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The Bible (from Greek τὰ βιβλία ta biblia "the books") is a collection of sacred scripture of both Judaism and Christianity. There is no single version; both the individual books (Biblical canon) and their order vary between denominations.
The subject of religion has as many beliefs, feelings, and perceptions around it as there are people on the planet. In a way, everyone has their own religion, even if they subscribe to a religion that many others do. This is because everyone has their own interpretations of the religion they subscribe to. If you were to ask followers of any given religion what their beliefs are, or what parts of the religion they agree or disagree with, they would all say something a little different from each other.
“Religion is the set of beliefs, feelings, dogmas and practices that define the relations between human being and sacred or divinity. A given religion is defined by specific elements of a community of believers: dogmas, sacred books, rites, worship, sacrament, moral prescription, interdicts, organization. The majority of religions have developed starting from a revelation based on the exemplary history of a nation, of a prophet or a wise man who taught an ideal of life”.
Religion is one of the most powerful, deeply felt, and influential forces in
human society. It has shaped people’s relationships with each other,
influencing family, community, economic, and political life. Religious beliefs and values motivate human action, and religious groups organize their collective religious expressions. Religion is a significant aspect of social life, and the social dimension is an important part of religion.
Religion is a collection of behavior that is only unified in our Western conception of it. It need not have a natural unity. There is no reason to assume, and good reason not to assume, that all religious behavior evolved together at the same time in response to a single shift in the environment. This article does not look at the religion as a uni- fied entity and seek a definition of its essence. Instead, it looks at what science needs to know in order to discover how and why religion came into existence as a human behavior.
There are several problems in trying to make a definition of religion that is not overly vague and general, but that still is “inclusive enough” to not leave out any of the beliefs and practices that seem religious to most intelligent people. By their nature, religious beliefs tend to motivate other aspects of human behavior beyond those which would strictly be considered to be of religious concern.
This English translation by J. Takakusu published originally as vol. XLIX of The Sacred Books of the East series (Oxford, 1894, public domain) has been edited for ease of reading and comprehension by modern readers. Footnotes from the original edition are dated and have thus been eliminated. A reprint of the unaltered and fully annotated translation exists in Dover paperback.
The Sutra is the shortest of the three basic Sutras in Pure Land School, so it is also The Smaller Sukhavativyuha. It starts by giving a description of the splendours of Sukhavati, the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha, and further explains what must be done in order to be reborn there, The Buddhas of the six directions extol the merits and virtues of Amitabha Buddha, so one should make a great vow to be reborn in Sukhavati by believing and reciting the name of Amitabha upon hearing His name.
Translated into Chinese during the Ts’ao-Wei dynasty by the Tripitaka Master Samghavarman from India. Translated from Chinese into English by Hisao Inagaki. The text follows the Taisho Tripitaka edition, vol. 12, and the passage numbers follow Jodo-shinshu Seiten, 1988, pp. 3-83.
The Larger Sukhavativyuha is the longest of the three basic Sutras of the Pure Land School. It starts with a monk called Dharmakara, who practiced Buddhist Dharma under Tathagata Lokesvararaja. The monk made 48 great vows to save all sentient beings. Upon the fulfilment of these vows, he would create a Pure Land in the west called Sukhavati, which literally means the Land of Ultimate Bliss. He himself thus became the Buddha Amitabha.
Nagarjuna is the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. The Mulamadhyamaka-Karika ("Fundamentals of the Middle Way") is his major work. It was originally composed in Sanskrit, and Sanskrit as well as early Tibetan versions of the work have survived, as have later Chinese translations.
This is a fully annotated, critical English translation of Maitreyanatha's Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature (Mahayanasutralamkara), as transmitted to the fourth-century Indian Buddhist scholar-adept Ärya Asanga, along with its commentary (bhasya) by Asanga's brother Vasubandhu. A wellspring of the "magnificent deeds trend of the path," the Discourse Literature emphasizes the compassion side of Buddhist thought. Includes an introduction covering essential historical and philosophical topics, a bibliography, and detailed index.
Middle Beyond Extremes contains a translation of the Buddhist masterpiece Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes. This famed text, often referred to by its Sanskrit title, Madhyantavibhaga, is part of a collection known as the Five Maitreya Teachings. Maitreya, the Buddha's regent, is held to have entrusted these profound and vast instructions to the master Asanga in the heavenly realm of Tushita.
Distinguishing Phenomena and Pure Being was composed by Maitreya during the golden age of Indian Buddhism. Mipham's commentary supports Maitreya's text in a detailed analysis of how ordinary confused consciousness can be transformed into wisdom. Easy-to-follow instructions guide the reader through the profound meditation that gradually brings about this transformation. This important and comprehensive work belongs on the bookshelf of any serious Buddhist practitioner--and, indeed, of anyone interested in realizing their full potential as a human being.
From Buddhism in Afghanistan to Zen Buddhism, this book offers an in-depth overview of this fascinating religion.In approximately 700 A-to-Z entries, "Encyclopedia of Buddhism" provides easy access to the terms, concepts, personalities, historical events, institutions, and movements that helped shape the history of Buddhism and the way it is practiced today.
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Sir Eliot is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Sir Eliot then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.
This book provides the first English translation of Candrakirti's commentary (ca. 6-7th century C.E.) on four illusions that prevent us from becoming Buddhas. Lang's translation captures the clarity of Candrakirti's arguments and the lively humor of the stories and examples he uses. Lang's introduction explores the range of Candrakirti's interests in religion, philosophy, psychology, politics, and erotic poetry.
With his distinctive clarity and wit, "Bhante G" takes us step by step through the myths, realities, and benefits of meditation and the practice of mindfulness. We already have the foundation we need to live a more productive and peaceful life — Bhante simply points to each tool of meditation, tells us what it does, and how to make it work. This expanded edition includes the complete text of its bestselling predecessor, as well as a new chapter on the cultivation of loving kindness, an especially important subject in today's world.
Western scholars have traditionally considered the earliest sūtra in the Prajñāpāramitā class to be the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra or "Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines", which was probably put in writing in the 1st century BCE. This chronology is based on the views of Edward Conze, who largely considered dates of translation into other languages. The first translation of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā into Chinese occurred in the 2nd century CE.
The Mind is neither large nor small; it is located neither within nor without. It should not be thought about by the mind nor be discussed by the mouth. Ordinarily, it is said that we use the Mind to transmit the Mind, or that we use the Mind to seal the Mind. Actually, however, in transmitting the Mind, there is really no Mind to receive or obtain; and in sealing the Mind, there is really no Mind to seal. If this is the case, then does the Mind exist or does it not exist?
This is a wonderful (fairly advanced) book, on Dzogchen with considerable material on Mahamudra woven in (see below). It addresses Jigme Lingpa's "Longchen Nyingtig" cycle of Termas (Treasure Texts) including discovered texts, texts resulting from "pure visions" of 14th century Dzogchen master Longchenpa while Jigme Lingpa (18th century) was in retreat, and supporting texts authored by Jigme Lingpa. All but one of these texts has been included in both English and Tibetan. Van Schaik's introductory material focuses upon certain main themes: simultaneous vs.
The following volume constitutes the second in a series devoted to Buddhist philosophy. It takes up more or less where its predecessor, Volume Seven of this Encyclopedia, leaves off, around the beginning of the second century. This is a period still not will understood, with a great deal of scholarly disagreement remaining about many aspects of the history and thought of the period. The editor of the volume has tried to utilize the most up-to-date scholarship known to us.
A psychologist in private practice and the director of the Buddhist Guhyasamaja Center in Virginia, Lorne Ladner has written a concise book that brings understanding to the Tibetan concept of compassion. In The Lost Art of Compassion: Discovering the Practice of Happiness in the Meeting of Buddhism and Psychology, he has brought his years of Buddhist meditation and mainstream psychology together into a workable formula that seeks to help people become their own therapists and seek their own inner peace, allowing them to then look outward and do good in the world.
In this teaching Rinpoche presents the main schools of Buddhist philosophy with their progressively more subtle and refined views of reality. However it is not just a teaching on the view, but a presentation providing the student the means to realize it through meditation practice The idea of a series of meditation practices on a particular aspect of the Buddha’s teachings is that by beginning with one’s first rather coarse commonsense understanding, one progresses through increasingly subtle and more refined stages until one arrives at complete and perfect understanding.
The Tibetan Books of the Dead are a diverse collection of Buddhist scriptures that yield valuable insight into the psychology of death and dying and suggest the importance of meditative practice and knowledge as tools for self-understanding. This in-depth study of this rich body of Buddhist literature details the Tibetan Buddhist belief in the bardos, of intermediate states, and serves as an illuminating companion volume to The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Zen Mind Beginners Mind is a simple series of lectures that may help the reader to see reality a bit clearer (it did that for me). Zen Mind Beginners Mind is a simple series of lectures built around the idea, accept nothing till you verify it for yourself. The idea of not accepting anything till you verify it yourself is one of the bright lights of Zen and creates a huge chasm between itself and other paths on spiritual journeys. Shunryu Suzuki is very clear in the book that Buddhism uses this as the foundation of everything that will come after it.
Aiming to overcome the limitations of our biographical knowledge about one of the most famous Indian philosophers, Joseph Walser's ambitious Nāgārjuna in Context seeks to locate the progenitor of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist thought (generally taken to have flourished around 150 CE) with historical precision. Nāgārjuna's influential but enigmatic works were composed, Walser argues, “in a Mahāsāṅghika monastery in or near an urban center in the Lower Krishna River Valley in [what is now] modern Andhra Pradesh” (14), probably between 175 and 204 CE (86–87).
This book is the carefully edited record of the fascinating discussions at a Mind & Life conference in which five leading physicists and a historian (David Finkelstein, George Greenstein, Piet Hut, Arthur Zajonc, Anton Zeilinger, and Tu Weiming) discussed with the Dalai Lama current thought in theoretical quantum physics, in the context of Buddhist philosophy. A contribution to the science-religion interface, and a useful explanation of our basic understanding of quantum reality, couched at a level that intelligent readers without a deep involvement in science can grasp.
Despite the rapid spread of Buddhism -- especially the esoteric system of Tantra, one of its most popular yet most misunderstood forms -- the historical origins of Buddhist thought and practice remain obscure. This groundbreaking work describes the genesis of the Tantric movement in early medieval India, where it developed as a response to, and in some ways an example of, the feudalization of Indian society.
"In giving an overview of the Buddhadharma, as practised by the Tibetans, I generally point out that the Buddhism we practice is an integrated form comprising teachings of the low, Bodhisattva and Tantric vehicles, including such paths as the Great Seal. Because quite a number of people have already received initiations, teachings and so on, they might find it helpful to have an explanation of the complete framework.
Armstrong carefully ties the Buddha's time to our own and champions his spiritual discoveries with an understated dignity that even the Buddha might bless. While exercising a scholar's restraint, she reveals a detectable compassion for Sidhatta Gotama, the radical who walked away from a pleasure palace because he refused to "remain locked in an undeveloped version" [of himself]. Armstrong overcame peculiar challenges to write about this historical figure who became "a type rather than an individual," as his personality and life particulars evaporated into the power of his selflessness.
In this booklet five practising Buddhists, all with modern backgrounds, offer their reflections on the significance of karma and its relation to ethics, spiritual practice, and philosophical understanding. The contributers include: Nyanaponika Thera, Bhikkhu Nanajivako, Francis Story, Nina Van Gorkom, and Leonard Bullen.
Death is a subject that most people do not like to hear about, talk about, or even think about. Why is this? After all, whether we like it or not, each and every one of us will have to die one day. And even before we have to face our own death, we will most probably have to face the deaths of other people our family members, friends, colleagues, and so forth. Death is a reality, a fact of life, so wouldn’t it be better to approach it with openness and acceptance, rather than fear and denial?
Introduction to the Middle Way presents an adventure into the heart of Buddhist wisdom through the Madhyamika, or "middle way," teachings, which are designed to take the ordinary intellect to the limit of its powers and then show that there is more.
Buddhism Plain & Simple did live up to its name. Throughout the book, Hagen made it evident that Buddhism is about being awake in the present moment. Hagen said, “Our journey must be two awaken here and now, to awaken to here and now. To be fully alive, we must be fully present” (19). To do this, Hagen examined the human situation of suffering, gave ways to wake up, and showed the benefits of having a free mind.
This is a companion volume to The Koan and The Zen Canon , by the same editors. The first volume collected original essays on koan collections, recorded sayings of individual masters, histories of major schools, and compilations of monastic regulations. The second focuses on the early history of Zen in China, providing overview assessments of many of the most important canonical texts that set the Zen tradition in motion throughout East Asia. Zen Classics will follow that historical movement, focusing primarily on texts from Korea and Japan that brought this Buddhist movement to fruition.
This text, the Bequeathed Teaching Sutra (Fo chui ban nie pan liao shuo jiao jiejing, or Yijiaojing for short), was translated into Chinese around 400 C.E. and became an influential text often cited and commented on among Chinese Buddhists in the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties. In Chan (Zen) communities in particular, it was considered a basic reference, taught and studied through the ages.
This book is an annotated translation of one of the great Tibetan classics of Mahayana Buddhist thought, mKhas grub rje's sTong thun chen mo. The text is a detailed critical exposition of the theory and practice of emptiness as expounded in the three major schools of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy: the Yogacara, Svatantrika, and Prasangika.
This course describes a series of meditation exercises and practical advice on how to apply them. It works best if you follow the course progressively, giving each sequence of instructions a good 'work-out' before proceeding further.
A Spacious Path to Freedom is a classic manual of Tibetan meditation, offering the Dzogchen and the Mahamudra systems of practice. Chapters explain the stages of meditation, and author Karma Chagma applies his extensive experience and familiarity with Tibetan oral traditions to reveal how these two meditative systems can be integrated into a single approach. Commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche enhances this core addition to advanced Buddhist Studies shelves.
This book is an edited transcript of Rinpoche’s teachings during the Vajrasattva retreat at Land of Medicine Buddha, California, February through April, 1999. It contains explanations of the various practices done during the retreat, such as Vajrasattva purification, prostrations to the Thirty-five Buddhas, Lama Chöpa, making light offerings, liberating animals and much, much more. There are also many weekend public lectures covering general topics such as compassion and emptiness.
The book is the result of the author's observations of original sources. Majority of examples cited by his are selected from the works of well-known authors and this has made the work both authoritative and interesting. Among the ancient grammarians he has followed Panini whose rulers are referred to at every step.
Vastly different in belief and practice, two new Buddhist religious movements in Thailand, namely the Wat Phra Dhammakaya and Santi Asoke emerged in Thailand in the 1970s at a time of political uncertainty, social change and increasing dissatisfaction with the Thai Sangha and its leadership.
The book bases Buddhist psychology on a sophisticated and thoroughgoing empiricism. Jamesean psychological concepts are used in order to clarify the Buddhist ideas. The first part of the book outlines the principles of psychology that can be traced to the Buddha himself with detailed comparison to James. The second part deals with the understanding of these principles by later disciples of Buddha. The substantial appendices present analyses of Maitreya's Madhyantavibhaga and Vasubandhu's Vijnaptimatratasiddhi.
This volume represents a newly revised and greatly expanded edition of Heinrich Dumoulin's acclaimed history of Zen Buddhism which was first published over 30 years ago. It has been updated to take into account the wealth of historical research that has gone on in the intervening years, insuring its place as a standard reference work in the field. This volume treats Zen from its roots in ancient Indian Buddhism and Yoga to its flowering in China under the influence of Taoism and Confucian thought.
This comprehensive and detailed survey of the first six centuries of Indian Buddhism sums up the results of a lifetime of research and reflection by one of Japan's most renowned scholars of Buddhism. Relying on Pali and Sanskrit sources and on inscriptions from archaeological sites and Chinese translations of Indian texts, Hirakawa balances his review of early Buddhist doctrinal development with extensive discussion of historical background and the evolution of Buddhist institutions.
The Venerable Myokyo-ni is one of today’s most distinguished teachers in the Rinzai Zen tradition. In Gentling the Bull she offers an insightful explanation of the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, showing how they are a metaphor of both one’s Zen training and spiritual journey. The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, also known as the Ten Bull Pictures, are believed to have been drawn by Kakuan, a twelfth-century Chinese Zen master, but became widely used as a means of Zen study in fifteenth-century Japan.
This dissertation examines the relation between the Madhyamaka and Yogacara schools of Buddhism, focusing on the Yogacara perspective. It reevaluates the opinion, generally accepted among modern scholars, that the Madhyamaka and Yogacara schools constitute divergent and radically opposed movements within the Buddhist Tradition. To address this issue, the dissertation distinguishes between two separate questions. The first question is whether the early Yogacara writers were actively refuting what they perceived to be a distinct religious school within the Buddhist tradition.
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed a growing interest in Buddhism, and it continues to capture the imagination of many in the West who see it as either an alternative or a supplement to their own religious beliefs. Numerous introductory books have appeared in recent years to cater to this growing interest, but almost none devotes attention to the specifically ethical dimensions of the tradition. For various complex cultural and historical reasons, ethics has not received as much attention in traditional Buddhist thought as it has in the West.
This article is the first of two comparing findings of studies of advanced practitioners of Tibetan Buddhist meditation in remote regions of the Himalayas, with established results on long-term practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation programs. Many parallel levels of improvement were found, in sensory acuity, perceptual style and cognitive function, indicating stabilization of aspects of attentional awareness. Together with observed increases in EEG coherence and aspects of brain function, such changes are consistent with growth towards a state of total brain functioning, i.e.
The theme of this study, Buddhist ceremonies and rituals, may not appeal to the self-styled Buddhist purist who wishes to restrict the designation "Buddhism" exclusively to the teachings of the Buddhist scriptures, which he usually interprets in a narrowly intellectualist manner. The fact remains, however, that the practices and observances to be described here justly claim an integral place within the stream of living Buddhism as practiced by its adherents.
Christine Mollier reveals in this volume previously unexplored dimensions of the interaction between Buddhism and Taoism in medieval China. While scholars of Chinese religions have long recognized the mutual influences linking the two traditions, Mollier here brings to light their intense contest for hegemony in the domains of scripture and ritual.
In the early part of this century, the discovery of a walled-up cave in northwest China led to the retrieval of a lost early Ch'an (Zen) literature of the T'ang dynasty (618-907). One of the recovered Zen texts was a seven-piece collection, the Bodhidharma Anthology. Of the numerous texts attributed to Bodhidharma, this anthology is the only one generally believed to contain authentic Bodhidharma material. Jeffrey L. Broughton provides a reliable annotated translation of the Bodhidharma Anthology along with a detailed study of its nature, content, and background.
From the Jacket: "The book is an attempt to present the position of Buddhist laywomen and almswomen in historical perspective. For the study of the laywomen the author has exploited the material found in the Canonical literature, and the Commentaries on them".
From the dust jacket: The word and its meaning are inseparable. A word may appear simple, yet it may possess such potency that, though dormant for many centuries, it suddenly shakes off its slumber and changes the course of history. One such word is arhan. People used it, for ages from the dawn of the Vedic period to the advent of the Buddha, for naming a worthy or venerable person.
In a probing analysis of the oldest Buddhist texts, Julius Evola places the doctrine of liberation in its original context. The early teachings, he suggests, offer the foremost example of an active spirituality that is opposed to the more passive, modern forms of theistic religions. This sophisticated, highly readable analysis of the theory and practice of Buddhist asceticism, first published in Italian in 1943 , elucidates the central truths of the eightfold path and clears away the later accretions of Buddhist doctrine.
The author devotes a good part of his book to the elaboration of the anatta doctrine stating that the Buddha sought for the atta in the indirect way, by taking away from the atta everything that is not the atta. The Buddha, according to the author, followed this way so radically and with so much success, that whatever is cognizable revealed itself to him as anatta.
From the Introduction: “In so far as the group of religious ideas called ‘Buddhism’ is conceded to have a history – and I have seen this denied by one or two! – it is generally held, that the earliest known stratum of this group, born in India and thence transplanted to South Asia, came to be known as Hina-yana (the lower ‘vehicle’), otherwise called Theravada (opinion of the elders).
The elapse of twenty-five centuries, with all its upheavals, has not abated the appeal of Buddhism. It has almost faded from the land of its birth. It has, because of oral transmission, passage of time, different people, skies, editors, translators and languages, changed beyond recognition. Despite these, today nearly a third of the human race are professed Buddhists. Mrs.
This thoughtfully translated and organized volume is the cornerstone of any Buddhist library. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha is a companion to the equally essential The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, The Long Discourses of the Buddha, and the 2005 anthology of Discourses of the Buddha. The 152 discourses of this major collection combine a rich variety of contextual settings with deep and comprehensive teachings.
Valuable companion work to the Abhidharmakosa, re-translated from the French work of the master scholar Lamotte, and dealing with a variety of philosophical problems connected with the law of karma.
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha is a complete translation of the Samyutta Nikaya -- the third great collection of the Buddha's discourses preserved in the Pali Canon -- containing all of the important short suttas on such major topics as the Four Noble Truths, dependent origination, and the Noble Eightfold Path. The Connected Discourses ranks as one of the most inspiring and indispensable.
This translation of the Digha Nikaya, a collection of 34 sutras and a companion volume to The Middle Length Discourses (below), deals with a variety of topics such as the rewards of monastic life, early Buddhist philosophy, and the duties of laypersons.
This book provides a vivid and detailed picture of the daily life and religious practices of Buddhist monks and nuns in the classic period of Theravada Buddhism. The author describes the way in which the Buddha's disciples institutionalized and ritualized his teachings about food, dress, money, chastity, solitude, and discipleship. This tradition represents an ideal of religious life that has been followed in India and South Asia for more than two thousand years.
From the first chapter: "Today India is again appearing on the Buddhist map of the world. Indians are awakening to their Buddhist past. In the second half of the nineteenth century—thanks to western and Indian archaeologists and orientalists—Indians began to be surprised at the discovery of the Buddhist legacy. To talk of a “revival of Buddhism” in modern India is right in this sense of the discovery of the Buddhist heritage by Indians. Even today the process of the discovery of Buddhism in India is still going on.
Seeks to trace the growth of the Buddhist community, to indicate its relation to the world of Hindu and Non-Hindu society and to follow the rise and development of the doctrines from their legendary origin into the system which has spread over a great part of Asia.
The purpose of this book is straightforward. It is to serve as an accessible guide for students wishing to reach as quickly as possible a familiarity with the basic ideas of Buddhist philosophical and religious thought, and the results of some of the latest research in the field. A good understanding of the way Buddhism developed in India is an essential prerequisite for any appreciation of Buddhist ideas elsewhere, in Tibet, China, or Japan and the other countries of East Asia.
Pratyupanna: Translated from the Chinese by Paul Harrison - Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1988 - this sutra is one of the oldest Mahayana sutras and describes the techniques which have become the basis of an ambulatory meditation practice called "jog-yo-zanmai" in Japanese. [Taisho Volume 13, Number 418] [Ch: Pan-chou-san-mei-ching] [Jpn: Han-ju-zan-mai-kyo]
There are four translations exit in Chinese: T13, No. 416, 417, 418, 419. BDK English Tripitaka 25-II is the translation of T13, No. 418.
This present book systemizes the notes of lectures that I gave on numerous occasions at Taisho University. As these notes are now being printed in book form, this book will be entitled Pure Land Buddhism in China: A Doctrinal History, which points to the major concern of this work: the development and changes that Pure Land doctrines have undergone in China. However, religious doctrines are accompanied by faith, and this in turn carries within itself an impetus to dissemination and expansion.
Course Description:
The course will examine the socio-cultural circumstances that led to the rise and popularity of the Pure Land School (Jìngtǔzōng or Jōdokyō), both in China and Japan and its basic teachings. The course will focus specially on the religious and philosophical significance of the prayer to the Amida Buddha so essential in Pure Land pietism. The division of the school into Jodo and Jodoshin after its introduction to Japan will also be considered.
Recommend Reference:
一、圆融和谐的实相本体论––天台宗的三谛思想
三谛这个名词，并非是天台智者所创，从它的义理方面来说，许多经典都具备了三谛的意义；而三谛名字的出现，一般认为是出自《仁王》和《璎珞》这两部经典。智者在《妙法莲华经玄义》卷二中云：
明三谛者，众经备有其义，而名出《璎珞》《仁王》，谓有谛、无谛、中道第一义谛。今经亦有其义，寿量云：非如非异即中道，如即真，异即俗。
三谛之名，有不同的称呼。如有谛，亦可称为俗谛、世谛、假谛；无谛亦可称为真谛、空谛、第一义谛；中道第一义谛亦可称为中谛、第一义谛、一实谛，亦可名为虚空、佛性、法界、如如、如来藏等。现在为了方便，即将三谛称之为“空谛”、“假谛”和“中谛”。
通常说法认为，天台的“三谛义”来源于《中论》“四谛品”中的“三是偈”：
因缘所生法，我说即是空；亦为是假名，亦是中道义。
这个著名的“三是偈”，表达了龙树中观学的“缘起性空”的思想。但是在三论师那里，此偈只是阐述了“真俗二谛”的道理，而把“中道义”当作是“体”：
“因缘生法”是俗谛，“即是空”是真谛，“亦是中道义”是体。
圆融，乃“中国化”佛学——天台宗、华严宗、禅宗、真言宗等诸宗思想的重要内容，霍韬晦先生认为：绝对与圆融，乃中国佛学的特质，“中国佛教的整个方向都是向圆融之路而趋”。此言可谓如实。圆融，近代以来也曾受到一些学者的批评，认为是中国佛学的一大缺点。从圆融思想的内涵看，其形成虽然不无中国本土儒、道两家思想的制约，而系依据印度大乘经论诠释发挥，处处引经据典，深得大乘精髓，是中印圣者智慧的结晶。在世界各种宗教教义中，圆融思想独树一帜，引人注目，有其独具的价值，对21世纪的人类而言，特具现实意义。
一、圆融思想的源流及其哲学义蕴
圆融一语，很难找到相对应的梵、巴原语，亦非中国诸子百家古籍中本有的词语，是中国佛教理论家所创造。《辞源》解释：“圆融，佛教语。破除偏执，圆满融通。”圆，《说文》释为“圜全也”，圜则“天体也”，是则“圆”字之义，是像天一样完全。“融”字早见于《左传》等，《辞源》解释有明亮、溶化、流通长远、和谐等义。圆与融组合在一起，字面含义基本为圆满融通，有整体无亏、无滞碍、不偏执、消融一切矛盾、和谐和解的意思。在佛学中，圆融更有其特定的深刻义蕴。《佛光大词典》解释说：
Nakamura argues with remarkable erudition that particular intellectual and social developments can be traced in all great cultures; that each culture deals with its problems in about the same order. Discussing ideads from India, China, Japan and Europe, the author considers such inclusive notions as the concept of God, the controversy over universals and the nature of orthodoxy and heterodoxy. This is a lucid and rewarding book which sets a new standard for dealing with a history of thought across many cultures.
Enter into the colourful world of tantric Buddhism, with its unique visualizations, liturgies, initiations, and "inner yoga" as practiced in Tibet and conveyed by Tibetan masters teaching in the West. Using non technical language, engaging stories, and personal anecdotes, Reginald Ray demonstrates how the practice of tantra opens up an appreciation for ordinary life - the world of sensory experience, of pleasure and pain - as the place where ultimate revelation occurs.
All sentient beings, without exception have buddha nature, the inherent purity and perfection of the mind, untouched by changing mental states. Thus there is neither any reason for conceit in deeming oneself better than others, nor any reason for self-contempt, thinking of oneself as inferior and unable to reach enlightenment. This seeing is obscured by veils which are removable and do not touch the inherent purity and perfection of the nature of the mind as such.
For centuries Tibetan Buddhist contemplatives have directly explored consciousness through carefully honed rigorous techniques of meditation. B. Allan Wallace explains the methods and experiences of Tibetan practitioners and compares these with investigations of consciousness by Western scientists and philosophers. Balancing the Mind includes a translation of the classic discussion by fifteenth century Tibetan contemplative Tsongkhapa of methods for developing exceptionally high degrees of attentional stability and clarity.
This encyclopaedic work on Theravada Buddhism, "The Path of Purification", was written by Buddhaghosa.
This book helps to fill what has long been a gap in the scholarship on Early Buddhism, offering us detailed textual study of the Sattipatthana Sutta the foundational Buddhist discourse on meditation practice.
Nagarjuna is renowned for his penetrating analysis of reality. In the Precious Garland, he offers intimate counsel on how to conduct one's life and how to construct social policies that reflect Buddhist ideals. The advice for personal happiness is concerned first with improving one's condition over the course of lifetimes and then with release from all kinds of suffering, culminating in Buddhahood.
As in all the major religions, there is a wisdom behind the theology of Buddhism that informs the believer in daily life. Stephen Batchelor would argue that the difference with Buddhism is that the wisdom is in fact independent of the theology and is not informative to believers only, but to everyone. In Buddhism Without Beliefs Batchelor lays out the major tenets of Buddhist wisdom, commenting on their relevance to modern life. The Buddha said that seekers must find the Truth for themselves, and Batchelor offers this book as a roadmap.
The works of the Buddha can feel vast, and it is sometimes difficult for even longtime students to know where to look, especially since the Buddha never explicitly defined the framework behind his teachings. Designed to provide just such a framework, 'In the Buddha's Words' is an anthology of the Buddha's works that has been specifically compiled by a celebrated scholar and translator.
"Paticcasamuppada is a profound teaching," - said the Buddha - "so profound, in fact, that most people are not able to penetrate the Law of Dependent Origination." The Buddha's words to Ananda are as true today as they were 2,500 years ago. Paticcasamuppada, which is the heart of Buddhism, is difficult to see clearly and, thus, has become the center of grave misunderstandings and distortions.
Zen master Nhat Hanh turns his hard-earned wisdom as a survivor of war, persecution, and exile to the age-old dilemma of what happens when one dies. If the greatest fear is, as he suggests, that one becomes nothing, then how is one to live with this threat of complete annihilation? Using Buddhist parables and anecdotes, Nhat Hanh offers an alternative perspective. Buddhists see birth and death as mere concepts, not manifestations of reality. When someone dies, they are still with us, just in a different form.
In the rush of modern life, we tend to lose touch with the peace that is available in each moment. World-renowned Zen master, spiritual leader, and author Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how to make positive use of the very situations that usually pressure and antagonize us. Dirty dishes, red lights, and traffic jams are spiritual friends on the path to "mindfulness" - the process of keeping our consciousness alive to our present experience and reality.
Buddhadasa's "system" of thought, if we may call it that, is not conceived as a scheme to explain all that is worth explaining. Rather, it reflects his continuous effort to interpret the dhamma and make it relevant to particular times, places, persons and events. It begins with such basic questions as "Who am I?", "How can I live a meaningful life?" and "What is true freedom?".
Within the context of contemporary Western Buddhism, Secrets of the Lotus provides a unique collection of materials on Buddhist meditation. It it includes translations of and commentaries on foundational meditation texts in the Theravada and Japanese Zen traditions:
• The Satipatthana Sutta, the Vimuttimagga, the Zazen-gi with Mumon Yamada Roshi's teisho, and Hakuin's commentary on the Heart Sutra
• A discussion of zazen within the Rinzai tradition by a contemporary Zen Priest (the Rev. Eshin Nishimura);
Note:
The Śūnyatā Doctrine in Nāgārjuna's Mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā
3 (3-0-6), 1:30pm-4:30pm, Friday, Classroom (2)
Course Description:
The course is designed to give an understanding of historical and philosophical significance of the Madhyamaka system of Nāgārjuna. The emphasis will be on understanding the philosophy of emptiness by reading the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā of Nāgārjuna.
The course will be roughly divided into three sections:
a. The doctrinal background of Madhyamaka philosophy its history in brief;
b. Study of Kārikās: a study of selected chapters; and
Sanskrit Grammer
Weber's claim that Buddhism is an otherworldly religion is only partially true. Early sources indicate that the Buddha was sometimes diverted from supramundane interests to dwell on a variety of politically-related matters. The significance of Asoka Maurya as a paradigm for later traditions of Buddhist kingship is also well-attested. However, there has been little scholarly effort to integrate findings on the extent to which Buddhism interacted with the political order in the classical and modern states of Theravada Asia into a wider, comparative study.
Early European histories of India frequently reflected colonialist agendas. The idea that Indian society had declined from an earlier Golden Age helped justify the colonial presence. It was said, for example, that modern Buddhism had fallen away from its original identity as a purely rational philosophy that arose in the mythical 5th-century BCE Golden Age unsullied by the religious and cultural practices that surrounded it. In this book Robert DeCaroli seeks to place the formation of Buddhism in its appropriate social and political contexts.
ศึกษาความเป็นไปของพระพุทธศาสนาสมัยพุทธกาล การเปลี่ยนแปลงความเชื่อของคนในสังคมอินเดีย ความเป็นไปของพระพุทธศาสนาหลังพุทธปรินิพพานทั้งความเจริญและความเสื่อม การเผยแพร่พระพุทธศาสนาไปสู่นานาประเทศตั้งแต่อดีตจนถึงปัจจุบัน......
พระประวัติตรัสเล่า หรือพุทธประวัติจากพระพุทธโอษฐ์นี้ เลือกเก็บจากบาลีพระไตรปิฏก รวบรวมเองมาเฉพาะตอนที่พระองค์ ตรัสเล่าถึงประวัติของพระองค์เอง.....