Four hundred million people call themselves Buddhists today. Yet most Westerners know little about this powerful, Eastern-spawned faith. How did it begin? What do its adherents believe? Why are so many Westerners drawn to it? Essential Buddhism responds to these questions and many more, offering an accessible, global perspective on the religion's past, present, and future. It identifies how the principal concepts and practices originated and evolved through diverse cultural adaptations into three basic formats: * Theraveda (including Vipassana, brought from Vietnam in the 1960s and including such practitioners as Jack Kornfield and Jon Kapat-Zinn) * Mahayana (including Zen Buddhism, originally brought to America by Japanese teachers after World War II and popularized by Jack Kerouac and Thomas Merton) * Vajrayana (including Tibetan Buddhism, from the teachers who fled the Chinese takeover of Tibet in the 1950s as well as the Dalai Lama, and embraced by Allen Ginsberg, Richard Gere, and countless others) Essential Buddhism is the single best resource for the novice and the expert alike, exploring the depths of Buddhism's popularity and illuminating its tenets and sensible approach to living. Written in the lucid prose of a longtime professional storyteller, and full of Buddhist tales, scriptural quotes, ancient stories, and contemporary insights, Essential Buddhism is the first complete guide to the faith and the phenomenon.
"In introduction to Buddhism, including its history, principles, misconceptions, etc"--
The work captures the lyrical beauty and incantatory style of Guo Jun’s spoken English from the talks he gave at a fourteen-day retreat near Jakarta in 2010 and in subsequent conversations with his editor Kenneth Wapner.
"Walk your talk.
A practitioner of Buddhist meditation for forty years, Oliver has written extensively on Buddhist wisdom and its application to daily life. Her practical approach makes Buddhism an essential modern guidebook to an ancient tradition.
The first book to bring together the key texts of modern Buddhism In the last hundred years, the world, especially the West, has increasingly embraced the teachings of Buddhism.
WINNER OF THE TRICYCLE PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE Expertly and lucidly surveying the basic varieties and teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, renowned scholar Robert Thurman makes this authentic spiritual tradition available to contemporary Western ...
This book explores the common threads and contours that inform today's Buddhism; it is a guidebook for a better life and better world.
Everyone should read this book.” –Christopher Queen, Harvard University “A valuable sourcebook with a good selection of the fundamental suttas enhanced by an eloquent introduction and comprehensive notes–altogether a very useful ...
Essential Teachings presents the first English translation of a series of talks given in 1974 by the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya, India—the site of the Buddha's enlightenment—to a gathering of Tibetan refugees and Western Buddhists.
This anthology explains the history, theology and spirituality of the ancient religion of Buddhism. The volume contains daily readings from Buddhist texts and commentaries which explain to non-Buddhist readers the...