Zen in the Art of Archery
Zen in the Art of Archery, originally published in German, was first published in English in 1953, the first book to introduce Zen Buddhism to a Western audience. The translation was rather formal and scholarly, making for difficult reading about a subject that was already hard to understand. This new translation skillfully transmits the book's original meaning in a simpler, smoother style more accessible to modern readers, but with all of the author's fascinating experiences, explanations, and anecdotes intact.In this illuminating account, the author recounts his six-year study of archery as a way to understand Zen. Under the guidance of one of Japan's great archery masters, he gradually overcomes his initial misconceptions and inhibitions and begins to feel his way toward new, true ways of seeing, acting, and living.The author writes, "The art of archery is like a preparatory school for Zen, enabling beginners to understand, through their own experience, events that are not in themselves intelligible."Mastering archery is not the key to achieving enlightenment, and this is not a practical guide to archery. Rather, it is a fascinating introduction to Zen principles and learning, an excellent and informative guide for anyone who wants to know more about the "Great Doctrine" practiced by the spiritual teachers of the Asian tradition.
The Buddhist Catechism
NEW PRINT WITH PROFESSIONAL TYPE-SET IN CONTRAST TO SCANNED PRINTS OFFERED BY OTHERS The Buddhist Catechism This book is a result of an effort made by us towards making a contribution to the preservation and repair of original classic literature. In an attempt to preserve, improve and recreate the original content, we have worked towards: 1. Type-setting & Reformatting: The complete work has been re-designed via professional layout, formatting and type-setting tools to re-create the same edition with rich typography, graphics, high quality images, and table elements, giving our readers the feel of holding a fresh and newly reprinted and/or revised edition, as opposed to other scanned & printed (Optical Character Recognition - OCR) reproductions. 2. Correction of imperfections: As the work was re-created from the scratch, therefore, it was vetted to rectify certain conventional norms with regard to typographical mistakes, hyphenations, punctuations, blurred images, missing content/pages, and/or other related subject matters, upon our consideration. Every attempt was made to rectify the imperfections related to omitted constructs in the original edition via other references. However, a few of such imperfections which could not be rectified due to intentional\unintentional omission of content in the original edition, were inherited and preserved from the original work to maintain the authenticity and construct, relevant to the work.
The Gospel Of Buddha, Compiled From Ancient Records
NEW PRINT WITH PROFESSIONAL TYPE-SET IN CONTRAST TO SCANNED PRINTS OFFERED BY OTHERS The Gospel Of Buddha, Compiled From Ancient Records This book is a result of an effort made by us towards making a contribution to the preservation and repair of original classic literature. In an attempt to preserve, improve and recreate the original content, we have worked towards: 1. Type-setting & Reformatting: The complete work has been re-designed via professional layout, formatting and type-setting tools to re-create the same edition with rich typography, graphics, high quality images, and table elements, giving our readers the feel of holding a fresh and newly reprinted and/or revised edition, as opposed to other scanned & printed (Optical Character Recognition - OCR) reproductions. 2. Correction of imperfections: As the work was re-created from the scratch, therefore, it was vetted to rectify certain conventional norms with regard to typographical mistakes, hyphenations, punctuations, blurred images, missing content/pages, and/or other related subject matters, upon our consideration. Every attempt was made to rectify the imperfections related to omitted constructs in the original edition via other references. However, a few of such imperfections which could not be rectified due to intentional\unintentional omission of content in the original edition, were inherited and preserved from the original work to maintain the authenticity and construct, relevant to the work.
Kūkai
Kūkai: Japan's First Vajrayāna Visionary is a wide-ranging account of how the ninth-century founder of the Japanese Shingon school of Buddhism, Kūkai (774-835), effectively forged a unique identity for the new meditative and ritual practices he learned during two years' study in China. While esoteric ("tantric") Buddhism is also known as Vajrayāna ("vehicle of the diamond/thunderbolt"), Kūkai alternatively named it the "esoteric teaching" (mikkyō), Vajrayāna, and Shingon, the Sino-Japanese term for "mantra." He carefully articulated how contemplative practices engaging the "three secrets" of body (symbolic gestures, mudrā), speech (recitation of mantra), and mind (visualizing the world as a mandala) radically transform one's sense of self. These practices aim to uncover hidden dimensions of being to reveal a state of profound existential freedom and power that is an embodied manifestation of awakened consciousness. Kūkai employed every available social and material resource to establish Vajrayāna practices on a solid foundation. This work examines his rigorous clarification of the distinctive character of Vajrayāna practice that creatively portrayed it as taking goal of the path (Buddhahood) to be both its end and its means, and his forceful characterization of Shingon as the only form of Buddhism in Japan to enable the immediate accessibility of enlightenment. Kūkai's extensive knowledge of canonical Buddhist texts allowed him to frame Vajrayāna practice as a method that could unite the "two truths" (ultimate and conventional) via a multi-layered contemplative practice that expresses their fundamental unity. He affirmed the possibility of achieving enlightenment in "this lifetime" by revealing how "this body" is already intrinsically grounded in the qualities of a Buddha. The practices facilitate a thoroughgoing realization of this identity. The book also details Kūkai's engagement with debates active in China and India on the relationship between levels of embodiment (kāya in Sanskrit) understood to be possessed by a Buddha, and demonstrates the affinity his interpretation of Vajrayāna has with later Indian and Tibetan models. It explores his rhetorical positioning vis-?-vis other Buddhist schools in Japan and highlights his ardor and urgency for promoting his vision of the power and beauty of Shingon practice.
Literature for Little Bodhisattvas
In Literature for Little Bodhisattvas, Natasha Heller makes two key interventions: first, she argues that picturebooks are a new genre of Buddhist writing, and second, she calls attention to an emergent family Buddhism in Taiwan that fashions children as religious subjects through shared attention with adult readers. Surveying Taiwanese Buddhism from the ground up, Heller explores the changing family dynamics that have made children into a crucial audience for Buddhist education and the home a key site for Buddhist cultivation. By taking picturebooks seriously as part of the Buddhist textual tradition, Heller demonstrates their engagement with canonical sources alongside innovations for modern audiences. Close readings analyzing both text and image trace narrative themes about Buddhist figures, and connect representations of buddhas and bodhisattvas to a visual culture where new values such as cuteness are articulated. Heller shows that picturebooks have become an integral part of a contemporary Buddhist education that equips children with strategies to interpret everyday life in Buddhist ways and provides religious models for action in the modern world. Literature for Little Bodhisattvas is a pathbreaking work revealing how contemporary picturebooks reframe Buddhism and offer fresh perspectives on its teachings and ideals of family for both children and adults.
The Eye Never Sleeps
The radical challenge of Zen Buddhism is to drop all assumptions and prejudices and experience the truth directly. American Zen teacher Dennis Genpo Merzel brings new life to this ancient wisdom through his commentaries on a classic Chinese Zen scripture, "Verses on Faith-Mind," by the Third Patriarch of Zen, Sosan Zenji. The author strikes to the heart of Zen with clarity and force, expressing in modern terms, to an American audience, the essential wisdom and compassion of Sosan Zenji's famous poem. Full of colorful Zen lore and personal anecdotes from Dennis Genpo Merzel's life, these talks impart the Buddha's teaching directly and intimately, illuminating in simple words the timeless questions and problems of day-to-day life.
Tantric Practice in Nyingma
Rinpoche's commentary on the instructions on the "Preliminaries to the Great Perfection Teaching" contains the classical Nying-ma presentation of the Dzogchen preliminaries and practices that lead to Buddhahood. It is an oral commentary on Patrul Rinboche's Kunzang Lamai Shelung (Words of My Perfect Teacher). "The Recitation of the Preliminaries to the Heart Essence of Vast Openness Illuminating the Good Path to Omniscience" by Jigme Lingpa is included.
Matrix of Mystery
World-renowned Buddhist scholar Herbert V. Guenther here offers the first comprehensive study of the rDzogs-chen or Ati tradition of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Matrix of Mystery explores man's ability to preserve as well as transmit essential insights into the structure of reality. Utilizing a key root Buddhist scripture, the Guhyagarbha ("Matrix of Mystery"), along with dozens of commentarial Tibetan textual sources, Guenther presents the most profound teachings of the Buddhist tradition, which represent the culmination of religious thought and practice in Tibet. In relating these teachings in modern scientific and humanistic perspectives, he demonstrates how, in many cases, the traditional religious and modern secular perspectives on the nature of reality interface. Professor Guenther discusses the mandala and the deities that reside therein; the organizing principles of body, speech, mind, quality, and action, the three bodies of the buddha (trikaya); the inseparability of prajna and skillful means; and the complex field of Buddhist iconography. Throughout, quotations from numerous Tibetan sources are used to illustrate various teachings. His book will appeal to any serious student of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Philosophical View of the Great Perfection in the Tibetan Bon Religion
Dzogchen, or the Great Perfection, is considered by both the Bonpos and the followers of the Nyigma school in Tibet to be the culmination of all spiritual teachings. The philosophical view of the Great Perfection introduces the individual to the knowledge of reality, which is one with the enlightened state of all beings. In this book the Dzogchen view is presented in two Bonpo texts belonging to the revered terma (treasure) and oral traditions, here for the first time translated and critically edited in their entirety.
Bodhicitta
One is unlikely ever to receive a Tibetan Buddhist teaching on either sutra or tantra in which Bodhicitta does not have a central role. Bodhicitta, the compassionate mind which aspires to attain full enlightenment in order to benefit beings, is the very quintessence of the Mahayana path of Buddhist practice. In this practical handbook, Ven. Lobsang Gyatso describes the classical methods for developing the mind of enlightenment and based on his experience as a meditator and a teacher examines a wide range of obstacles to its development.
The Bodhisattva Vow
Before the Dalai Lama bestows the Bodhisattva vow, he often teaches the short text known as the Twenty Verses on the Bodhisattva Vow by the Indian master Chandragomin. Chandragomin's text discusses some of the most important features regarding the vow, such as from whom it should be taken, how one should prepare for receiving it, what constitutes transgressions of the vow, and how they should be purified. In clear and accessible terms, Geshe Sonam Rinchen explains how to take and then safeguard the Bodhisattva vow.
What Is Meditation?
What Is Meditation? explains the Buddhist worldview and the age-old practice it perfected to unfold our innate qualities of compassion, self-acceptance, and inner peace. Rob Nairn gives step-by-step instructions for beginning your own meditation practice, including three simple exercises--"Bare Attention," "Remaining in the Present," and "Meditation Using Sound"--to help get you started.
Rituals of Unity - Study of Li in Confucian Thought
Rituals of Unity - A Study of Li in Confucian ThoughtIn a world where disorder threatens to dissolve the bonds that sustain existence, Rituals of Unity emerges as a bridge between the past and the present. This book unveils the foundations of Confucian thought, presenting a timeless philosophy that transcends eras and resonates with the complexities of the modern world.Each page reveals the depth of wisdom that not only organizes chaos but transforms lives. Confucius, with his unwavering vision, built a foundation based on virtue, rituals, and cosmic harmony. Here, the reader will find a map to understand the secrets of moral order and the transformative power of actions grounded in ethics and just leadership.This is not merely a philosophical study but an invitation to engage with the principles that shape entire societies. Through a holistic and captivating narrative, Rituals of Unity leads to an understanding of how ancient rituals connect with the most universal aspirations: the pursuit of balance, justice, and meaning.By embracing the values proposed in this work, one discovers the connections that align humanity with the transcendent, offering more than answers - a path.
Deepening Zen
From the Foreword, by Daishin Patrick VigilAround 2500 years ago a deeply troubled man sat down under a tree and vowed not to get up until he found the path to liberation. Through that realization, that man became known as the Buddha and his teachings have been passed down over the course of millennia.Mitra Bishop, Roshi has for over 50 years incorporated and practiced those deep teachings in every aspect of her life. She lives each moment in true freedom. Roshi has crafted her messages and teachings with an eye to modern Americans, ordinary people like you and me.... In examining and putting into practice her teachings, offered both in this book and in her first volume...you will nd a true path to ultimate liberation. As Roshi says, "You will become increasingly free, and there is no end to the depths of that freedom." This is her wonderful promise to each of us.ContentsForeword by Daishin Patrick VigilIntroduction by Jan Chozen BaysPreface1. Foundations of the Deepest Zen Practice2. When Anxiety Comes Up in Zen Practice3. The Challenge of Letting Go4. Escape Is Not a Solution5. Jump into the 86 Hells6. Zen Practice and Suppression of Feelings7. Unweaving the Tapestry, Exploring the Mind8. Benefits of Being Honed by Life and Zen Practice9. A Story of Transformation: ACES and Zen10. Struggle and Transformation in Spiritual Practice11. Luminous Transparency and the Rapids of Life12. Nirvana13. A Featureless Map of Zen Practice14. A Sufi Teaching Story15. Fruits of Advanced Zen Practice16. Post Sesshin Advice17. Sensing Your Way Deeper Without a GPSGlossaryGlossary of Kanji TranslationsRecommended ReadingAbout the Author
Composting Our Karma
Engaging teachings on the core Korean Zen practice of "don't-know mind" that encourage us to cultivate and apply a clear mind, improve our intuition, feel naturally at ease, and generate compassionate wisdom to face whatever arises. ​​Barbara Rhodes (Zen Master Soeng Hyang) offers the core Korean Zen teaching of don't-know mind as an antidote to the over-thinking, overly stimulating modern world that is the cause of so much suffering. In this collection of essays, Rhodes shows us that there are ways we can work with, or "compost," whatever we've got in front of us, digest it into energy that can get us through the rough times, and cultivate a satisfying life. "Don't-know mind," Korean Zen's foremost teaching, points to our clear enlightened mind before suffering arises based on concepts and judgments of like and dislike. While simple, it is a lifelong exercise, with immediate benefits that get deeper with practice. By applying don't-know mind to meditation, everyday existence, and life's challenges, readers will learn to work with their own mind's reactions to things; trust their intuition; perceive situations clearly; and act with natural courage, compassion, and enthusiasm. Rhodes offers fascinating insights from her professional life as a nurse; her commitment to engaged Buddhism; her life experience as a member of the LGBTQ community; her use of psychedelics on her spiritual path; and more. Readers will appreciate her down-to-earth wisdom, compassion, enthusiasm, and faith in the power of this practice. This book includes an afterword by Dae Bong Sunim, a guiding teacher at Musangsa Monastery in Korea.
Return with Elixir
A step-by-step guide to reclaiming the soul - Shares four maps for spiritual rebirth based on Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, and the precession of the equinoxes - Traces the author's journey of rebirth, covering his transformation through a spiritual crisis and the creation of a more meaningful life - Provides visualization practices based on ancient Tibetan wisdom to support you on the path of self-realization Exploring wisdom from mystical traditions and perennial philosophy on "dying before you die," Buddhist psychotherapist Miles Neale shares his own hero's journey of rebirth, providing a detailed roadmap for the pilgrimage through dissolution, into the great mystery, and back again to the world. He shares his transformation through a spiritual crisis and, ultimately, his creation of a more meaningful life. He provides four intersecting maps to help guide readers through the experiential process of metaphoric death, reclaiming the soul, and sharing one's genius with others. These four maps--the cosmological map, psychological map, alchemical map, and mythopoetic map--draw on the mythological stages of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung's process of individuation, the Tibetan Buddhist alchemy of conscious rebirth, and the astrological phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes, offering a detailed philosophical underpinning for the soul's journey to immortality. He also provides in-depth visualization practices based on ancient Tibetan wisdom to support you on the path of self-realization. Integrating Tibetan Buddhism with psychology, trauma healing, neuroscience, and mythology, along with profound personal experience, Neale provides a step-by-step manual for spiritual rebirth, revealing how to reframe life's unrelenting challenges and transitions as opportunities for psychological growth.
Guru Rinpoche
The story of Guru Rinpoche's visit to Tibet and significant influence on its Buddhist history during the eighth and ninth centuries, recounted by four prominent Tibetan scholars. This book recounts Guru Rinpoche's historic visit to Tibet and explains his continuing significance to Buddhists. Through a series of historical texts written by prominent Tibetan Buddhist masters, this book recounts the life and legacy of Padmasambhava, The Lotus-Born, better known as Guru Rinpoche. Credited with transmitting Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th century CE during the last century of the Tibetan Empire, Guru Rinpoche fostered radical changes to Tibet, marking historic transformations in the country's religious and political position. Having converted Tibet into a largely Buddhist society, Guru Rinpoche's influence remains a central force in Tibetan identity and practice today. Guru Rinpoche offers an account of his life through four distinct accounts, including: A biography by Jamgon Kongtrul A biography by Dorje Tso from a revelation by Sera Khandro An Indian version of his life by Tarnata The B繹n version of his life by Jamyong Kyentse Wongpo In addition, the book includes a selection of supplications and Buddhist poetry praising the Lotus-Born master, Guru Rinpoche.
Records from the Ancestral Mirror
The Zongjing Lu (Records from the Ancestral Mirror) by Chan master Yongming Yanshou (904-976 CE) is an unusual Chan work, for it embraces the entire field of Chinese Buddhism, including Chan. It cites a dizzying array of sources, introducing readers to a comprehensive understanding of the Buddha-dharma. The work is in one hundred fascicles; the present translation is of fascicles 2, 3, & 4. RANDOLPH S. WHITFIELD studied Chinese language and literature at Leiden University. He has translated various Chan works, including the Jingde Chuandeng Lu (Records of the Transmission of the Lamp) in 8 volumes.
Down to Earth Dharma
Buddhist teachings and heart-centered practices from the "feminine paradigm" to embrace receptivity and bring more balance to your life, relationships, and the world. With deeply thoughtful, lyrical prose, this book invites readers to engage with the world from a unique perspective that encourages feeling, intuitive understanding, embodiment, interdependence, and sacredness. Weaving together classical Theravada Buddhist teachings and mindfulness practices, the book teaches us when and how to channel our receptive and active orientations--sometimes called the feminine and masculine paradigms--to feel more at home in ourselves and the world and drop more deeply into the Buddhist teachings on suffering and happiness. Rebecca Bradshaw, a respected Buddhist teacher in the Insight Meditation community, offers teachings that are simple yet require us to explore aspects of ourselves that go against much of our social conditioning that values goal-oriented busyness, productivity, independence, outgoing energy, and other "active" qualities. When overemphasized, this orientation can cause destructive emotions and behaviors, but we can counter them by embracing more receptive qualities. The receptive or feminine paradigm takes us deeper into the heart of the classical Buddhist teachings, leading to openness and freedom of the heart-mind. Bradshaw illustrates her own resistance to letting go of her strong active orientation with relatable stories, like her efforts to be a perfect meditator. Drawing on our connectedness to nature, she offers guidance for grounded practices, including: useless gazing, getting lost, sense-based reality, practicing in the wildness, accepting uncertainty, and more.These Buddhist teachings are as comforting as they are thought-provoking. Bradshaw's debut book helps us let go and nurture our ability to receive, listen, embrace vulnerability, and just be. Through this process, we heal the imbalances within ourselves and in our relationships to all beings and the natural world.
Recovering Confucian Authority
How Confucians in Early Imperial China exercised their knowledge of ritual to display political legitimacy through ritual institutions.
New Confucian Horizons
This book offers a reflection on Tu Weiming's legacy and deals with Confucianism and New Confucianism and Tu Weiming's contribution to both of these Chinese philosophical traditions, studies how Confucianism has been received, especially in Asia, and considers Confucianism in connection with contemporary challenges.
The Satipatthanasutta with Pemasiri Thera's Commentary
This book is a new contribution on the subject of mindfulness, having at its core the classic Buddhist meditation text, the Satipatthanasutta ("Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness") in the original Pali, translated here into English alongside the comments and explanations of the text by Pemasiri Thera, a contemporary meditation master and scholar from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka. Pemasiri Thera has richly commented on the ancient text, drawing on the larger Tipi?aka and its commentaries, and provided helpful elucidations of the key concepts from the sutta (awareness, mindfulness, contemplation, etc.) as well as offered new and alternative interpretations and concrete experiential examples from meditation practice. Tamara Ditrich compiled, edited, and translated the Satipatthanasutta with Pemasiri Thera's commentary into English and in turn she also contributed her own comments in extensive notes, linking the Thera's commentary to Therav?da Buddhist sources and highlighting those aspects that enrich or throw new light on the standard approaches. The book presents a comprehensive guide for understanding mindfulness by situating it within the larger Theravada doctrinal framework in a way accessible to contemporary readers. The book will appeal to general and scholarly readers interested in any aspects of the theory and practice of mindfulness, Buddhist teachings or P?li studies.
The Satipaṭṭhanasutta with Pemasiri Thera's Commentary
This book is a new contribution on the subject of mindfulness, having at its core the classic Buddhist meditation text, the Satipatthanasutta ("Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness") in the original Pali, translated here into English alongside the comments and explanations of the text by Pemasiri Thera, a contemporary meditation master and scholar from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka. Pemasiri Thera has richly commented on the ancient text, drawing on the larger Tipi?aka and its commentaries, and provided helpful elucidations of the key concepts from the sutta (awareness, mindfulness, contemplation, etc.) as well as offered new and alternative interpretations and concrete experiential examples from meditation practice. Tamara Ditrich compiled, edited, and translated the Satipatthanasutta with Pemasiri Thera's commentary into English and in turn she also contributed her own comments in extensive notes, linking the Thera's commentary to Therav?da Buddhist sources and highlighting those aspects that enrich or throw new light on the standard approaches. The book presents a comprehensive guide for understanding mindfulness by situating it within the larger Theravada doctrinal framework in a way accessible to contemporary readers. The book will appeal to general and scholarly readers interested in any aspects of the theory and practice of mindfulness, Buddhist teachings or P?li studies.
Readings of the Gateless Barrier
The Gateless Barrier is one of the most cherished yet also one of the most enigmatic Chan or Zen texts of East Asian Buddhism. Compiled by the Chinese Chan master Wumen Huikai in 1228, it contains forty-eight Zen stories of spiritual awakening called "public cases" or gong'ans (known as kōans in Japanese and kongans in Korean). This book presents a new English translation with close readings and creative analyses of the Gateless Barrier from both scholarly and practitioner perspectives, allowing a range of readers to venture into the rich world of Chan and Zen. Specialist contributors offer insights on historical context, literary structure, philosophical implications, and gendered dimensions, as well as the embodied practice and contemporary experience of the stories in the Gateless Barrier. By bringing together academic expertise with experiential insight from Zen teachers, this book provides a grounded and nuanced account of how the Gateless Barrier has been--and continues to be--practiced and lived in China, Korea, Japan, and the West. An innovative and sophisticated study, this book is ideal for university classroom use, and it also makes the Gateless Barrier accessible to other first-time readers, Buddhist practitioners, and scholars.
Guru Nanak's Transcendent Aesthetics
One of the foremost exponents of the Sikh religion and of related Punjabi literature offers here a sustained exploration of the aesthetics of Sikhism's founder, understood as 'a symbiosis of his prophetic revelation, his poetic genius, and his pragmatic philosophy - embedded in his visceral expression of the transcendent One.' Drawing on a wide range of sources, Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh examines in full all the beauty, intimacy, and inclusive richness of Guru Nanak's remarkable literary art. Her subject's verses - written in simple vernacular Punjabi - are seen creatively to subvert conventional linguistic models while also inspiring social, psychological, environmental, and political change. These radical lyrics are now brought into fascinating conversation with contemporary artists, poets, and philosophers. Moving beyond conventional religious discourses and spaces of worship in its attempt to sketch a multisensory, publicly oriented reception of Sikh sacred verse, this expansive book opens up striking new imaginaries for 21st-century global society.
Buddhism and International Humanitarian Law
What guidance can Buddhism provide to those involved in armed conflict and to belligerents who must perhaps kill or be killed or defend their families, communities or countries from attack? How, moreover, does Buddhism compare with international humanitarian law (IHL) - otherwise known as the law of armed conflict - which protects non-combatants and restricts the means and methods of warfare to limit the suffering it causes?Despite the prevalence of armed conflict in parts of the Buddhist world, few contemporary studies have addressed these questions. While there is a wealth of material on Buddhist conflict prevention and resolution, remarkably little attention has been paid to what Buddhism says about the actual conduct of war. IHL is also still relatively little known in the Buddhist world and might not therefore influence the behaviour of belligerents who self-identify as Buddhists and are perhaps more likely to be guided by Buddhist principles. This ground-breaking volume is part of an International Committee of the Red Cross project which seeks to fill this gap by exploring correspondences between Buddhist and IHL principles, and by identifying Buddhist resources to improve compliance with IHL and equivalent Buddhist or humanitarian norms.This book will be of much interest to students and researchers of International Law, Buddhism, Ethics as well as War and Conflict studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Buddhism.The Open Access version of this book, available at https: //www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003439820/buddhism-international-humanitarian-law-andrew-bartles-smith-kate-crosby-peter-harvey-asanga-tilakaratne-daniel-ratheiser-noel-maurer-trew-stefania-travagnin-elizabeth-harris-mahinda-deegalle-christina-kilby, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. A version of the open access title is also available on the OAPEN platform, https: //library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/75921
The Inner Path
This is an introduction to Buddhist practice for those in prison. This book is offered free of charge to all incarcerated people, pre-trial detainees, conditionally released people, and those in all situations between these stages. The author, editors, and publisher have all waived any income from the book. If you would like to purchase a copy, the base price you pay reflects a copy for you and an extra free copy to be donated to a Buddhist prison chaplaincy program. If you purchase directly from the publisher, the price you pay reflects a copy for you and two extra free copies to be donated to a Buddhist prison chaplaincy program. To sponsor additional copies for prisoners as an act of generosity, please contact the publisher directly.CONTENTSIntroductionThe Four Noble TruthsThe Eightfold PathDukkhaKarmaDo Buddhists believe in a god?The Three Marks of ExistenceThe Three JewelsTaking RefugeThe Five PreceptsMettaThe AggregatesThe WaveThe Five ObstaclesHow to Meditate (Beginner)How to Build an Altar in Your CellBuddhist DietSit in the FireEmpty BoatSlow DownThe Opinions of OthersAngulimalaThe Power of PracticeHomage to our AncestorsHow to Meditate (More Experienced)The Practice of MettaWalking MeditationBuddhist FestivalsFurther ReadingSuttas and PrayersAcknowledgments About the AuthorThe BasicsShrine Images
Posthuman Buddhism and the Digital Self
In Posthuman Buddhism and the Digital Self, Les Roberts extends his earlier work on spatial anthropology to consider questions of time, spaciousness and the phenomenology of self. Across the book's four main chapters - which range from David Bowie's long-standing interest in Buddhism, to street photography of 1980s Liverpool, to the ambient soundscapes of Derek Jarman's Blue, or to the slow, contemplative cinema of Tsai Ming-Liang - Roberts lays the groundwork for the concept of 'dwellspace' as a means by which to unpick the shifting spatial, temporal and experiential modalities of everyday mediascapes. Understood as a particular disposition towards time, Roberts's foray into dwellspace proceeds from a Pascalian reflection on the self/non-self in which being content in an empty room vies with the demands of having content in an empty room. Taking the idea of posthuman Buddhism as a heuristic lens, Roberts sets in motion a number of interrelated lines of enquiry that prompt renewed focus on questions of boredom, distraction and reverie and cast into sharper relief the psychosocial and creative affordances of ambience, spaciousness and slowness. The book argues that the colonisation of 'empty time' by 24/7 digital capitalism has gone hand-in-hand with the growth of the corporate mindfulness industry, and with it, the co-option, commodification and digitisation of dwellspace. Posthuman Buddhism is thus in part an exploration of the dialectics of dwellspace that orbits around a creative self-praxis rooted in the negation and dissolution of the self, one of the foundational cornerstones of Buddhist theory and practice.
Readings of the Gateless Barrier
The Gateless Barrier is one of the most cherished yet also one of the most enigmatic Chan or Zen texts of East Asian Buddhism. Compiled by the Chinese Chan master Wumen Huikai in 1228, it contains forty-eight Zen stories of spiritual awakening called "public cases" or gong'ans (known as kōans in Japanese and kongans in Korean). This book presents a new English translation with close readings and creative analyses of the Gateless Barrier from both scholarly and practitioner perspectives, allowing a range of readers to venture into the rich world of Chan and Zen. Specialist contributors offer insights on historical context, literary structure, philosophical implications, and gendered dimensions, as well as the embodied practice and contemporary experience of the stories in the Gateless Barrier. By bringing together academic expertise with experiential insight from Zen teachers, this book provides a grounded and nuanced account of how the Gateless Barrier has been--and continues to be--practiced and lived in China, Korea, Japan, and the West. An innovative and sophisticated study, this book is ideal for university classroom use, and it also makes the Gateless Barrier accessible to other first-time readers, Buddhist practitioners, and scholars.
Vajrayana and the Culmination of the Path
The final volume of the Library of Wisdom and Compassion by His Holiness the Dalai Lama takes us to the uncommon practices and realizations of Vajrayana to the full awakening of a buddha. His Holiness the Dalai Lama skillfully illuminates the unique qualities of Vajrayana, as practiced in Tibet, and the method to eradicate the subtlest obscurations preventing the full awakening of a buddha. Speaking to newcomers and advanced students alike, he explains the similarities and differences of the Sutra and Tantra paths. Having gathered many of the doubts and difficult points concerning the tantric path, he clarifies the purpose of receiving proper empowerment by qualified gurus and the ethical restraints and commitments required to enter the path of secret mantra. The paths and stages of the four tantric classes are explained, as are the generation-stage and completion-stage practices of Highest Yoga Tantra. You are introduced to the practices of clear appearance and divine identity common to all tantric sadhanas, as well as the distinctive practices of illusory body and actual clear light that overcome the subtlest defilements on the mind and eliminate all obscurations quickly. The understanding of emptiness in Sutra and Tantra is the same, but the consciousness perceiving emptiness differs. In Highest Yoga Tantra that consciousness is great bliss, which arises from knowing the methods to manipulate the channels, winds, and drops of the subtle body. In short, in Vajrayana and the Culmination of the Path the Dalai Lama sets out the path that leads to blissful awakening and enables us to be of great benefit to all sentient beings.
Dzokchen
Pith Instructions for Realizing the Great Perfection, from One of the Greatest Tibetan Yogis of the Twentieth Century, H. H. Dudjom Rinpoche. In the concise yet comprehensive practice manual entitled The Illumination of Primordial Consciousness, the great twentieth-century Tibetan Nyingma master Dudjom Rinpoche lays out a sequential path to spiritual freedom according to the teachings of the Great Perfection (Dzokchen): First, we refine our awareness by training in meditative quiescence (shamatha) and then proceed to the cultivation of contemplative insight (vipashyana), by which our mind's basic nature of luminosity and emptiness is revealed. Then, having recognized that the ordinary, deluded mind is actually without any intrinsic essence, we are primed to cut through this conditioned mind into unborn, timeless pristine awareness, which has never been contaminated by mental afflictions or other obscurations. Finally, we realize that our own awareness has never been other than the dharmakaya, the mind of a buddha, and perfect enlightenment is realized spontaneously and effortlessly. Beloved teacher and renowned scholar Lama B. Alan Wallace guides the reader through Dudjom Rinpoche's remarkable text, sharing insights gained over years of study and practice. He provides line-by-line commentary, enhanced with teachings from other revered Dzokchen masters such as Padmasambhava, Dudjom Lingpa, and Gyatrul Rinpoche. Also included is a set of fifteen guided meditations, with links to audio tracks of Lama Alan giving the instructions himself.
The Teaching and Teachings of Temple Buddhism in Contemporary Japan
How have Buddhist teachings come to be in modern and contemporary Japan and how are they taught? This pioneering work seeks to answer these questions by highlighting the public teachings of Temple Buddhism institutions, in particular Temple Buddhism kindergartens and Buddhist secondary schools and colleges. The community outreach provided by these Buddhist facilities is far greater than any other with the possible exception of funerals yet until now it has received little attention from scholars of Japanese religion. After determining what is taught in Buddhist education and how, Stephen Covell introduces readers to a select group of monks who undergo some of the most grueling practices in Japanese Temple Buddhism to determine if the public-facing teachings of Buddhist education are unique or similar to those of elite Buddhist practitioners. The teachings and sites of teaching examined here include but are not limited to classical doctrinal studies and temples focused on the education of Buddhist clergy. Covell uncovers the arguments made by priests involved in morals education, the dharma talks of famous ascetics, and the ways in which laws and legal codes have changed Buddhist education. He looks at what is taught on the ground, online, and in popular texts to discuss the current teachings embraced as Buddhism within the institutions of Temple Buddhism. Among his numerous findings is such teachings and worldview are remarkably similar to those of New Religions and Buddhist lay movements as outlined by Japan religion scholars and government bodies in charge of education. The Teaching and Teachings of Temple Buddhism in Contemporary Japan will be welcomed by students and scholars in Japanese religious studies and early childhood and higher education as well as those interested in current Buddhist practice and teachings in general.
Monks and Literati
Scholars have long debated the relationship between Buddhist monks and Confucian literati during the late Chosŏn (seventeenth to nineteenth centuries), when the Korean state adopted anti-Buddhist policies. On the one hand, it is understood that literati openly displayed hostility toward monks and engineered their persecution; on the other, they were known to have privately supported Buddhism, helping the religion persevere, even thrive, in the Confucian society. In Monks and Literati, the first book-length study in English to provide a comprehensive survey of Buddhism in late Chosŏn Korea, Seong Uk Kim argues that such opposing views overemphasize the role of literati and depict monks as passive actors. Kim applies sociologist Ann Swidler's concept of repertoire--the social, cultural, and religious inventory of symbols, rules, and skills for constructing strategies of action--as an analytical tool to reconcile the two narratives and offer a more nuanced and comprehensive picture of the complex literati-monk relationship. Kim examines the ways monks initiated and developed relationships with literati using their repertoire of cultural and religious resources. Monks adopted various roles, such as cultural companion, spiritual mentor, and ritual officiant, within and beyond the private realm of Confucian society and, in so doing, reaffirmed what it meant to be a monk and redefined what Buddhism could be at a time when monks' religious identities and activities were constantly being challenged. By avoiding the binary frame describing monks as either victims or beneficiaries of literati, Monks and Literati sheds new light on not only Korean Buddhism in the late Chosŏn but also more generally East Asian Buddhism, where a similar monk-literati paradigm has often been applied.
The Five Ranks of Zen
A comprehensive and accessible guide to the Five Ranks, the pinnacle teaching of Zen Buddhism pointing to the path to true freedom. The great Japanese Zen master Hakuin exclaimed, "How priceless is the merit gained through the step-by-step practice of the Five Ranks of Master Tozan!" Hakuin here refers to a teaching created by the Chinese Buddhist master Dongshan, known in Japanese as Zen Master Tozan, which is honored and studied in both Soto and Rinzai schools of Zen and is a gem of the classical Zen tradition. The ranks--pithy, provocative titles followed by Tozan's brief poetic commentaries--serve as guides to a radical exploration of the experience of relative and absolute reality, the interpenetrating "Two Truths" of Mahayana Buddhism. In The Five Ranks of Zen, American Zen teacher Shishin Wick offers an accessible entry point to each of the ranks, which Tozan created in two formulations: the first and better-known is the Five Ranks of the Relative and the Absolute; while the second set, called the Sequence of Merit, is an abbreviated form of the Ten Oxherding Pictures, a traditional formulation of the Zen spiritual journey. Wick presents multiple translations and offers commentary on the ranks' titles and on Tozan's renowned verses, as well as offering guidance on these teachings' application in contemporary life and Zen practice. He emphasizes that, to truly plumb the depths of Tozan's teachings, you must treat these teachings as Zen koans and make a thorough investigation using your entire body.
The Pastor's Public Ministry
Seasoned pastor, Terry L. Johnson, shares practical wisdom for pastors to help them prioritise their public ministry. Includes foreword by Ligon Duncan. Ministers, in our age, are expected to be jacks-of-all-trades. However important administration, committee work, counselling, and relationship building may be, the pastor's public ministry in the preaching of the Word and leading of public worship and prayer are fundamental. The Bible lays out specific qualifications for elders and deacon. The gospel is guarded by requiring those who hold public office to have high standards of knowledge, character, and conduct. Terry Johnson lays out that, if this is true for "lay" leadership, how much more important for those called to ministry. With years of experience, and practical wisdom, Terry L. Johnson guides pastors to think through each of the key aspects of public worship. If you are just starting out in ministry, or have been serving the Lord for many years, a prayerful reading of this book will be of great benefit to your ministry, and your congregation. Contents: Leading in Worship First Priority Principles of Worship Leadership Services of Worship Public Services Well-ordered Reverent Well-paced Clergy-led Simple yet excellent Leading in Praise Is it singable? Is it biblically and theologically sound? Is it biblically and theologically mature? Is it emotionally balanced? Is it demographically comprehensive? Leading in Prayer Background Recent Times Personal Experience Recommendations for Public Prayer Scriptural Planned Brief Undiluted Appropriate Full diet of prayer Clear headings Example Preaching Lectio continua Textual Without Formulas Assume Ignorance Explain Context Review and Repeat Application Brevity Urgency Authentic Exhortation
Untangled
This accessible guide for walking Buddhism's eightfold path is the perfect way to combat loneliness, disconnection, and depression-true happiness is not as unattainable as it may seem. Loneliness is on the rise, with detrimental effects on our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing. How do we look past the surface, to discover a life filled with meaningful connection and genuine relationships? Untangled is a welcoming guidebook to finding expansive ease and true joy through the eightfold path-one of Buddhism's foundational teachings. Psychotherapist and Zen teacher Koshin Paley Ellison compassionately walks readers down these eight roads, leading them to discover true joy. Combining teachings from both Eastern and Western traditions, Paley Ellison equips readers with the tools needed to make profound change, inside and out. Infused with Paley Ellison's own anecdotes of his own life, this guide will help you transform your relationships and offers a path for social healing.
Ritual Performance in Early Chinese Thought
Examining early Chinese ritual discourse during the Warring States and early Western Han Periods, this book reveals how performance became a fundamental feature of ritual and politics in early China. Through a dramaturgical lens, Thomas Radice explores the extent to which performer/spectator relationships influenced all aspects of early Chinese religious, ethical, and political discourse.Arguing that the Confucians conceived ritual as primarily a dramaturgical matter, this book demonstrates not only that theatricality was necessary for expression and deception in a community of spectators, but also how a theatrical 'presence' ultimately became essential to all forms of public life in early China. Thomas Radice illuminates previously unexplored connections between early Chinese texts, aesthetics, and traditions.
Prophetic Wisdom
Classical Buddhism lacked an understanding of systemic injustice and its contribution to collective suffering. Despite the teaching of impermanence, classical Buddhist schools viewed social institutions as given and offered no path to social transformation. Today, Buddhists are shaped by multiple religious and secular traditions, including those stemming from the Hebrew prophets. The prophetic tradition offers a socially and religiously powerful concept-the concept of justice-that reconfigures the Buddhist dharma.In a time of unparalleled peril, Buddhists are challenged as never before to turn wisdom into strategic action to foster systemic social change. Compassion is not enough. Prophetic Wisdom shows how Engaged Buddhists can expand their understanding of the causes of collective suffering and develop nonviolent means for social transformation through a dialectic of love, power, and justice. It concludes by confronting the poison of racism in the American body politic.
A Heart as Wide as the World
The beloved Buddhist meditation teacher and New York Times-bestselling author of Real Happiness offers encouragement and inspiration for anyone on the spiritual pathBuddhist teachings have the power to transform our lives for the better, says Sharon Salzberg, and all we need to bring about this transformation can be found in the ordinary events of our everyday experiences. In A Heart as Wide as the World, Salzberg distills more than twenty-five years of teaching and practicing meditation into a series of short essays, rich with anecdotes and personal revelations, that offer genuine aid and comfort for anyone on the spiritual path. Many chance moments, both small and profound, serve as the basis for Salzberg's teachings: hearing a market stall hawker calling, "I have what you need!"; noting hotel guests' reactions to a midnight fire alarm; watching her teacher, Dipa Ma, bless a belligerent dog; seeing the Dalai Lama laughing uproariously at his own mistake. Each passing moment, Salzberg shows, can help us down the path toward "a seamlessness of connection and an unbounded heart."
Insight Meditation
The fruit of some thirty years' experience leading Buddhist meditation retreats, this book touches on a wide range of topics in short sections that can be either read in sequence or browsed through at leisure. Leading meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein offers favorite Dharma stories, key teachings, and answers to most-asked questions, providing an overview of Buddhist practice and its context generally while focusing on vipassana meditation specifically. He covers what the path itself is composed of, how to practice, what freeing the mind is all about, how karma works, the connection between psychology and dharma practice, a look at what selflessness really is, and how to really be of benefit to others.
How to Meditate on the Stages of the Path
Deepen your meditation by diving into the practices of the lamrim--the stages of the path to enlightenment. Buddhist tradition tells us that enlightenment is possible for each and every one of us. It's actually the best thing we can do for others and for the world, but also the best thing we can do for ourselves, because it means being free from all misery, pain, depression, dissatisfaction, and negative emotions, and abiding forever in peace, joy, love, and compassion. What could be more wonderful than that? Kathleen McDonald (Sangye Khadro), a Western nun with decades of experience and author of the bestselling book How to Meditate, guides us through the next step in our meditation practice: the transformative meditations on the Tibetan lamrim stages to enlightenment. She helps us see that the whole purpose of meditation is to transform our mind in a constructive way. For this to happen, we need to become so thoroughly familiar with the lamrim topics that they become our natural way of thinking and living our life. This warm and encouraging guide takes us through meditations on these lamrim topics, such as: - impermanence - refuge - karma - the four noble truths - bodhichitta - the six perfections: giving, ethics, patience, joyous effort, concentration, and wisdom How to Meditate on the Stages of the Path offers practical advice, support, and step-by-step guidance on how to meditate on the stages of the path to enlightenment that will transform the practice of new meditators and seasoned practitioners alike.
The Doctrine of the Buddha
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Buddhist Mahayana Texts
This collection of Buddhist Mahayana texts, translated by renowned scholars E.B. Cowell, F. Max Muller, and K. Takakusu, presents a profound exploration of the Mahayana tradition. Key scriptures, such as the Diamond Sutra, unfold the essential teachings of compassion, emptiness, and enlightenment. Through these texts, readers encounter transformative insights that delve into the nature of reality and the path to spiritual awakening. By highlighting the philosophical and ethical principles central to Mahayana Buddhism, this compilation offers an invaluable resource for both scholars and practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding of Buddhist thought. Engaging and enlightening, this volume encapsulates the timeless wisdom of the Mahayana tradition, offering readers an opportunity to explore the depth and beauty of these revered teachings.
The Nature and Rationale of Zen/Chan and Enlightenment
This book initiates a paradigm shift away from Zen/Chan as quintessentially Buddhist and examines what makes Chan thought and practice unique and original through an interdisciplinary investigation of the nature and rationale of Chan and its enlightenment.Exploring how enlightenment is achieved through Chan practice and how this differs from other forms of Buddhism, the book offers an entirely new view of Chan that embraces historical scholarship, philosophical inquiry, textual analysis, psychological studies, Chan practice, and neuroscientific research and locates the core of Chan in its founder Huineng's theory of no thinking which creatively integrates the Taoist ideas of zuowang (forgetting in seated meditation) and xinzhai (fast of heart-mind) with his personal experiences of enlightenment. It concludes that Chan is the crystallization of an innovative synthesis of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism as well as other resources of somatic and spiritual cultivation, and that enlightenment is a momentary return to the mental state of a baby before birth.This book will appeal to students and scholars of religion, philosophy, and neuroscience. It will also offer new insights to thinkers, writers, artists, therapists and neuroscientists as well as those practicing Zen, Mindfulness, and psychotherapy.
Gender Neutral Buddhist Path of Truth
The DhammapadaExplore the timeless wisdom of the Buddha through this modern interpretation of the Dhammapada, one of the most revered texts in Buddhism. This edition offers both a contemporary translation from the original Pali texts alongside the Sanskrit source, making it an invaluable resource for both the curious reader and the dedicated practitioner.Table of Contents: N簞1: There Is No Other in Unity - The fundamental oneness of existence.N簞2: Stay Present - The essence of mindfulness and vigilance.N簞3: The Mind - On cultivating and mastering the mind.N簞4: The Flowers - Symbolism of beauty and transience.N簞5: The Fool - Insights into ignorance and its consequences.N簞6: The Wise - Characteristics and virtues of the enlightened.N簞7: Freedom - The path to and meaning of true liberation.N簞8: Even Better - Aspiring for higher ideals and values.N簞9: Good and Evil - Exploring ethics and the nature of morality.N簞10: Life - Reflections on life's challenges and cycles.Through these and the subsequent chapters (up to N簞26 on the Brahman), "What the Buddha Said" provides an extensive, thematically organized insight into the Buddha's teachings. Each chapter opens a window to deeper contemplation on subjects like self-reliance, joy, anger, and the path to enlightenment. This collection of concise, powerful verses encourages readers to reflect and inspires a life in harmony with the Dhamma. Perfect for those seeking to understand the essence of Buddhism and apply it in modern life, this book serves both as a spiritual guide and a philosophical text that prompts self-reflection and inner peace.
![New Human Revolution, vol. 1 [LP 16 Pt Edition]](https://cdn.kingstone.com.tw/english/images/product/4279/9781038774279m.webp "New Human Revolution, vol. 1 [LP 16 Pt Edition]")
New Human Revolution, vol. 1 [LP 16 Pt Edition]
Through this novelized history of the Soka Gakkai-one of the most dynamic, diverse, and empowering Buddhist movements in the world today-readers will discover the organization's goals and achievements even as they find inspiring and practical Buddhist wisdom for living happily and compassionately in today's world. The book recounts the stories of ordinary individuals who faced tremendous odds in transforming their lives through the practice of Nichiren Buddhism and in bringing Buddhism's humanistic teachings to the world. This 1st volume looks at events that occurred in 1960 when Soka Gakkai was first brought to North and South America from Japan. This inspiring narrative provides readers with the principles with which they can positively transform their own lives for the better and realize enduring happiness for themselves and others.
