Daily Meditations and Prayers from Around the World "...I hope that people of all faiths as well as those who do not believe in a religion will find inspiration and understanding here that in some way contributes to their own inner peace." -The Dalai Lama #1 New Release in Buddhism, Sacred Writings Discover the power to heal through many meditation and prayer voices. This interfaith book provides insight from various religious and cultural texts that touches on our pain and inspires the healer within all of us to be reminded of hope and faith so that we may live a deeper, more meaningful, and fully self-expressed life. Create a tapestry of comfort and inspiration. Maggie Oman creates a healing space for readers in her deeply spiritual book Prayers for Healing: 365 Blessings, Poems, & Meditations from Around the World. During moments that are filled with despair, illnesses, depression, or spiritual longing, Prayers for Healing draws on the power of wise and healing devotionals for reflection and deep mediation. Embrace physical, emotional, and spiritual transformation. Prayers for Healing demonstrates the transformative nature woven through the power of prayer and wisdom. It draws from a select collection of influential spiritual leaders, philosophers and thinkers of our time that include: The Tao Te Ching, The Koran, The Torah, Native American texts, The Bible, Thich Nhat Hanh, Wendell Berry, ack Kornfield, Rumi, Rainer Maria Rilke, Marian Wright Edelman, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Marianne Williamson. If you have found that works such as Prayers That Bring Healing, Earth Prayers, Prayers of Hope for Caregivers, Prayers for Hard Times, or Prayers for Hope and Healing have brought inspiration into your life, then this book is an invitation to strengthen your inner healer.

Series Information:
RoutledgeCurzon Studies in Asian Philosophy

This study is an investigation of the moral percepts and codes of every day conduct by which ordained women regulated their lives. It takes as its basis the Bhiksuni Pratmoksa Sutras of the Dharmagupta school, preserved in Chinese translation, and the Mulasarvastivada school, preserved in Tibetan translation.

Without Buddha I Could not be a Christian narrates how esteemed theologian, Paul F. Knitter, overcame a crisis of faith by looking to Buddhism for inspiration. From prayer to how Christianity views life after death, Knitter argues that a Buddhist standpoint can encourage a more person-centred conception of Christianity where individual religious experience comes first, and liturgy and tradition second. Moving and revolutionary, this edition comes with a new conclusion - 'Jesus and Buddha Both Come First!' 'A compelling example of religious inquiry.' New York Times 'One of the finest contemporary books on the encounter between religions in the heart and soul of a single thoughtful person.' Library Journal

In this compact book, the authors reflect on the legacy of four great religious thinkers: Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, and Muhammad. They offer a brief biography of each founder, describing the events that most shaped his life, how his personal spirituality developed, how he lived and how he died, what kind of person he was, and finally, they briefly trace the course of each religious tradition after its founder's death. The Carmodys divide their topic into the major dimensions of spiritual life - nature, society, the self, and divinity - and provide clear and easy access to where each figure stands on enduring issues and how each compares with the others.

Zen and Japanese Culture is a classic that has influenced generations of readers and played a major role in shaping conceptions of Zen's influence on Japanese traditional arts. In simple and poetic language, Daisetz Suzuki describes Zen and its historical evolution. He connects Zen to the philosophy of the samurai, and subtly portrays the relationship between Zen and swordsmanship, haiku, tea ceremonies, and the Japanese love of nature. Suzuki uses anecdotes, poetry, and illustrations of silk screens, calligraphy, and architecture. The book features an introduction by Richard Jaffe that acquaints readers with Suzuki's life and career and analyzes the book's reception in light of contemporary criticism, especially by scholars of Japanese Buddhism. Zen and Japanese Culture is a valuable source for those wishing to understand Zen in the context of Japanese life and art, and remains one of the leading works on the subject.

This book discusses what is now called "Buddhism". It started as an effort to strengthen a weak point in that "immanence" which had become the accepted religious teaching in the valley of the Ganges, by showing that the "God/in/man" was realizable, not by gnosis and ritual, but in conduct. Conduct needed to be brought into relgion, into the relation between man and his eternal destiny. Man's being is more truly becoming; and only in and by becoming a More, will he attain to an actual, not potential Most. In teaching a More worth in conduction, Buddhism brought in a teaching of the man himself as Less.

"Sermon of One Hundred Days" is the first translation into English from Korean of a seminal text in Korean Buddhism. Buddhism was introduced into Korea through China in about the 4th-5th century C.E. and within 200 years became so advanced that it influenced the development of Chinese Buddhism. Chan Buddhism was introduced into Korea around the 8th century and Seon Master Jinul (1158-1210) is honoured as having set the curriculum for the education of Buddhist monks and established Korean Buddhism as it was known for the next millennium. In this "Sermon of One Hundred Days", published in 1967, Master Songcheol (1912-93) develops Korean Buddhism further by teaching what Buddhist truth is. This Sermon comprehends the vast developments of Buddhism in India and China, including early Buddhism, Abhidharma, Madhyamaka, Yogacara Buddhism, Chinese doctrinal schools of Tiantai and Huayan and Chinese Chan and Korean Seon Buddhism. The Master analyses the logical structure of various historical teachings, which are connected by the principle of 'the middle way,' and encourages his audience to pursue solely the truth to which the Buddha awakened.

This invaluable interpretive tool, first published in 1937, is now available for the first time in a paperback edition specially aimed at students of Chinese Buddhism.
Those who have endeavoured to read Chinese texts apart from the apprehension of a Sanskrit background have generally made a fallacious interpretation, for the Buddhist canon is basically translation, or analogous to translation. In consequence, a large number of terms existing are employed approximately to connote imported ideas, as the various Chinese translators understood those ideas. Various translators invented different terms; and, even when the same term was finally adopted, its connotation varied, sometimes widely, from the Chinese term of phrase as normally used by the Chinese.
For instance, klésa undoubtedly has a meaning in Sanskrit similar to that of, i.e. affliction, distress, trouble. In Buddhism affliction (or, as it may be understood from Chinese, the afflicters, distressers, troublers) means passions and illusions; and consequently fan-nao in Buddhist phraseology has acquired this technical connotation of the passions and illusions. Many terms of a similar character are noted in the body of this work. Consequent partly on this use of ordinary terms, even a well-educated Chinese without a knowledge of the technical equivalents finds himself unable to understand their implications.

Traditionally, Buddhist philosophy has seemingly rejected the autonomous self. In Western philosophy, free will and the philosophy of action are established areas of research. This book presents a comprehensive analytical review of extant scholarship on perspectives on free will. It studies and refutes the most powerful Western and Buddhist philosophical objections to free will and explores the possibility that a form of agency may in fact exist within Buddhism. Providing a detailed explanation of how Buddhist meditation increases self-regulative mind-control abilities, the author argues that the Buddhist path is designed to produce meditation virtuosos exhibiting mind-control abilities far exceeding the free-will advocate's ability to 'do otherwise' or have their choices be 'up to' them. Based on the empirically-supported mind-control cultivated by these meditation virtuosos, the book proposes the principle of, 'Buddhist Soft Compatibilism', a theory of 'freedom of the mind' that entails freedoms of the will, attention, emotion and action, compatible with both determinism and indeterminism. Buddhism, Meditation and Free Will will be of interest to Buddhist and Western philosophers and academics interested in comparative philosophy, free will, philosophy of action, metaphysics, ethics and Religious Studies.

India has a rich tradition of meditative practices designed to study the phenomenon of consciousness. From the distant past to the present, India has evolved a unique psychological culture with grand unifying themes and universal modes of meditative practice. This book provides a detailed analysis of classical and modern Indian views on consciousness along with their related meditative methods. It offers a critical analysis of three distinct trends of Indian thought, viz., a dualistic mode of understanding and realizing consciousness in Hindu Samkhya, an interactive mode in early Buddhist abhidhamma, and the evolutionary transformational mode in the teachings of the twentieth-century sage Sri Aurobindo. This book explores the unifying features in Indian first person practices with regard to consciousness and the importance of these applied psychological practices and their associated understanding of our conscious inner lives. The most striking feature of the work is that side by side theoretical exposition of consciousness, it includes a number of worksheets which explain how to use meditation to achieve relaxation as well as cognitive 'maps' of the different levels of conscious states and instruction and how one can traverse from one state to another. The final chapter explores Sri Aurobindo who introduced new and decisive Indian spiritual thought and practice to India in the form of Integral Yoga. This innovative book will be of interest to scholars studying Indian philosophy, Indian religion and the emerging field of contemplation studies.

Emphasizes the inner life as a constant moving on and the mover as a pilgrim travelling along an ancient Way. This Way to ultimate Reality was called by Gautama the Buddha the Middle Way, the path between the introverted life of contemplation and the extrovert life of action in the world of men.

The "Lotus of the Wonderful (or Mystic) Law" is the most important religious book of the Far East, and has been described as "The Gospel of Half Asia". It is also the chief scripture of Buddhism in China, and therefore the chief source of consolation of the many millions of Buddhists in East Asia. It is justifiable to consider it as one of the greatest and most formative books of the world, and the text is here translated for the use of the Western student whilst an endeavour is made to reveal the contour of the most spiritual drama known in the Far East.

This is one of the oldest collections of Buddhist discourses in the Pali canon; by far one of the most popular as well as the most important. Written in a mixture of prose and verse, it presents a code of conduct and provides the basis for a system of moral philosophy. A prime source work.

A popular, if erroneous, conception of Buddhism has been that of self-negation or even nihilism, that is to say a religion that is negative in its basic attitude. In this classic work, Professor Tachibana instead argues that Buddhism is an essentially positive creed that provides an ethical philosophy that remains relevant irrespective of time and place. This is the 'Middle Way', with eight qualities or virtues - understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration - that form the core of the Buddhist philosophy of life. It is these great moral attributes that Professor Tachibana expounds as being the essence of Buddhism and providing a way of life based on tolerance and benevolence.

This book investigates two matters which initially appear unconnected: the nature of Buddha's enlightenment and the meaning of Buddhist symbolism. It concludes that these are in fact connected because they ultimately deal with meditative practice. The authors examine the relationship that appears to exist between Buddhist meditative techniques and certain examples of Buddhist symbolism as found in the earliest Pali texts and in the so-called twilight language of the tantras. In doing so, they bring together two approaches of Buddhist hermeneutics which in the past have never been properly integrated: the meditative-descriptive approach and the scholarly-historical approach. The result is an original interpretation of the higher stages of the Buddhist path of enlightenment, and of key aspects of Buddhist cosmology and doctrine.

First published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This essential meditation manual for the Western reader shares step-by-step guidance to elevating your meditation practice and discovering greater peace and insight. The Mind Illuminated is a comprehensive, accessible and - above all - effective book on meditation, providing a nuts-and-bolts stage-based system that helps all levels of meditators establish and deepen their practice. Providing step-by-step guidance for every stage of the meditation path, this uniquely comprehensive guide for a Western audience combines the wisdom from the teachings of the Buddha with the latest research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Clear and friendly, this in-depth practice manual builds on the nine-stage model of meditation originally articulated by the ancient Indian sage Asanga, crystallizing the entire meditative journey into 10 clearly-defined stages. The book also introduces a new and fascinating model of how the mind works, and uses illustrations and charts to help the reader work through each stage. This manual is an essential read for the beginner to the seasoned veteran of meditation.

This book traces the development of the samurai, in the way they regarded themselves and their role in society. From their origins as provincial men-at-arms they gradually evolved into a very powerful group who had an almost mythical status. Their concept of chilvarous behaviour and strict code based on the central principle of loyality to death and beyond, hitherto largely ignored by scholars, has since earned them a worldwide appeal. The warrior ethic is examined in relation to the three traditional religious influences - Buddhism, Shinto and Confucianism. As warriors the "bushi" contravened the most important tenets of the main religions, that of taking life, which was strictly forbidden in both Buddhism and Shinto. Therefore ways had to be found to justify their actions to harmonize with these religions. The book analyses the attitudes of the samurai themselves towards such characteristic features of their life as the sword and sword-fighting techniques, the taking of heads of fallen enemies on the battlefield, honourable suicide ("seppuku") and human sacrifice ("junshi" and hito-bashira") the cult of the god of war, hachiman, and of Buddhist deities of warlike aspect, as well

This manual, by an experienced Buddhist, has been written so that it will be easily accessible also to the reader who knows nothing about meditation, but also contains knowledge and experience that can be gained only through practice.

The wisdom of Buddhism is to be found in its Scriptures, and this book attempts to compile a selection from Buddhist writings. The Scriptures used by the Zen School of China and Japan are well represented, and chapters discuss such topics as the Buddha, Tibetan Buddhism, concentration and meditation, the Buddhist order, and Nirvana. In this anthology, the source of each item is given, whilst a glossary and index have been added.

Struggling with depression, anxiety, illness, an eating disorder, a difficult relationship, fear, self-hatred, addiction or anger? Renowned Buddhist leader Tsultrim Allione explains that the harder we fight our demons, the stronger they become. Offering Eastern answers to Western needs, Tsultrim seamlessly weaves traditions from Tibet and the Western world to offer a new and unique answer to the problems that plague us: that rather than attempt to purge them, we need to reverse our approach and nurture our demons. This powerful five-step practice forms a strategy for transforming negative emotions, relationships, fears, illness and self-defeating patterns. This will help you cope with the inner enemies that undermine our best intentions.