Title: From Reductionism to Creativity: Rdzogs-Chen and the New Science of Mind

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From Reductionism to Creativity: Rdzogs-Chen and the New Science of Mind by Shambhala

the radiance of being, the differing of difference

This is a wonderful book for those who are interested in the struggle between the ontical and the ontological. Dr. Guenther's understanding of Heidegger's Identity as Difference takes us into postmodernism, beyond the "in between" of Identity and Difference in Heidegger who still hints of reification.
It is not any easy book to read, anymore than Deleuze is easy to read, however, the entire subject is not easy. This is a brilliant book by a brilliant scholar. Dr. Guenther has an incredible grasp of Heidegger and Husserl, as well as, Tibitan Buddhism. The book looks at ontology and ontical foundations which open and clear a path to the radiance of Being as constitutive difference and univocity. I would suggest that those who read this book also read The Radiance of Being by Dr. Combs and Dr. Guenther. The above work helps articulate and clarify the earlier work.
I am grateful to have attended lectures of both Dr. Combs and Dr. Guenther, and their radiant presence is present is their writings, too. Both of these works truly offer the reader a gestalt of grace. Richard B. Hartman
From Reductionism to Creativity: Rdzogs-Chen and the New Science of Mind by Shambhala

A disappointing, ungainly mess

This book is an incoherent mass of plodding and unhelpful exegesis that adds very little to our knowledge base about Nyingma practice or doctrine. It is plagued by serious problems in form, style, and content.

To begin with, Guenther's reliance on a Heideggerian vernacular to expound Buddhist thought is strikingly dated and unhelpful. One wonders what Tibetan term he could possibly be rendering as "Being-as-such". Rather than methodically illustrate the numerous convergences required to justify this usage, Guenther disingenuously proceeds as though the fundamental sameness of Heidegger and Buddhism is already well-established. In addition to being thoroughly misleading, this approach renders obtuse what was once straightforward.

Perhaps worse than this often-annoying idiom is the author's lack of basic clarity. As a previous reviewer indicated, this book is indeed difficult, but it is made so by Guenther's proclivity to discuss terms for several pages before defining them. His prose is inarticulate and undisciplined.

The most fundamental problem with this book, however, is that its thesis is so comically unrealized. While Guenther promises to demonstrate how Nyingma Tantra frees us from the stultifying effects of scholastic doctrine, this book itself is the epitome of lifeless learning. It is hair-splitting in the extreme, enamored with terminological precision, and apparently unaware that Dzogchen is fundamentally a system of MEDITATION. One would think, reading this tome, that the primary goal of Buddhist teaching is to arm us with new weapons with which to flog the long-dead horse of Cartesian dualism.

For vastly superior introductions to Dzogchen, see Samten Karmay's The Great Perfection or Tulku Thundup's The Practice of Dzogchen.
From Reductionism to Creativity: Rdzogs-Chen and the New Science of Mind by Shambhala

Ways to challenge your thesis supervisors!

This is the book to read for everyone who has to think of the philosophical issues (in science or the humanities) when doing their post graduate theses. Thouogh it deels with Eastern thought, it highlights one of the basic drives in Western thought, reductionism, which freeze-dries (my expression, not Guenther's!) concepts to such an extent that it stultifies thinking and leads the mind astray. Guenther looks at the development of the Indo-Tibetan tradition of Buddhist thought and examines those tendencies which reduces ways of thinking and understanding in misleading ways, and contrary tendencies in this tradition which gave life to recurring concepts.For a start, the Buddhist emphases on the ways we come to know and understand rather than on the Western definntions of a static world give Buddhists an upper hand, but even in this tradition there have been tendencies to reify and concretise. Given that our researchers' starting points are cut-and dried-definitions, which we all know are unsatisfactory, it is useful to have this well-argumented and documented exposition of more creative ways of dealing with concepts.