Now available for the first time-more than 50 years after it was written-is the memoir of Michael Dillon/Lobzang Jivaka (1915-62), the British doctor and Buddhist monastic novice chiefly known to scholars of sex, gender, and sexuality for his pioneering transition from female to male between 1939 and 1949, and for his groundbreaking 1946 book Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology. Here at last is Dillon/Jivaka's extraordinary life story told in his own words. Out of the Ordinary captures Dillon/Jivaka's various journeys-to Oxford, into medicine, across the world by ship-within the major narratives of his gender and religious journeys. Moving chronologically, Dillon/Jivaka begins with his childhood in Folkestone, England, where he was raised by his spinster aunts, and tells of his days at Oxford immersed in theology, classics, and rowing. He recounts his hormonal transition while working as an auto mechanic and fire watcher during World War II and his surgical transition under Sir Harold Gillies while Dillon himself attended medical school. He details his worldwide travel as a ship's surgeon in the British Merchant Navy with extensive commentary on his interactions with colonial and postcolonial subjects, followed by his "outing" by the British press while he was serving aboard The City of Bath. Out of the Ordinary is not only a salient record of an early sex transition but also a unique account of religious conversion in the mid-twentieth century. Dillon/Jivaka chronicles his gradual shift from Anglican Christianity to the esoteric spiritual systems of George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky to Theravada and finally Mahayana Buddhism. He concludes his memoir with the contested circumstances of his Buddhist monastic ordination in India and Tibet. Ultimately, while Dillon/Jivaka died before becoming a monk, his novice ordination was significant: It made him the first white European man to be ordained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Out of the Ordinary is a landmark publication that sets free a distinct voice from the history of the transgender movement.

Dali is a small region on a high plateau in Southeast Asia. Its main deity, Baijie, has assumed several gendered forms throughout the area's history: Buddhist goddess, the mother of Dali's founder, a widowed martyr, and a village divinity. What accounts for so many different incarnations of a local deity? Goddess on the Frontier argues that Dali's encounters with forces beyond region and nation have influenced the goddess's transformations. Dali sits at the cultural crossroads of Southeast Asia, India, and Tibet; it has been claimed by different countries but is currently part of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. Megan Bryson incorporates historical-textual studies, art history, and ethnography in her book to argue that Baijie provided a regional identity that enabled Dali to position itself geopolitically and historically. In doing so, Bryson provides a case study of how people craft local identities out of disparate cultural elements and how these local identities transform over time in relation to larger historical changes-including the increasing presence of the Chinese state.

This book, written with hospital spiritual care providers in mind, investigates how to expand the field and scope of compassion within the hospital context, for the spiritual care and safety of transgender patients. Written by a law-educated pastoral counselor, it advocates for chaplain legal literacy, and explains the consequences of spiritual care providers not knowing more about the law. It explores the current political and legal situation transgender hospital patients find themselves in, and especially how these new policies put transgender people at risk when they are in a hospital setting. Pamela Ayo Yetunde offers Buddhist-Christian activist interreligious dialogue methods to promote deeper understanding of how spiritual practices can cultivate empathy for transgender patients.

Originally published in 1938, this book provides a history of the variety of forms of Buddhist art that grew up in Thailand from the 1st century AD to the end of the 16th century. Le May draws on his experience as part of the British Consular Service in Thailand to focus primarily on sculpture, how the trade routes in South and South-East Asia brought Thailand into contact with a variety of artistic styles and how the different areas of the country adapted these styles for their own use. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of Thai art specifically or of Eastern art more generally.

A clear and comprehensive explanation of the entire path to enlightenment. We all have the potential for self-transformation, and a limitless capacity for the growth of good qualities, but to fulfil this potential we need to know what to do along every stage of our spiritual journey. With this book, Geshe Kelsang offers us step-by-step guidance on the meditation practices that will lead us to lasting inner peace and happiness. With extraordinary clarity, he presents all Buddha's teachings in the order in which they are to be practised, enriching his explanation with stories and illuminating analogies. This is a perfect guidebook to the Buddhist path.

The Mahayana tradition in Buddhist philosophy is defined by its ethical orientation-the adoption of bodhicitta, the aspiration to attain awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. And indeed, this tradition is known for its literature on ethics, particularly such texts as Nagarjuna's Jewel Garland of Advice (Ratnavali), Aryadeva's Four Hundred Verses (Catuhsataka), and especially Santideva's How to Lead an Awakened Life (Bodhicaryavatara) and its commentaries. All of these texts reflect the Madhyamaka tradition of philosophy, and all emphasize both the imperative to cultivate an attitude of universal care (karuna) grounded in the realization of emptiness, impermanence, independence and the absence of any self in persons or other phenomena. This position is morally very attractive, but raises an important problem: if all phenomena, including persons and actions, are only conventionally real, can moral injunctions or principles be binding, or does the conventional status of the reality we inhabit condemn us to an ethical relativism or nihilism? In Moonshadows, the international collective known as the Cowherds addresses an analogous problem in the domain of epistemology and argues that the Madhyamaka tradition has the resources to develop a robust account of truth and knowledge within the context of conventional reality. The essays explore a variety of ways in which to understand important Buddhist texts on ethics and Mahayana moral theory so as to make sense of the genuine force of morality. The volume combines careful textual analysis and doctrinal exposition with philosophical reconstruction and reflection, and considers a variety of ways to understand the structure of Mahayana Buddhist ethics.

An American diplomat and self-taught scholar of the history and languages of the Islamic world, John Porter Brown (1814 72) published in 1868 this illustrated account of the Dervish orders of the Near East. Assisted closely by followers of this Sufi ascetic path while in Constantinople, Brown based his research on original Turkish, Arabic and Persian manuscripts. The work also includes extracts from other scholarly works on Dervish history, fleshing out this engaging introduction to a devout way of life and the philosophy underpinning it. As a Freemason, Brown was struck by the relationship between some Masonic and Dervish tenets, and he highlights parallels between the Christian and Islamic faiths in order to forge a better understanding of the traditions and beliefs of the people of the Near East for the benefit of Western readers.

The rising population known as "nones" for its members' lack of religious affiliation is changing American society, politics, and culture. Many nones believe in God and even visit places of worship, but they do not identify with a specific faith or belong to a spiritual community. Corinna Nicolaou is a none, and in this layered narrative, she describes what it is like for her and thousands of others to live without religion or to be spiritual without committing to a specific faith. Nicolaou tours America's major traditional religions to see what, if anything, one might lack without God. She moves through Christianity's denominations, learning their tenets and worshiping alongside their followers. She travels to Los Angeles to immerse herself in Judaism, Berkeley to educate herself about Buddhism, and Dallas and Washington, D.C., to familiarize herself with Islam. She explores what light they can shed on the fears and failings of her past, and these encounters prove the significant role religion still plays in modern life. They also exemplify the vibrant relationship between religion and American culture and the enduring value it provides to immigrants and outsiders. Though she remains a devout none, Nicolaou's experiences reveal points of contact between the religious and the unaffiliated, suggesting that nones may be radically revising the practice of faith in contemporary times.

In the early twentieth century The Eastern Buddhist not only shared in pioneering presentations of Buddhism to the west but invited interaction with non-Japanese authors. This interactive process increased dramatically in the post-war period, when dialogue between Buddhist and Christian thought began to take off in earnest. Significant here was the philosophical Buddhism of the frequently cited Kyoto School, a tradition of thought and teaching named after Kyoto University where it was largely based. At the same time these debates and dialogues brought in not only Zen voices but also thinkers from the Shin Buddhist tradition. Both of these orientations are reflected here. While the contributions stem mainly from the fifties, sixties and seventies, they have significantly influenced subsequent Buddhist-Christian dialogue. It was still a time of exciting mutual discovery. Anybody wishing to enter into this process of dialogue and exchange will therefore find it of great interest and value to approach it by considering the ideas and insights presented here. Because of the wealth of materials the selection has been spread across two volumes in the series Eastern Buddhist Voices and the present volume includes contributions from the earlier part of the period (Interactions with Japanese Buddhism includes contributions from the later part).

The Moon Points Back comprises essays by both established scholars in Buddhist and Western philosophy and young scholars contributing to cross-cultural philosophy. It continues the program of Pointing at the Moon (Oxford University Press, 2009), integrating the approaches and insights of contemporary logic and analytic philosophy and those of Buddhist Studies to engage with Buddhist ideas in a contemporary voice. This volume demonstrates convincingly that integration of Buddhist philosophy with contemporary analytic philosophy and logic allows for novel understandings of and insights into Buddhist philosophical thought. It also shows how Buddhist philosophers can contribute to debates in contemporary Western philosophy and how contemporary philosophers and logicians can engage with Buddhist material. The essays in the volume focus on the Buddhist notion of emptiness (sunyata), exploring its relationship to core philosophical issues concerning the self, the nature of reality, logic, and epistemology. The volume closes with reflections on methodological issues raised by bringing together traditional Buddhist philosophy and contemporary analytic philosophy. This volume will be of interest to anyone interested in Buddhist philosophy or contemporary analytic philosophy and logic. But it will also be of interest to those who wish to learn how to bring together the insights and techniques of different philosophical traditions.

An Archaeological History of Indian Buddhism is a comprehensive survey of Indian Buddhism from its origins in the 6th century BCE, through its ascendance in the 1st millennium CE, and its eventual decline in mainland South Asia by the mid-2nd millennium CE. Weaving together studies of archaeological remains, architecture, iconography, inscriptions, and Buddhist historical sources, this book uncovers the quotidian concerns and practices of Buddhist monks and nuns (the sangha), and their lay adherents-concerns and practices often obscured in studies of Buddhism premised largely, if not exclusively, on Buddhist texts. At the heart of Indian Buddhism lies a persistent social contradiction between the desire for individual asceticism versus the need to maintain a coherent community of Buddhists. Before the early 1st millennium CE, the sangha relied heavily on the patronage of kings, guilds, and ordinary Buddhists to support themselves. During this period, the sangha emphasized the communal elements of Buddhism as they sought to establish themselves as the leaders of a coherent religious order. By the mid-1st millennium CE, Buddhist monasteries had become powerful political and economic institutions with extensive landholdings and wealth. This new economic self-sufficiency allowed the sangha to limit their day-to-day interaction with the laity and begin to more fully satisfy their ascetic desires for the first time. This withdrawal from regular interaction with the laity led to the collapse of Buddhism in India in the early-to-mid 2nd millennium CE. In contrast to the ever-changing religious practices of the Buddhist sangha, the Buddhist laity were more conservative-maintaining their religious practices for almost two millennia, even as they nominally shifted their allegiances to rival religious orders. This book also serves as an exemplar for the archaeological study of long-term religious change through the perspectives of practice theory, materiality, and semiotics.

What turns the continuous flow of experience into perceptually distinct objects? Can our verbal descriptions unambiguously capture what it is like to see, hear, or feel? How might we reason about the testimony that perception alone discloses? Christian Coseru proposes a rigorous and highly original way to answer these questions by developing a framework for understanding perception as a mode of apprehension that is intentionally constituted, pragmatically oriented, and causally effective. By engaging with recent discussions in phenomenology and analytic philosophy of mind, but also by drawing on the work of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, Coseru offers a sustained argument that Buddhist philosophers, in particular those who follow the tradition of inquiry initiated by Dign?ga and Dharmak?rti, have much to offer when it comes to explaining why epistemological disputes about the evidential role of perceptual experience cannot satisfactorily be resolved without taking into account the structure of our cognitive awareness. Perceiving Reality examines the function of perception and its relation to attention, language, and discursive thought, and provides new ways of conceptualizing the Buddhist defense of the reflexivity thesis of consciousness-namely, that each cognitive event is to be understood as involving a pre-reflective implicit awareness of its own occurrence. Coseru advances an innovative approach to Buddhist philosophy of mind in the form of phenomenological naturalism, and moves beyond comparative approaches to philosophy by emphasizing the continuity of concerns between Buddhist and Western philosophical accounts of the nature of perceptual content and the character of perceptual consciousness.

'[A] timely book on compassion and its cultivation' The Dalai Lama 'The bravest, cleverest and most engaging book I know on why we need to cultivate compassion' Jon Kabat-Zinn 'A practical toolkit for becoming a better human being' Daniel Goleman Self-compassion is the overlooked key to achieving our goals. It can lead to increased happiness, stress reduction, a stronger sense of purpose, better health and a longer life. Yet many of us resist compassion, worrying that if we are too compassionate with others we will be taken advantage of and if we are too compassionate with ourselves we won't achieve our goals in life. Using the latest science, psychology (from contemporary Western and classical Buddhist sources) as well as stories from others and his own extraordinary life, Jinpa shows us how to train our compassion muscle. His powerful programme, derived from his remarkable course in Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT), is the perfect guide to achieving a greater sense of wellbeing.

The words and example of Gautama (often known by the title, 'Buddha') have affected billions of people. But what do we really know about him? While there is much we cannot say for certain about the historical Gautama, this persuasive new biography provides the fullest and most plausible account yet. Weaving ancient sources and modern understanding into an engaging narrative, Vishvapani Blomfield examines Gautama's words and impact to shed fresh light on his culture, his spiritual search and the experiences and teachings that led his followers, to call him 'The Awakened One'. This book draws on the myths and legends that surround him to illuminate the significance of his life. It traces Gautama's investigations of consciousness, his strikingly original view of life and his development of new forms of religious community and practice. Blomfield's insightful and thought-provoking biography will appeal to anyone interested in history and religion, and in the Buddha as a thinker, spiritual teacher and a seminal cultural figure. Gautama Buddha is a compelling account of one of history's most powerful personalities.

This book, first published in 1998, provides both a first-hand account and a theoretical analysis of the way an American Zen community works. The form Zen practice takes in the United States is described in detail through close study of two Zen groups in southern California. Preston leads readers through the buildings and grounds of a Zen residential community and introduces them to the main forms of Zen practice, paying special attention to the styles and implications of meditation. The book's second half develops a theory of the nature of religious reality as it is shared by Zen practitioners. Preston attempts to explain how this reality - based on a group's ethnography yet at the same time transcending it - relates to meditation and other elements of Zen practice by drawing on the notions of ritual, practice, emotions, and the unconscious found in the writings of Pierre Bourdieu, Randall Collins, Erving Goffman and Emile Durkheim.

Originally published in 1923, this edition of The Travels of Fa-hsien was translated into English by H. A. Giles (1845-1935), a scholar of Chinese language and culture who helped popularize the Wade-Giles system for the Romanization of the Chinese languages. The Travels relates the story of Fa-hsien's journey from Central China across the Gobi Desert, over the Hindu Kush, and through India down to the mouth of the Hoogly, where he took a ship and returned to China by sea, bringing with him the books of the Buddhist Canon and images of Buddhist deities. This is a fascinating text that will be of value to anyone with an interest in Buddhism and Chinese literature.

Jeffrey L. Broughton offers an annotated translation of the Whip for Spurring Students Onward Through the Chan Barrier Checkpoints (Changuan cejin), which he abbreviates to Chan Whip. This anthology, compiled by Yunqi Zhuhong (1535-1615), has served as a Chan handbook in both China and Japan since its publication in 1600. To characterize the Chan Whip as late Ming Chan is inaccuratein fact, it is a survey of virtually the entirety of Chan literature, running from the late 800s (Tang dynasty) to about 1600 (late Ming). The Chan extracts, the bulk of the book, are followed by a short section of extracts from Buddhist canonical works (showing Zhuhongs adherence to the convergence of Chan and the teachings). The Chan extracts deliberately eschew abstract discussions of theory in favor of autobiographical narratives, anecdotal sketches, exhortations, sermons, sayings, and letters that deal very franklysometimes humorouslywith the concrete ups and downs of lived practice. Recent decades have seen the publication in English of a number of handbooks on Zen practice by contemporary East Asian masters. The Chan Whip, though 400 years old, is as invaluable to todays practitioners as these modern works. The scholarly literature on Chan until now has focused on the Tang and Song dynastiesby giving us in addition the sayings of Yuan- and Ming-dynasty masters this translation fills a gap in that literature.

Artificial intelligence is the most discussed and arguably the most powerful technology in the world today. The very rapid development of the technology, and its power to change the world, and perhaps even ourselves, calls for a serious and systematic thinking about its ethical and social implications, as well as how its development should be directed. The present book offers a new perspective on how such a direction should take place, based on insights obtained from the age-old tradition of Buddhist teaching. The book argues that any kind of ethical guidelines for AI and robotics must combine two kinds of excellence together, namely the technical and the ethical. The machine needs to aspire toward the status of ethical perfection, whose idea was laid out in detail by the Buddha more than two millennia ago. It is this standard of ethical perfection, called "machine enlightenment," that gives us a view toward how an effective ethical guideline should be made. This ideal is characterized by the realization that all things are interdependent, and by the commitment to alleviate all beings from suffering, in other words by two of the quintessential Buddhist values. The book thus contributes to a concern for a norm for ethical guidelines for AI that is both practical and cross-cultural.

In this wide-ranging exploration of the creation and use of Buddhist art in Andhra Pradesh, India, Catherine Becker examines how material remains and visual experiences shape and reveal essential human concerns. Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past addresses the fundamental Buddhist question of how humanity progresses centuries after the passing of its teacher, the Buddha Sakyamuni. How might the Buddhas distant teachings be made immediate and accessible? Beginning with an analysis of the spectacular relief sculptures that once adorned the stupas of the region during the early centuries of the Common Era, Becker analyzes the creation of scenes of devotion and the representation of narratives. These reliefs reveal the ancient devotees faith, or optimism, in the role of visual imagery to continue the work of the Buddha by advancing the spiritual progress of visitors to Andhras stupas. Over a period of almost two millennia, many of these stupas have fallen into disrepair. While it is tempting to view these monuments as ruins, they are by no means dead. Turning to the 20th and 21st centuries, Becker analyzes examples of new Buddhist imagery, recent state-sponsored tourism campaigns, and new devotional activities at the sites in order to demonstrate that the stupas of Andhra Pradesh and their sculptural adornments continue to engage the human imagination and are even ascribed innate power and agency. Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past reveals intriguing parallels between ancient uses of imagery and the new social, political, and religious functions of these objects and spaces.