Tibetan Buddhism Quotes

“Atiśa, following Nāgārjuna’s commentator Candrakīrti, held that although our everyday language adequately describes apparent reality, philosophical discourse nevertheless has a necessary role: not system-building but the criticism of our presuppositions, dismantling them until we arrive at the profound realization of emptiness and the opening that this entails.”
― Matthew T. Kapstein, Tibetan Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction

“verbal tricks might be employed to trap an opponent; and the debate was always accompanied by vivid, ritualized gestures, partly contrived to mimic a combat in which one might be hard put to maintain his cool. (The point being, precisely, to learn to remain calm under pressure.)”
― Matthew T. Kapstein, Tibetan Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction