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Rating: 
Summary: Drop in a vast ocean
Review: There is at least one reviewer who thinks this is a bit too sectarian in its approach. Who cares! The beauty of the broad availablity of ancient and modern commentaries on the esoteric Dharma-teachings is a great blessing. Those who have an intellect capable of understanding such deep concepts as set out by Chandakirti in the "Guide to the Middle Way" are quite capable of extracting the wheat from the chaff.There is enough wheat in this book to satisy most enquiring Dharma-minds. The book is eminently readable and is a more than useful addition to a Dharma-library. Four and a half stars would be fairer, but at least this 5-rating balances another reviewer's 3 to some extent.
Rating:
Summary: Drop in a vast ocean
Review: There is at least one reviewer who thinks this is a bit too sectarian in its approach. Who cares! The beauty of the broad availablity of ancient and modern commentaries on the esoteric Dharma-teachings is a great blessing. Those who have an intellect capable of understanding such deep concepts as set out by Chandakirti in the "Guide to the Middle Way" are quite capable of extracting the wheat from the chaff. There is enough wheat in this book to satisy most enquiring Dharma-minds. The book is eminently readable and is a more than useful addition to a Dharma-library. Four and a half stars would be fairer, but at least this 5-rating balances another reviewer's 3 to some extent.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Translation, Problematic Commentary
Review: This book is a mixed bag. The fact that this book represents one specific and accutely sectarian viewpoint is made abundantly clear by both the translators and Kelsang himself throughout the book. This is unfortunate and detracts from its readability for anyone who is not a member of the New Kadampa Tradition that Kelsang heads. This book is a translation and commentary on the Entrance to the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara) by Indian Madhyamika Chandrakirti. Chandrakirti offers a strong interpretation of Nagarjuna in this work and in his commentary to Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way entitled Clear Words. The root text translated herein is a summation of what Chandrakirti saw to be the philosophical essence of Nagarjuna's teachings. The presentation is organized using the structure of the ten progressive Bodhisattva Grounds by which the yogi is said to progress on the path to Buddhahood. Most of this book is occupied with an analysis of the Sixth Bodhisattva Ground, wherein the yogi completes the perfection of wisdom. Chandrakirti (and Kelsang) present their interpretation of emptiness, which came to be called Prasangika-Madhyamaka by Tibetans, and seek to refute rival interpretations of Buddhist scripture, particularly those espoused by the Mind Only idealist school of Indian philosophy. Kelsang Gyatso's commentary does not view itself as an interpretation; rather it is framed as an explication of the actual meaning of Chandrakirti's text. A reader new to the material may be surprised to learn that the commentary goes well beyond the scope of what Chandrakirti could have argued. Nor does he distinguish between issues that Chandrakirti may have been addressing and those which arose centuries later in Tibet. The result of this is that the reader is left with little sense of the widely divergent uses to which Nagarjuna's thought has been put throughout the Buddhist world. One might think from reading this book that the arguments which Kelsang recasts against holders of other tenet systems are current. In fact, no Buddhist school has defined itself as Cittamatrin for many centuries, and no school has defined itself as Svatantrika ever. I wonder why so much energy is spent reliving debates that have been over for more than a thousand years, and so little energy is spent understanding competing views that are actually propounded by living people. In any case, this book contains a strong translation of the root verses, and the commentary is serviceable, though it is strongly patterned after Je Tsong Khapa's commentary and is not particularly orignal. I am personally turned off by the quiet (but ubiquitous) sectarianism of this work, but I value it as a good translation of an important Madhyamaka text. The commentary is also useful as a methodical presentation based on Ge-luk-ba sources. For an very different (but also flawed) translation and commentary of the Madhyamakavatara, see Huntington's The Emptiness of Emptiness. For a Ge-luk presentation of the sixth chapter, see Geshe Rabten's Echoes of Voidness. The first through the fifth chapter are translated with Tsong-kha-pa's commentary in Jeffrey Hopkins' Compassion in Tibetan Buddhism. A wonderful but extremely challenging study of the issues can be found in the magnificent Path to the Middle by Kensur Yeshe Thubten and Anne Klein.
Rating:
Summary: a scholar
Review: This man has had a thorough monastic education (although I think his monastary has officially given him the boot over the practice of a controversial "dharma protector"). The book was one of the first translations of this text, and comes with a comprehensive commentary. The subject is a work of Nagarjuna, the famous Indian master virtually responsible for what is now known as "madhyamaka," or the middle-way philosophy of Buddhism.
Rating:
Summary: An ocean of delight
Review: With characteristic clarity and insight, the author has presented a very profound subject in an extremely straightforward way. This book provides a comprehensive explanation of the Bodhisattva's path to enlightenment. Guided by his own complete experience of the subject, Geshe Kelsang skillfully explains Buddha's ultimate intention, the subtle view of the "middle way" or Madhyamika. I feel it's difficult to read this book too many times. In a word, this book is deep ... very deep. "Ocean of Nectar" is a delight to study and learn from.
Rating:
Summary: An ocean of delight
Review: With characteristic clarity and insight, the author has presented a very profound subject in an extremely straightforward way. This book provides a comprehensive explanation of the Bodhisattva's path to enlightenment. Guided by his own complete experience of the subject, Geshe Kelsang skillfully explains Buddha's ultimate intention, the subtle view of the "middle way" or Madhyamika. I feel it's difficult to read this book too many times. In a word, this book is deep ... very deep. "Ocean of Nectar" is a delight to study and learn from.
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