Paths to the Divine: An Introduction to World Religions expertly combines original writing and engaging primary source texts to familiarize students with the basic tenets of a variety of world religions. Beyond presenting foundational knowledge on religious traditions, the volume demonstrates how belief systems can shape both an individual's and a society's culture, worldviews, and sense of belonging. The book features distinct emphasis on the religious traditions of Asia, presenting readers with information on beliefs and practices that may be unfamiliar or new to them, expanding their understanding and appreciation of others' traditions. The book begins by introducing students to the basics of religion, including key concepts and features of religion, representations of the divine, and the connection between nature and religion in early traditions. Additional chapters provide students with valuable insight and enlightening readings on Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Chinese religion, Shinto, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Throughout, key terms, contextual introductions, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading are provided. Written to expand students' knowledge and understanding of global traditions, Paths of the Divine is an ideal text for introductory courses in humanities, theology, and world religions.

A young woman leaves her homeland in Australia and goes to live in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal and India for thirty years. She becomes a disciple of two Tibetan Masters who had fled Tibet in the 1950, s and resettled in Nepal. Deeply impressed by their 'Presence' and the profundity of their teachings she determines to follow their advice as closely as possible, letting go of her western life of comfort and ease to live in a simple hut in the forest. Given the situation and locality, she was bound to have many adventures, but even she could never have imagined how strange some of these would be. Tibetan Buddhist Tales is a selection of true short stories about some of these adventures. Although they are all contemporary, one might be forgiven for feeling at times that one has entered a very different time and world. Encounters with ghosts, Yetis and other such unlikely adventures, make this book a compelling read. The fact that these stories all actually took place, gives it a distinct and unique flavor, offering a rare glimpse into a culture, which in our times, faces enormous challenges in retaining its 'authenticity' and 'identity.' These stories are given as a humble offering with the prayer that they add some valuable insights to the current documentation of the unique and highly evolved Tibetan spiritual culture.

There are few people in the world who can claim anything near the experience of Professor Ananda Guruge. From his childhood under colonial rule to his early adulthood as a government official for the emerging nation of Sri Lanka and finally to mature years on the international stage of UNESCO, he has witnessed the shifting of social, economic, and religious patterns. It would be misleading to say that he has only "witnessed," because his imprint can been found on many of the institutions of his home country, the influence of the UN in international agreements, the representation of Buddhism to the world community, and in a host of educational centers around the globe. Moving in the highest ranks of prime ministers, presidents, kings, and ambassadors, Professor Guruge has tirelessly pursued his intention of service to society. At the same time, he can be seen working with at-risk youth in Los Angeles, developing strategies for lessening violence when it erupts in our cities, devoting time to helping rescue students who need a mentor, and speaking day after day to service groups, university classes, and leaders of society. With a background such as this, he has unique credentials to appraise the role of Buddhism in the contemporary scene, whether it is in social programs or scientific and technical research. Lewis Lancaster University of California, Berkeley

Focusing on contemporary Tibetan Buddhist revivals in the Tibetan regions of the Sichuan and Qinghai Provinces in China, this book explores the intricate entanglements of the Buddhist revivals with cultural identity, state ideology, and popular imagination of Tibetan Buddhist spirituality in contemporary China. In turn, the author explores the broader socio-cultural implications of such revivals. Based on detailed cross-regional ethnographic work, the book demonstrates that the revival of Tibetan Buddhism in contemporary China is intimately bound with both the affirming and negating forces of globalization, modernity, and politics of religion, indigenous identity reclamation, and the market economy. The analysis highlights the multidimensionality of Tibetan Buddhism in relation to different religious, cultural, and political constituencies of China. By recognizing the greater contexts of China's politics of religion and of the global status of Tibetan Buddhism, this book presents an argument that the revival of Tibetan Buddhism is not an isolated event limited merely to Tibetan regions; instead, it is a result of the intersection of both local and global transformative changes. The book is a useful contribution to students and scholars of Asian religion and Chinese studies.

This volume brings together a variety of historians, epigraphists, philologists, art historians and archaeologists to address the understanding of the encounter between Buddhist and Muslim communities in South and Central Asia during the medieval period. The articles collected here provoke a fresh look at the relevant sources. The main areas touched by this new research can be divided into five broad categories: deconstructing scholarship on Buddhist/Muslim interactions, cultural and religious exchanges, perceptions of the other, transmission of knowledge, and trade and economics. The subjects covered are wide ranging and demonstrate the vast challenges involved in dealing with historical, social, cultural and economic frameworks that span Central and South Asia of the premodern world. We hope that the results show promise for future research produced on Buddhist and Muslim encounters. The intended audience is specialists in Asian Studies, Buddhist Studies and Islamic Studies.

Outlines a meditation practice embodied by the Buddhist tradition of Chenrezig, a figure honored by Buddhists for his examples of protection, friendship, and inspiration, in an accessible manual for western readers that explains how to incorporate compassionate practices into daily life. Original.

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.

Although we are materially better off than ever before, surveys show that we are depressed and listless. In his revolutionary book, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard shows that happiness is not just an emotion, but a skill that can be developed. Free of jargon, Happiness contains simple exercises that will train the mind to recognize and pursue happiness by concentrating on the fundamental things in life, and in doing so change the way we view the world.

This brief survey text tells the story of Buddhism as it unfolds through the narrative of the Brahmanical cosmology from which Buddhism emerged, the stories and myths surrounding Buddha's birth, Buddha's path to enlightenment, and the eventual spread of his teachings throughout India and the world. Jacob N. Kinnard's clear telling of the tale helps students understand such complex concepts as the natural law of cause and effect (karma), the birth/life/death/rebirth cycle (samsara), the ever-changing state of suffering (dukkha), and salvation, the absence of all states (nirvana). Primary documents, illustrations, glossary and biographical sketches illuminate the extraordinary life and legacy of the man called Buddha. The text's chapters integrate key pedagogy, including introductions, study questions, textboxes, photos, maps, suggested readings, and a glossary and timeline.

..".a successfully ambitious effort, richly informative and insightful in its coverage of the site's religious life and most sophisticated in its use and advancing of theoretical perspectives...Profound insights...abound in this complex and rewarding piece of scholarship..a must read for scholars of south Asian religions." -The Australian Journal of Anthropology

The Sri Lankan ethnic conflict that has occurred largely between Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus is marked by a degree of religious tolerance that sees both communities worshiping together. This study describes one important site of such worship, the ancient Hindu temple complex of Munnesvaram. Standing adjacent to one of Sri Lanka's historical western ports, the fortunes of the Munnesvaram temples have waxed and waned through the years of turbulence, violence and social change that have been the country's lot since the advent of European colonialism in the Indian Ocean. Bastin recounts the story of these temples and analyses how the Hindu temple is reproduced as a center of worship amidst conflict and competition.

Rohan Bastin is Head of the School of Anthropology, Archaeology & Sociology at James Cook University.

Tibetan Buddhism is the most widely encountered and generally known Buddhist tradition in the world. From meditation classes to garden statues, from music and film to the popularity of the Dalai Lama, Introducing Tibetan Buddhism is the ideal starting point for students wishing to undertake a comprehensive study of the fascinating Tibetan Buddhist and Tibetan Bon religions. This lively introduction covers the whole spectrum of Tibetan religious history, from early Tibetan figures, and the development of the old and new schools of Buddhism, to the spread and influence of Tibetan Buddhism throughout the world. Geoffrey Samuel, an experienced teacher of Tibetan religions, introduces the major contemporary Buddhist traditions of Nyingmapa, Kagyupa, Sakyapa, Geluga and Bon, and the bodies of Tibetan textual material, including the writings of major lamas, and the relationship between the practical and textual transmission of the religion. Illustrated throughout, the book also includes text boxes, summary charts, a glossary and a list of further reading to aid students' understanding and revision. The accompanying website for this book can be found at www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415456654.

The Buddhist field of knowledge is now so vast that few can master all of it, and the study and application of its principles must be a matter of choice. One may choose the magnificent moral philosophy of Theravada, the oldest school, or the Zen training of Japan; or special themes such as the doctrine of No-self, the Mahayana emphasis on compassion or the universal law of Karma and Rebirth. But the intense self-discipline needed for true spiritual experience calls for specialization of subject and technique. In this reissue, first published in 1974, Christmas Humphreys takes us on a personal journey through Buddhism, offering insights into the many different paths, doctrines and approaches to Buddhism. This collection of twenty essays ranges from history to doctrine, and from the rise of Buddhism in the West through to the finer points of its everyday practice. It is a truly valuable piece of Western Buddhist literature and its reissue will be welcomed be scholars of Buddhism and interested laypeople alike.

It is widely known that Buddhists deny the existence of the self. However, Buddhist philosophers defend interesting positions on a variety of other issues in fundamental ontology. In particular, they have important things to say about ontological reduction and the nature of the causal relation. Amidst the prolonged debate over global anti-realism, Buddhist philosophers devised an innovative approach to the radical nominalist denial of all universals and real resemblances. While some defend presentism, others propound eternalism. In How Things Are, Mark Siderits presents the arguments that Buddhist philosophers developed on these and other issues. Those with an interest in metaphysics may find new and interesting insights into what the Buddhists had to say about their ideas. This work is designed to introduce some of the more important fruits of Buddhist metaphysical inquiry to philosophers with little or no prior knowledge of that tradition. While there is plenty of scholarship on the Indian Buddhist philosophical tradition, it is primarily concerned with the historical details, often presupposes background knowledge of the major schools and figures, and makes ample use of untranslated Sanskrit technical terms. What has been missing from this area of philosophical inquiry, are studies that make the Buddhist tradition accessible to philosophers who are interested in solving metaphysical problems. This work fills that gap by focusing not on history and texts but on the metaphysical puzzles themselves, and on ways of trying to solve them.

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.

A volume in Advances in Workplace Spirituality: Theory, Research, and Application Series Editor Louis W. (Jody) Fry, Texas A&M University - Central Texas INNER PEACE-GLOBAL IMPACT describes underlying principles of Tibetan wisdom traditions relevant for successful leadership in the 21st century as well as Tibetan teachers whose entrepreneurial actions were critical to the development of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. With first-person narratives, personal stories, scholarly research, and commentaries by noted social scientists, this book is written for everyone who wants ideas to revitalize leadership. It is rich with vivid pictures of deep personal experience. Long-time Western Tibetan Buddhist practitioners describe how their practice has influenced them in fields as diverse as scientific research, social work, art, dance, and university teaching. The Dalai Lama is seen through the eyes of his long-time friend, eminent author Huston Smith, as well as through the experiences of Thupten Jinpa, his 25-year English translator. Sogyal Rinpoche shares his vision for transforming traditional ways of studying, while Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, a 10th generation Tibetan yogi, reflects on the challenges of teaching in a Western culture where perspectives differ so vastly from those of Tibet. With insights from Tibetan lamas and Western thought leaders including Peter Senge, Bill George, and Margaret Wheatley, this book creates new visions for leadership and the workplace.