Buddhism is one of the oldest and largest of the world's religions. But it is also a tradition that has proven to have enormous contemporary relevance. Founded by Siddhartha Gautama, who came to be called the Buddha, the religion has spread from its origins in northeast India, across Asia, and eventually to the West, taking on new forms at each step of the way. Buddhism: What Everyone Needs to Know offers readers a brief, authoritative guide to one of the world's most diverse religious traditions in a reader-friendly question-and-answer format. Dale Wright covers the origins and early history of Buddhism, the diversity of types of Buddhism throughout history, and the status of contemporary Buddhism. This is a go-to book for anyone seeking a basic understanding of the origins, history, teachings, and practices of Buddhism.

In this book, Mark Blum offers a critical look at the thought and impact of the late 13th-century Buddhist historian Gyonen (1240-1321) and the emergent Pure Land school of Buddhism founded by Honen (1133-1212). Blum also provides a clear and fully annotated translation of Gyonen's Jodo homon genrusho, the first history of Pure Land Buddhism.

Centered on the early Cambodian masterpiece Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan in the Cleveland Museum of Art, seven essays present new research and discoveries regarding its history, material, and context. Introducing the Cleveland Krishna as one of eight monumental sculptures of Hindu deities from the sacred mountain of Phnom Da, the museum's curator presents evidence for its establishment in a cave sanctuary and recounts its fascinating journey from there to Cleveland in multiple pieces--including a decades-long detour of being buried in a garden in Belgium. Conservators and scientists elucidate the long-fraught process of identifying the sculptural fragments that belong to the Cleveland Krishna and explain the new reconstructions unveiled in the 2021 exhibition Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia's Sacred Mountain.An international team of specialists in the history of art, archaeology, and anthropology place the Cleveland Krishna amid the material traces of a sophisticated population based in the Mekong River delta at the ancient metropolis known as Angkor Borei. They reveal the long-lasting influence and prestige of the site, well into the Angkorian period, more than six hundred years after the creation of the Cleveland Krishna and the gods of Phnom Da. This is the fifth in the Cleveland Masterworks Series.

Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945) is considered Japan's greatest modern philosopher. As the founder of the Kyoto School, he initiated a rigorous philosophical engagement with Western philosophy, including the work of Karl Marx. Bradley Kaye explores the political aspects of Nishida's thought, placing his work in connection with Marxism and Zen. Developing concepts of self-awareness, Basho, dialectical materialism, circulation, will, nothingness, and the state. Nishida's thought offers an ethics of personal will that radical awakening that offers clarity in a seemingly hopeless world.

This volume, which introduces the sequence of Complete Works volumes that include Sangharakshita's commentaries on a range of traditional Buddhist texts, begins with The Eternal Legacy, an introduction to the canonical literature of Buddhism, which succinctly and with great feeling gives the context for the commentaries to follow. Next comes Sangharakshita's talk 'The Glory of the Literary World', which considers how the Buddhist canon is to be approached, in a broad consideration of the literary traditions of both East and West. This is followed by an introduction to one of the earliest works of the Pali canon, the Udana, newly edited from a 1975 seminar for this Complete Works volume under the title Buddhism before Buddhism. Here we trace the Buddha's life from the period just after his Enlightenment to the time of his approaching death, and Sangharakshita (studying the text with members of what was in 1975 a very young Buddhist movement) draws out the newness and freshness of the Buddha's vision - so new, indeed, that words could scarcely be found to express it. And this volume concludes fittingly with Wisdom Beyond Words, Sangharakshita's much-loved commentary on several Perfection of Wisdom texts, another way of seeing how, in Asvaghosa's words, 'We use words to get free of words until we reach the pure wordless essence.'

Sangharakshita read the Diamond Sutra for the first time the summer he turned seventeen. It seemed to awaken him to something whose existence he had forgotten, and he joyfully embraced those profound teachings 'with an unqualified acceptance'. This experience decided the whole future direction of his life.In this first volume of memoirs he describes how, from a working-class childhood in the London suburb of Tooting, he came, a twenty-four-year-old Buddhist novice monk, to Kalimpong in the eastern Himalayas. Sangharakshita paints a vivid picture of the people, the places and the experiences that shaped his life: his childhood, his army days, and the gurus he met during his years as a wandering ascetic staying in the caves and ashrams of India. He moves between the ordinary and the extraordinary, from the mundane to the sublime; his narrative takes in the psychological and aesthetic, the philosophical and spiritual. His experiences are both universal - love and loss, comedy and tragedy - and unique to what is an exceptional life.

"This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. This book examines the trajectory and development of the Japanese religious movement Agonshu and its charismatic founder Kiriyama Seiyu. Based on field research spanning 30 years, it examines Agonshu from when it first captured attention in the 1980s with its spectacular rituals and use of media technologies, through its period of stagnation to its response to the death of its founder in 2016. The authors discuss the significance of charismatic leadership, the 'democratisation' of practice and the demands made by movements such as Agonshu on members, while examining how the movement became increasingly focused on revisionist nationalism and issues of Japanese identity. In examining the dilemma that religions commonly face on the deaths of charismatic founders, Erica Baffelli and Ian Reader look at Agonshu's response to Kiriyama's death, looking at how and why it has transformed a human founder into a figure of worship. By examining Agonshu in the wider context, the authors critically examine the concept of 'new religions'. They draw attention to the importance of understanding the trajectories of 'new' religions and how they can become 'old' even within their first generation.

The book intends to grasp the meaning of upasaka / upasika or Buddhist laity in Digha- and Majjhima-nikaya of the Pali canon. Considering the texts as oral literature, the author examines and interprets the structure and stock phrases constructing the narrative with a theory of religious experience. Upasaka / upasika is hence seen as the non-monastic follower, who, having experienced the significance of dhamma and the superiority of the Buddha, has the trust in the goal and spiritual path that the Buddha has shown. In this connection, Buddhist community is the assembly of the followers, monastic and non-monastic alike, sharing the same common ground and following the spiritual path in pursuit of individual liberation, which in tandem contributes to perpetuation of the community.

Ajahn Sumedho suggests that if life seems stressful, then it's time to look at it with a new attitude. The talks collected in "The Sound of Silence" explore ways to do just that. These insightful teachings cover familiar Buddhist themes such as awareness, consciousness, identity, relief from suffering, and mindfulness of the body, and help everyone from beginning and advanced meditators to the casual reader slow down, become grounded in the present, and experience a more meaningful life. All reflect two modes of Sumedho's expositions --- Dharma teachings for monastics as well as for the lay Buddhist community --- allowing the reader to move between the two realms with ease. Like Ajahn Chah's "Food for the Heart, " this is a Dharma book that defies boundaries, expressing the Dharma's universality through an important teacher known for his singular, welcoming, and affirming voice.

Defining Buddhism(s): A Reader explores the multiple ways in which Buddhisms have been defined and constructed by Buddhists and scholars. In recent decades, scholars have become increasingly aware of their own role in the process of constructing the Buddhist communities that they represent- a process in which multiple representations of Buddhism (hence Buddhisms) compete with and complement one another. The essays in this reader, written by leaders in the field of Buddhist studies, consider a broad range of inquiries and concerns, methods and approaches that contribute to understanding and learning from constructions of Buddhisms, illuminating the challenges and dilemmas involved in defining historical, social, and political contexts. These different perspectives also demonstrate that definitions of Buddhism have always been contested. As an anthology, this volume also participates in the process of construction, developing a framework in which recent scholarship on Buddhisms can be productively related and interpreted. conversation to emerge, as the investigations and debates raised in each piece are considered in relation to one another. The volume and section introductions highlight the ways in which the essays included represent the contested aspects of constructed Buddhisms: historical contexts are never singular and there is never a solitary agent engaged in shaping them. These diverse reconstructions of Buddhism derive from the recognition that we have much to learn from, as well as about, Buddhists.

Explores the multiple ways in which Buddhisms have been defined and constructed by Buddhists and scholars. Scholars have become increasingly aware of their own role in the process of constructing the Buddhist communities that they represent - a process in which multiple representations of Buddhism compete with and complement one another. The essays in this reader, written by leaders in the field of Buddhist studies, consider a broad range of inquiries and concerns, methods and approaches that contribute to understanding and learning from constructions of Buddhisms, illuminating the challenges and dilemmas involved in defining historical, social, and political contexts. These different perspectives also demonstrate that definitions of Buddhism have always been contested. As an anthology, this volume also participates in the process of construction, developing a framework in which recent scholarship on Buddhisms can be productively related and interpreted.

Jung's Red Book, finally published only in 2009, is a highly ambiguous text describing a succession of extraordinary visions, together with Jung's interpretation of them. Red Book, Middle Way offers a new interpretation of Jung's Red Book, in terms of the Middle Way, as a universal principle and embodied ethic, paralleled both in the Buddha's teachings and elsewhere. Jung explicitly discusses the Middle Way in the Red Book (although this has been largely ignored by scholars so far) as well as offering lots of material that can be understood in its terms. This book interprets the Red Book in relation to the archetypes met in its visions - the hero, the feminine, the Shadow, God and Christ, and follows Jung's process of integrating these different internal figures. To do this Jung needs to find the Middle Way between absolutes at every point, in a way similar to the Buddha.

In this pioneering book, in turns poetic and philosophical, Nagapriya shows how the insights into the existential condition offered by Shinran can transform our understanding of what Buddhist practice consists in, and what it means to awaken to our ultimate concern. Shinran (1173 - 1263) is one of the most important thinkers of Japanese Buddhist history, and founder of the Jodo Shinshu Pure Land school. Nagapriya explores Shinran's spirituality and teachings through close readings, confessional narrative, and thoughtful interpretation. This book is an invitation to reimagine Shinran's religious universe, not for the sake of historical curiosity, but as an exercise that has the potential to remake us in the light of our ultimate concerns.

Buddhism, one increasingly hears, is an 'eco-friendly' religion. It is often said that this is because it promotes an 'ecological' view of things, one stressing the essential unity of human beings and the natural world. Buddhism, Virtue and Environment presents a different view. While agreeing that Buddhism is, in many important respects, in tune with environmental concerns, Cooper and James argue that what makes it 'green' is its view of human life. The true connection between the religion and environmental thought is to be found in Buddhist accounts of the virtues - those traits, such as compassion, equanimity and humility, that characterise the life of a spiritually enlightened individual. Central chapters of this book examine these virtues and their implications for environmental attitudes and practice. Buddhism, Virtue and Environment will be of interest not only to students and teachers of Buddhism and environmental ethics, but to those more generally engaged with moral philosophy. Written in a clear and accessible style, this book presents an original conception of Buddhist environmental thought. The authors also contribute to the wider debate on the place of ethics in Buddhist teachings and practices, and to debates within 'virtue ethics' on the relations between human well-being and environmental concern.