Q & A session with Dr. Alex Berzin
04 In Praise of Dependent Arising (2025)
Alex Berzin 
Wisdom 
Aug 30, 2025 A series of teachings on Lama Tsongkhapa's text In Praise of Dependent Arising given during a special Labor Day weekend retreat at Sravasti Abbey in 2025
- Clarifying the meaning of the term “ignorance”
- The difference between emptiness and voidness
- Different levels of mental or conceptual labeling
- How things exist merely in terms of conceptual labeling
- Clarifying what is actually being refuted
- Questions and answers
- Using dependent origination to counter afflictions
- Limitations to the categories we use for objects and beings
- How designations for things came about
- Advice for investigating different tenet systems
- Confidence in rebirth when it comes to our teachers
- The Ripening Path versus the Liberated Path
Alex Berzin
Born in New Jersey in 1944, Alexander Berzin received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1972, specializing in Tibetan Buddhism and Chinese philosophy. Coming to India as a Fulbright scholar in 1969, he studied with masters from all four Tibetan traditions, specializing in Gelug. He is a member of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, has published many translations (An Anthology of Well-Spoken Advice), has interpreted for several Tibetan masters, principally Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, and has authored several books, including Taking the Kalachakra Initiation. Alex has lectured extensively on Buddhism in over fifty countries, including universities and centers in Africa, the former Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe.
