First published in 1978, Christmas Humphrey's autobiography presents the fascinating history of a life rich and varied in both private and in public. Spanning seven decades it touches on many events of historical interest in which he was personally involved. Among them the abdication of Edward VIII, the Japanese War Trials and his time with the Dalai Lama after his flight from Tibet. The author gives a graphic portrait of life behind the Bar and on the Bench - of what it is like to prosecute and to defend, and of the immense difficulties which face a judge when passing sentence. Here too are recollections of many famous cases of the twentieth century, and of the many murder trials in which he appeared as prosecuting counsel or judge. Of equal interest is his fifty years' of work in the field of English Buddhism. In 1924 he and his wife founded the Buddhist Society, which would become hugely influential in the spread of Buddhism throughout the West. Both Sides of the Circle is rich in humour and humanity. There is the joyful account of the author's Edwardian Boyhood followed by the tragedy of his brother's death in World War 1, which lead to the awakening of his interest in Buddhism and Theosophy. He speaks freely of his encounters with the Dalai Lama, with D.T. Suzuki, with Jung and with the Royal families of Thailand, Sikkim and Nepal, as well as his travels throughout the Europe and in the Orient. Both sides of the Circle is more than autobiography - it is also a spiritual odyssey whose reissue will be of great interest to those who've enjoyed Christmas Humphreys' other work and wish to know more about his brilliant career. It will also be very welcome to those wanted to learn about Buddhism in general, and the origins of English Buddhism in particular.

Buddhism in the Modern World explores the challenges faced by Buddhism today, the distinctive forms that it has taken, the individuals and movements that have shaped it, and the modern history of Buddhism in different geographical regions. Part one surveys the Buddhist tradition in different parts of the world, from Southeast Asia to North America, while part two explores key themes including globalisation, gender issues, and the ways in which Buddhism has confronted modernity, science, popular culture and national politics. Each chapter is written by a distinguished scholar in the field, and is designed to offer a lively and up to date overview of the subject. Students and scholars alike will find this book an indispensable guide to the living Buddhist tradition

Buddhism is rich in fascinating practices and rituals. From well known rituals such as chanting sutras or painting mandalas to lesser known rites associated with death or stupa consecration, or derived from contact with other religions, this book offers students a unique understanding of the living tradition. It draws on eye witness reports of Buddhism on the ground, but also provides a reflective context within which the practices can be understood and appreciated. It covers religious and lay practices, art and festivals, regional and temporal variations, socio-political practices, and much else. Written by an authority on the topic, each chapter introduces a ritual or practice, describes it as the author has observed it and then goes on to discuss its context and significance. All entries include a list of further reading as well as photographs to help students deepen their understanding.

Saicho (767-822), the founder of the Tendai School, is one of the great masters of Japanese Buddhism. This edition, which includes a new preface by the author, makes available again a classic work on this important figure's life and accomplishments. Groner's study focuses on Saicho's founding of the great monastic center on Mount Hiei, the leading religious institution of medieval Japan, and his radical move to adopt for purposes of ordination the Mahayana bodhisattva precepts--a decision that had far-reaching consequences for the future of Japanese Buddhist ethical thought, monastic training and organization, lay-clerical relations, philosophical developments, and Buddhism-state relations.

An essential guide to what it's like to spend a week inside
a Zen Buddhist monastery.

The notion of spending days at a time in silence and meditation amid the serene beauty of a Zen monastery may be appealing but how do you do it, and what can you really expect from the experience?

"Waking Up" provides the answers for everyone who's just curious, as well as for all those who have dreamed of actually giving it a try and now want to know where to begin.

Jack Maguire take us inside the monastery walls to present details of what it's like: the physical work, common meals, conversations with the monks and other residents, meditation, and other activities that fill an ordinary week. We learn: What kind of person resides in a Zen monastery? Why do people stay there/ And for how long? Must you be a Buddhist to spend time there? What do the people there do? What is a typical day like? How does the experience affect people's spiritual life once they're back home? How can I try it out?

A detailed "Guide to Zen and Buddhist Places" and a glossary of terms make "Waking Up" not only a handbook for the curious seeker, but an excellent resource for anyone wanting to know more about the Buddhist way.

Buddhism continues to enjoy increasing interest in the West, both for its emphasis on reflection and meditation and as an object of scholarship. Drawing the words actually spoken by the Buddha, Rahula gives a full account of his fundamental teachings, from the Buddhist attitude of mind and meditation to the Buddha's teaching in the contemporary world. The text also features a selection of texts from original Buddhist literature.

The first and only full-length biography of one ofthe most charismatic spiritual innovators of the twentieth century.

Through his widely popular books and lectures, Alan Watts (1915-1973) did more to introduce Eastern philosophy and religion to Western minds than any figure before or since. Watts touched the lives of many. He was a renegade Zen teacher, an Anglican priest, a lecturer, an academic, an entertainer, a leader of the San Francisco renaissance, and the author of more than thirty books, including The Way of Zen, Psychotherapy East and West and The Spirit of Zen.

Monica Furlong followed Watts's travels from his birthplace in England to the San Francisco Bay Area where he ultimately settled, conducting in-depth interviews with his family, colleagues, and intimate friends, to provide an analysis of the intellectual, cultural, and deeply personal influences behind this truly extraordinary life.

We have come to admire Buddhism for being profound but accessible, as much a lifestyle as a religion. The credit for creating Buddhism goes to the Buddha, a figure widely respected across the Western world for his philosophical insight, his teachings of nonviolence, and his practice of meditation. But who was this Buddha, and how did he become the Buddha we know and love today? Leading historian of Buddhism Donald S. Lopez Jr. tells the story of how various idols carved in stone variously named Beddou, Codam, Xaca, and Fo - became the man of flesh and blood that we know simply as the Buddha. He reveals that the positive view of the Buddha in Europe and America is rather recent, originating a little more than a hundred and fifty years ago. For centuries, the Buddha was condemned by Western writers as the most dangerous idol of the Orient. He was a demon, the murderer of his mother, a purveyor of idolatry. Lopez provides an engaging history of depictions of the Buddha from classical accounts and medieval stories to the testimonies of European travelers, diplomats, soldiers, and missionaries. He shows that centuries of hostility toward the Buddha changed dramatically in the nineteenth century, when the teachings of the Buddha, having disappeared from India by the fourteenth century, were read by European scholars newly proficient in Asian languages. At the same time, the traditional view of the Buddha persisted in Asia, where he was revered as much for his supernatural powers as for his philosophical insights. From Stone to Flesh follows the twists and turns of these Eastern and Western notions of the Buddha, leading finally to his triumph as the founder of a world religion.

The Indian philosopher Acharya Nagarjuna (c. 150-250 CE) was the founder of the Madhyamaka (Middle Path) school of Mahayana Buddhism and arguably the most influential Buddhist thinker after Buddha himself. Indeed, in the Tibetan and East Asian traditions, Nagarjuna is often referred to as the 'second Buddha.' His primary contribution to Buddhist thought lies is in the further development of the concept of sunyata or 'emptiness.' For Nagarjuna, all phenomena are without any svabhaba, literally 'own-nature' or 'self-nature', and thus without any underlying essence. In this book, Jan Westerhoff offers a systematic account of Nagarjuna's philosophical position. He reads Nagarjuna in his own philosophical context, but he does not hesitate to show that the issues of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy have at least family resemblances to issues in European philosophy.

A spiritual memoir by the author of "God Is a Verb."

"This book is a treasure map, but not like any you have seen before. Most people believe that the object of a treasure hunt is to find a chest of gold. The mystical approach, however, is that the search itself is the treasure . Here is an invitation to begin an exploration of the treasure fields of your own mind the most exciting and rewarding adventure you will ever take." from the Introduction

Here is an insider s look at a spectrum of mystical traditions by someone who is remarkably fluent in the language of each. Three Gates to Meditation Practicechronicles more than fifteen years in the spiritual journey of "post-denominational" Rabbi David A. Cooper and his wife Shoshana years that led the Coopers everywhere from a secluded mountain hut in New Mexico to the Sinai desert, from chanting Sufi dhikr and meditation with Buddhist masters to studying Kabbalah and esoteric Judaism in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Coopers story is an intimate account of what intensive spiritual practice is like, with an ultimate message that is supremely inspiring: The spiritual path is completely within our reach, whoever we are, whatever we do, as long as we are willing to try.

A bright white temple as if carved from ice. Statues in candlelit caves. Massive red monastery walls in the midst of majestic mountains. In this beautiful book of travel photography, Christoph Mohr presents the most sacred places of Buddhism. Across Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Tibet, Ladakh, Zanskar, and other Asian regions, Mohr shows Buddhist temples, monasteries, sacred mountains, and illuminates the life of the historical Buddha. The images are accompanied by texts from Oliver Fulling, sharing the basics of Buddhism and everyday Buddhist practice and rituals.

How often do you hear the story of a man who was immaculately born from within a lotus flower with a thousand petals, in the middle of a lake, having been sent as a meteor from the heart of the Boudha of Boundless light? Lotus-Born is the fabulous story of the mystic, master scholar, and outrageous yogi, Padmasambhava, the Lotus-Born, who grew up an adopted prince, was banished, burned at the stake in a neighboring kingdom, and continued miraculously unscathed, wandering through cemeteries, dancing on corpses, and proceeded to live more than five hundred years. He is regarded by the most sane Tibetans as a real, historical figure, the founder of Buddhism in Tibet where he subjugated demons and taught the Buddha's teachings.
The complete story of how Buddhism was planted in Tibet is available in English for the first time with the publication of this book. Lotus-Born is a translation of a biography of the great master recorded in the ninth century by his foremost Tibetan disciple, the princess Yeshe Tsogyal. Many of these biographies were concealed as terma treasures to protect them against the changes of time.

This book presents two essays by Nishida Kitaro, translated into English for the first time by John Krummel and Shigenori Nagatomo. Nishida is widely regarded as one of the father figures of modern Japanese philosophy and as the founder of the first distinctly Japanese school of philosophy, the Kyoto school, known for its synthesis of western philosophy, Christian theology, and Buddhist thought. The two essays included here are ''Basho'' from 1926/27 and ''Logic and Life'' from 1936/37. Each essay is divided into several sections and each section is preceded by a synopsis added by the translators. The first essay represents the first systematic articulation of Nishida's philosophy of basho, literally meaning ''place, '' a system of thought that came to be known as ''Nishida philosophy.'' In the second essay, Nishida inquires after the pre-logical origin of what we call logic, which he suggests is to be found within the dialectical unfoldings of world-history and human society. A substantial introduction by John Krummel considers the significance of Nishida as a thinker, discusses the key components of Nishida's philosophy as a whole and its development throughout his life, and contextualizes the translated essays within his oeuvre. The Introduction also places Nishida and his work within the historical context of his time, and highlights the relevance of his ideas to the global circumstances of our day. The publication of these two essays by Nishida, a major figure in world philosophy and the most important philosopher of twentieth-century Japan, will be of significant value to the fields not only of Asian philosophy and East-West comparative philosophy but also of philosophy in general as well as of theology and religious studies

This book offers an in-depth introduction to the philosophy and practice of Zen Buddhism. Bret Davis explores the philosophical implications of Zen teachings and koans, comparing and contrasting these with other Asian as well as Western religions and philosophies. He relates traditional Zen teachings and practices to our twenty-first century lives. In addition to being a scholarly and philosophical introduction to Zen, the book provides concrete instructions for beginning a practice of Zen meditation. Its twenty-four chapters treat such philosophical topics as the self, nature, art, morality, and language, as well as basic Buddhist teachings such as the middle way and karma. Davis introduces the Zen based philosophies of the Kyoto School and also engages in interreligious dialogue with Christianity and other religions, as well as with other schools of Buddhism. The concluding chapter reviews the path of Zen practice and enlightenment by way of commenting on the beloved Zen classic, The Ten Oxherding Pictures. The book can be read in its entirety as a coherently organized introduction to the philosophy and practice of Zen, or chapters can be read independently according to the reader's specific interests.

A Survey of Paramattha Dhammas is a guide to the development of the Buddha's path of wisdom, covering all aspects of human life and human behaviour, good and bad. This study explains that right understanding is indispensable for mental development, the development of calm as well as the development of insight The author describes in detail all mental phenomena (citta and cetasika), and physical phenomena (rupa) and explains the processes of mental phenomena that experience objects through the sense-doors and the mind-door. The last chapters are in the form of questions and answers and deal with the problems one may face in the development of insight. For precision many Pali terms are used but nevertheless the book could be appreciated by both beginners and as well as those who have more background knowledge.

Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia This vast area has experienced significant changes following political and socio-cultural upheavals: the Chinese occupation of Tibet since the 1950s; the opening of Nepal to the world in 1951 and the influx of large numbers of Tibetan refugees into its territory; the end of the communist era and the transition to a market economy in Mongolia, and more generally the confrontation with modernity and globalisation. "Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World" examines the changes rituals have undergone and offers the reader the result of recent research based on both fieldwork and textual studies by researchers who have worked in these countries. Contributors include Hildegard Diemberger, Fabienne Jagou, Thierry Dodin, Fernanda Pirie, Nicola Schneider, Mireille Helffer, Alexander von Rospatt, Marie-Dominique Even, Robert Barnett, Katia Buffetrille