D?gen Zenji was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher born in Ky?to, and the founder of the S?t? school of Zen in Japan after travelling to China and training under the Chinese Caodong lineage there. D?gen is known for his extensive writing including the Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma or Sh?b?genz?, a collection of ninety-five fascicles concerning Buddhist practice and enlightenment. The primary concept underlying D?gen's Zen practice is "oneness of practice-enlightenment". In fact, this concept is considered so fundamental to D?gen's variety of Zen-and, consequently, to the S?t? school as a whole-that it formed the basis for the work Shush?-gi, which was compiled in 1890 by Takiya Takush? of Eihei-ji and Azegami Baisen of S?ji-ji as an introductory and prescriptive abstract of D?gen's massive work, the Sh?b?genz? ("Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma"). Dogen is a profoundly original and difficult 13th century Buddhist thinker whose works have begun attracting increasing attention in the West. Admittedly difficult for even the most advanced and sophisticated scholar of Eastern thought, he is bound, initially, to present an almost insurmountable barrier to the Western mind. Yet the task of penetrating that barrier must be undertaken and, in fact, is being carried out by many gifted scholars toiling in the Dogen vineyard.

Cetasika means belonging to the mind. It is a mental factor which accompanies consciousness (citta) and experiences an object. There are 52 cetasikas. This book gives an outline of each of these 52 cetasikas and shows the relationship they have with each other. It will help the student have more understanding of the intricate operations of the mind enabling the development of good qualities and the eventual eradication of all defilements. It will help to understand that citta and cetasika act according to their own conditions and that an abiding agent (soul or self) is not to be found. The book assumes some previous knowledge of Buddhism.

This book, now in its fifth edition, provides a comprehensive introduction to Buddhist psychology and counselling, exploring key concepts in psychology and practical applications in mindfulness-based counselling techniques. This integrated study uses Buddhist philosophy of mind, psychology, ethics and contemplative methods to focus on the 'emotional rhythm of our lives', opening up new avenues for mental health.De Silva presents a range of management techniques for mental health issues including stress, anger, depression, addictions and grief. He moves beyond the restriction of mental health issues to 'damage control', instead encouraging personal growth and positive emotions of compassion, forgiveness, generosity, equanimity and, ultimately, emotional balance.This book blends Western psychology and philosophy and ancient wisdom and contemporary thought to provide a key contribution to cognitive sciences, emotion studies, moral psychology and psychotherapy counselling. This new edition contains nine new chapters and an additional second part which focuses on counselling and mindfulness-based techniques in therapy.

In the early 21st century, Buddhism has become ubiquitous in America and other western nations, moving beyond the original bodhi tree in India to become a major global religion. During its journey westward, it has changed, adapted to new cultures, and offered spiritual help to many people looking for answers to the problems of life. It is being studied in institutions of higher education, being practice by many people, and having its literature translated and published. The Historical Dictionary of Buddhism covers and clarifies Buddhist concepts, significant figures, movements, schools, places, activities, and periods. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 700 cross-referenced dictionary entries.

Responding to a recent upsurge of Jewish interest in Buddhism, Sasson undertakes the first serious academic effort to uncover the common ground between the founders of the two religions, Moses and the Buddha. Because this is a study of traditions rather than a historical investigation, Sasson is able to synthesize various kinds of materials, from biblical and non-biblical, adn from early Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist sources. She notes the striking similarities between the life-patterns of the two leaders. Both were raised as princes and both eventually left their lavish upbringings only to discover something higher. Their mothers play prominent roles in the narratives of their births, while their fathers are often excluded from view. They were both born surrounded by light and embodying miraculous qualities. But there are also some rather consequential differences, which allow these two colossal figures to maintain their uniqueness and significance. Moses was a man chosen for a particular mission by a higher power, a human being serving as the deity's tool. By contrast, the Buddha was a man whose mission was self-determined and actualized over time. Moses lived one life; the Buddha lived many. The Buddha became the symbol of human perfection; Moses was cherished by his tradition despite - or possibly because of - his personal failings. And although Moses is often presented as the founder of Israelite religion, the Buddha was simply following the blueprint outlined by the Buddhas before him. The programme of this study goes further than to compare and contrast the two figures. Sasson argues that the comparative model she adopts can highlight doctrines and priorities of a religion that may otherwise remain hidden. In that way, the birth of Moses and the Buddha may serve as a paradigm for the comparative study of religions.

"A warm, profound and cleareyed memoir. . . this wise and sympathetic book's lingering effect is as a reminder that a deeper and more companionable way of life lurks behind our self-serious stories."-Oliver Burkeman, New York Times Book Review A remarkable exploration of the therapeutic relationship, Dr. Mark Epstein reflects on one year's worth of therapy sessions with his patients to observe how his training in Western psychotherapy and his equally long investigation into Buddhism, in tandem, led to greater awareness-for his patients, and for himself For years, Dr. Mark Epstein kept his beliefs as a Buddhist separate from his work as a psychiatrist. Content to use his training in mindfulness as a private resource, he trusted that the Buddhist influence could, and should, remain invisible. But as he became more forthcoming with his patients about his personal spiritual leanings, he was surprised to learn how many were eager to learn more. The divisions between the psychological, emotional, and the spiritual, he soon realized, were not as distinct as one might think. In The Zen of Therapy, Dr. Epstein reflects on a year's worth of selected sessions with his patients and observes how, in the incidental details of a given hour, his Buddhist background influences the way he works. Meditation and psychotherapy each encourage a willingness to face life's difficulties with courage that can be hard to otherwise muster, and in this cross-section of life in his office, he emphasizes how therapy, an element of Western medicine, can in fact be considered a two-person meditation. Mindfulness, too, much like a good therapist, can "hold" our awareness for us-and allow us to come to our senses and find inner peace. Throughout this deeply personal inquiry, one which weaves together the wisdom of two worlds, Dr. Epstein illuminates the therapy relationship as spiritual friendship, and reveals how a therapist can help patients cultivate the sense that there is something magical, something wonderful, and something to trust running through our lives, no matter how fraught they have been or might become. For when we realize how readily we have misinterpreted our selves, when we stop clinging to our falsely conceived constructs, when we touch the ground of being, we come home.

A general introduction to the main ideas of Theravada Buddhism. The purpose of this book is to help the reader gain insight into the Buddhist scriptures and the way in which the teachings can be used to benefit both ourselves and others in everyday life. Several chapters are written in the form of question and answer, inspired by questions posed by ordinary people who were confronted with difficulties in the practical application of the teachings. The book will be an invaluable aid for those individuals who wish to develop the Buddhist path to true understanding. Suitable for both practicing Buddhists and newcomers to the teachings.

The context for the first part of this study is the community (sangha) of early Buddhism in India, as it is reflected in the religion's canon composed in the Pali language, which is preserved by the Theravada tradition as the only authentic record of the words of the Buddha and his disciples, as well as of events within that community. This book does not assert that the Pali Canon represents any sort of "original" Buddhism, but it maintains that it reflects issues and concerns of this religious community in the last centuries before the Common Era. The events focused on in part one of this study revolve around diversity and debate with respect to proper soteriology, which in earliest Buddhist communities entails what paths of practice successfully lead to the religion's final goal of nibbana (Sanskrit: nirvana). One of the main theses of this study is that some of the vocational and soteriological tensions and points of departure of the early community depicted in the Pali Canon have had a tendency to crop up in the ongoing Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka, which forms the second part of the study. In particular, part two covers first a vocational bifurcation in the Sri Lankan that has existed at least from the last century of the Common Era to contemporary times, and second a modern debate held between two leading voices in Theravada Buddhism, on the subject of what constitutes the right meditative path to nibbana.With a few notable exceptions, both members of Theravada Buddhism and the scholars who have studied them have maintained that the Pali Canon, and the ongoing tradition that has grown out of it, has a singular soteriology. The aim of this study is to deconstruct tradition, in the simple sense of revealing the tradition's essential multiplicity. Prior to this study, past scholarship--which preferred to portray early Indian and Theravada Buddhsim as wholly rationalist systems--has shied away from giving ample treatment on the noble person who possesses supernormal powers. This book examines the dichotomy between two Theravada monastic vocations that have grown out of tensions discussed in part one. The bifurcation is between the town-dwelling scholar monk and the forest-dwelling meditator monk. Scholars have certainly recognized this split in the sangha before, but this is the first attempt to completely compare their historical roles side by side. This is an important book for collections in Asian studies, Buddhist studies, history, and religious studies.

Reiko Ohnuma offers a wide-ranging exploration of maternal imagery and discourse in pre-modern South Asian Buddhism, drawing on textual sources preserved in Pali and Sanskrit. She demonstrates that Buddhism in India had a complex and ambivalent relationship with mothers and motherhood-symbolically, affectively, and institutionally. Symbolically, motherhood was a double-edged sword, sometimes extolled as the most appropriate symbol for buddhahood itself, and sometimes denigrated as the most paradigmatic manifestation possible of attachment and suffering. On an affective level, too, motherhood was viewed with the same ambivalence: in Buddhist literature, warm feelings of love and gratitude for the mother's nurturance and care frequently mingle with submerged feelings of hostility and resentment for the unbreakable obligations thus created, and positive images of self-sacrificing mothers are counterbalanced by horrific depictions of mothers who kill and devour. Institutionally, the formal definition of the Buddhist renunciant as one who has severed all familial ties seems to co-exist uneasily with an abundance of historical evidence demonstrating monks' and nuns' continuing concern for their mothers, as well as other familial entanglements. Ohnuma's study provides critical insight into Buddhist depictions of maternal love and maternal grief, the role played by the Buddha's own mothers, Maya and Mahaprajapati, the use of pregnancy and gestation as metaphors for the attainment of enlightenment, the use of breastfeeding as a metaphor for the compassionate deeds of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and the relationship between Buddhism and motherhood as it actually existed in day-to-day life.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

How are Buddhists and Buddhism represented in contemporary films? Are these mediated sources accurate representations of the Buddhist tradition? What kinds of Buddhisms and Buddhists are missing in these films and why?"Silver Screen Buddha" is the first book to explore the representation of Buddhism, race, and gender in contemporary films directed by both Asian and non-Asian directors. It examines the cinematic encounter with Buddhism that has flourished in Asia and in the West in the past century - from images of Shangri-La in Frank Capra's 1937 "Lost Horizon" to Kim Ki-Duk's 2003 international box office success, "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter....and Spring." The book helps readers see that representations of Buddhism in Asia and in the West are often fraught with political, gendered, and racist undertones that are missed and overlooked by viewers. "Silver Screen Buddha" also draws significant attention to the ordinary lay Buddhism that is often overlooked in popular film. Readers are introduced to some of the key Buddhist texts and doctrines that are implied in Buddhist films yet not explicitly explained, helping them to ascertain the difference between a fictionalized, commodified, and exoticized Buddhism and a more realistic representation of the tradition that includes the laity and, in particular, women and Asian/Asian Americans. The book also engages in a reimagining of Buddhism that expands the popular understanding of Buddhism as the realm of meditating monks and nuns to include an everyday lay Buddhism.

Buddhist images are ubiquitous in Japan, yet they are rarely accorded much attention in studies of Buddhist monastic traditions. Scholars of religion tend to regard Buddhist images as mere symbols or representations of religious ideals, commemorations of saints and patriarchs, ancillary aids to meditative practice, or the focus of lay piety. Art historians approach these images as works of art suitable for stylistic and iconographic analysis. Yet neither of these groups of scholars has adequately appreciated the centrality and significance of images and image worship in Japanese monastic practice.
The essays in this volume focus on the historical, institutional, and ritual context of a number of Japanese Buddhist paintings, sculptures, calligraphies, and relics--some celebrated, others long overlooked. Robert H. Sharf's introduction examines the reasons for the marginalization of images by modern Buddhist apologists and Western scholars alike, tackling the thorny question of whether Buddhists were in fact idolators.
The essays by Paul Groner and Karen Brock document and explicate the crucial role that sacred images played in the lives of two eminent medieval clerics, Eison and Myoe. James Dobbins looks at Shin representations of Shinran, founder of the Shin school of Pure Land Buddhism, and finds that early Shin piety was centered as much on Shinran and his images as on the Buddha Amida himself. Robert H. Sharf's essay on the use of Tantric mandalas reveals that, contrary to received opinion, such mandalas were not used as aids to ritual visualization but rather as vivified entities whose presence ensured the efficacy of the rite.
In each case, the authors find that the images were treated, by elite monks and unlettered laypersons alike, as living presences with considerable apotropaic and salvific power, and that Japanese Buddhist monastic life was centered around the management and veneration of these numinous beings.

The Buddhist view of inter-religious dialogue is significantly different from, say, that of Christianity. In Christianity Jesus Christ, being the only incarnation in the history, has an inexplicable uniqueness. It must be maintained even in the inter-faith dialogue. By contrast, in Buddhism Guatama Buddha is not the only Buddha, but one of many Buddhas. His uniqueness is realized in the fact that he is the first Buddha in human history. Furthermore, the Buddhist teaching of dependent co-origination and emptiness not only provides a dynamic common basis for various religions, but also will suggest a creative cooperation amongst world religions. The book clarifies such a Buddhist view and inter-religious dialogue from various perspectives.

Endorsed by WJEC/Eduqas, the Student Book offers high quality support you can trust. / Written by an experienced teacher and author with an in-depth understanding of teaching, learning and assessment at A Level and AS. / A skills-based approach to learning, covering content of the specification with examination preparation from the start. / Developing skills feature focuses on what to do with the content and the issues that are raised with a progressive range of AO1 examples and AO2 exam-focused activities. / Questions and Answers section provides practice questions with student answers and examiner commentaries. / It provides a range of specific activities that target each of the Assessment Objectives to build skills of knowledge, understanding and evaluation. / Includes a range of features to encourage you to consolidate and reinforce your learning.

Abhidhamma in Daily Life is an exposition of absolute realities in detail. Abhidhamma means higher doctrine and the book's purpose is to encourage the right application of Buddhism in order to eradicate wrong view and eventually all defilements. Many terms in Pali the language of early Buddhism are used and are defined as they are introduced. The book is therefore suitable for beginners as well as practicing Buddhists. It is detailed and precise and an invaluable aid to unlocking the deep meaning of the entire Buddhist canon and applying the theory to our daily lives for the benefit of ourselves and others.

This book explores the value impact that theist and other worldviews have on our world and its inhabitants. Providing an extended defense of anti-theism - the view that God's existence would (or does) actually make the world worse in certain respects - Lougheed explores God's impact on a broad range of concepts including privacy, understanding, dignity, and sacrifice. The second half of the book is dedicated to the expansion of the current debate beyond monotheism and naturalism, providing an analysis of the axiological status of other worldviews such as pantheism, ultimism, and Buddhism. A lucid exploration of contemporary and relevant questions about the value impact of God's existence, this book is an invaluable resource for scholars interested in axiological questions in the philosophy of religion.

In this raw and moving memoir, Claude Thomas describes his service in Vietnam, his subsequent emotional collapse, and his remarkable journey toward healing. At Hell's Gate is not only a gripping coming-of-age story but a spiritual travelogue from the horrors of combat to the discovery of inner peace—a journey that inspired Thomas to become a Zen monk and peace activist who travels to war-scarred regions around the world. "Everyone has their Vietnam," Thomas writes. "Everyone has their own experience of violence, calamity, or trauma." With simplicity and power, this book offers timeless teachings on how we can all find healing, and it presents practical guidance on how mindfulness and compassion can transform our lives.

This expanded edition features:

   •  Discussion questions for reading groups
   •  A new afterword by the author reflecting on how the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are affecting soldiers—and offering advice on how to help returning soldiers to cope with their combat experiences

In premodern Japan, legitimization of power and knowledge in various contexts was sanctioned by consecration rituals (kanjo) of Buddhist origin. This is the first book to address in a comprehensive way the multiple forms and aspects of these rituals also in relation to other Asian contexts. The multidisciplinary chapters in the book address the origins of these rituals in ancient Persia and India and their developments in China and Tibet, before discussing in depth their transformations in medieval Japan. In particular, kanjo rituals are examined from various perspectives: imperial ceremonies, Buddhist monastic rituals, vernacular religious forms (Shugendo mountain cults, Shinto lineages), rituals of bodily transformation involving sexual practice, and the performing arts: a history of these developments, descriptions of actual rituals, and reference to religious and intellectual arguments based on under-examined primary sources. No other book presents so many cases of kanjo in such depth and breadth. This book is relevant to readers interested in Buddhist studies, Japanese religions, the history of Japanese culture, and in the intersections between religious doctrines, rituals, legitimization, and performance.