerful study guide, as they search out the detailed meanings that this excellent book so lucidly outlines.