Sacred geometry

Seeing That Frees

Rob Burbea's seminal book on emptiness and dependent arising (2014, revised anniversary edition 2025) is a profound and transformative contribution to the Buddhist tradition. It opens up for the committed meditator all the profundity of the Buddha's radical teachings on emptiness, and will serve as a lifelong companion on the path, leading progressively deeper into the territory of liberation.
cover of Seeing That Frees without words, abstract blue water shadows on brick

Tenth Anniversary Revised Edition

A decade after Seeing That Frees was originally published, Hermes Amāra Publications presents a tenth anniversary revised edition. This edition contains a significant new foreword by Yahel Avigur, Rob's Edits and Reflections in full, a new Index of Practices, and more. We hope these additions prove valuable to readers as they progress on the path to understanding emptiness and realising the seeing that frees.

Seeing That Frees is available from Troubador in the UK or Amazon worldwide. A local-minded alternative to purchasing online is to order a copy from your nearest bookshop.

The revised ebook will be available for purchase from Troubador and Amazon from 22nd May 2025.

The new edition has not yet uploaded to Amazon - please use the Troubador link below to order.

*Please note that the price has increased slightly to £15.99.

Writing the Book

Rob was encouraged over the years - by some of his students - to write a book based on the teachings he gave on his annual emptiness retreats at Gaia House. Rob eventually started to write in 2012, and it would take him two years to complete Seeing That Frees, working on the book alongside his full time resident teacher duties. It was a huge labour for Rob, partly because another avenue of practice was calling him and he wanted to move on. But Rob saw an opportunity here, and placed the struggle of writing into the crucible of his unfolding soulmaking explorations, deciding to meet the challenge with imaginal ways of looking rather than with emptiness practice. This proved powerful and fruitful for Rob. Once the book was published he devoted himself fully to developing the imaginal teachings that would eventually be called A Soulmaking Dharma.

Publication, Sales and Translations

After talking to a couple of publishers, Rob made the decision to self-publish so that he could maintain full editorial control over the content of Seeing That Frees, such is its complexity and precision. The book was published through Troubador Publishing in 2014 under the imprint Hermes Amāra Publications. This was a deeply meaningful moniker for Rob, combining the Greek trickster god with the Pali name for the 'Deathless', and he chose it also as the name of the foundation he'd go on to establish in 2019. Because all the emptiness retreats were already available on Dharma Seed as audio recordings, Rob wasn't convinced that the book would sell many copies. But by the beginning of 2023 the print book had sold 4,056 copies, the ebook 4,579, and the Hebrew translation around 1,500 copies. There are several translations of Seeing That Frees underway which will considerably widen the book's accessibility globally.

Rob's Edits and Reflections

In 2016 Rob made a small number of revisions and corrections to the original text of Seeing That Frees. These amendments were not considered a sizeable enough change to warrant a 'revised edition' of the book and so were simply incorporated into all new print copies, and into the ebook, from that point onwards. Rob did, however, consider these changes to be important, and wished to communicate them to anyone who had purchased a book from the original print run. For this purpose he wrote a six-page booklet entitled 'Edits and Reflections' that was inserted into the front of existing copies. The booklet was emailed out to anyone who asked for it, stapled into the Gaia House library copies, and posted on Rob's old website robburbea.com. The 'Reflections' part of the booklet was however never incorporated into the printed book itself, and we are pleased to make these reflections available in the revised edition. We feel that anyone working closely with the book will find Rob's deeply considered additional comments and suggestions to be an insightful and helpful resource.

Sacred geometry

“Rob Burbea, in this remarkable book, proves to be a wonderfully skilled guide in exploring the understanding of emptiness as the key insight in transforming our lives… It is rare to find a book that explores so deeply the philosophical underpinnings of awakening at the same time as offering the practical means to realize it.”

- from the Foreword by Joseph Goldstein, author of The Experience of Insight

Sacred geometry