His Holiness the Dalai Lama: New York City, October 12/13/14 2007, Radio City Music Hall
Root Texts
His Holiness the Dalai Lama will teach The Diamond Cutter Sutra, by Lord Buddha, and Seventy Verses on Emptiness, by Nagarjuna. These two texts convey Buddhism's most profound teachings on the wisdom aspect of the path to enlightenment.
A printed English translation of both texts will be provided to all attending this program. His Holiness's teachings will also be translated into English, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
The Diamond Cutter Sutra
The Diamond Cutter Sutra is one of the Wisdom Sutras in which the Buddha presents our ultimate state of being, our lack of any truly existent, independent self. A realization of this emptiness is essential for a Buddhist practitioner to attain the ultimate state of enlightenment – Buddhahood.
Seventy Verses on Emptiness by Nagarjuna
Approximately seven centuries after the Buddha, Nagarjuna established the Madhyamika or Middle Way school of Buddhist philosophy, which steers a path between the extremes of reification and nihilism. Nagarjuna is considered by many to be the most influential Buddhist thinker since the Buddha himself. Seventy Verses on Emptiness is one of six seminal works he composed on this most profound topic.