The Devil Debates an Angel: a struggle against our tendency to think that things are coming at us (Classics of Middle Asia)

A HEATED DEBATE ON EMPTINESS

Every one of us goes through times in our life when we have to make an important decision; and as we consider the pros & cons it sounds like a big, loud argument going on there inside of our own skull. It makes us think of those pictures of a little devil floating just over our head, telling us to eat another donut—while a little angel next to him tries to talk us out of it.
That’s exactly the idea of the great classic of the East which you hold in your hands: The Devil Debates an Angel. Only the devil and the angel are not arguing about a donut; rather, they are in a heated discussion about the best way to see emptiness.
It is said, in the two-thousand-year history of Buddhism, that if we manage to see emptiness directly, then it will free us from the clutches of the pain of life, and an inevitable death. Unfortunately, even the expression “emptiness” has for many centuries led to a huge amount of confusion and misinformation. And then we end up with people wasting their lifetime, sitting and staring at a wall and trying (always unsuccessfully) to think of nothing. And then of course they die anyway.
Lobsang Chukyi Gyeltsen was the first of a series of great teachers from Tibet known as the Panchen Lamas. He lived 1567-1662, and wrote over 250 amazing compositions on topics such as meditation and Buddhist thought. He was as well known for his frequent deep retreats; heartfelt poetry; and diplomatic skills that prevented several major wars.
Here then we have one of his greatest works of all; the Asian equivalent of Dante’s Divine Comedy, just as striking in its poetic majesty and deep ideas. The presentation takes us carefully through all the possible mistakes we can make in our meditation practice, thus putting us on a pure path to true emptiness, and enlightenment.