Browse This Book On Google
Browse This Book On iBookstore
Browse This Book On Kindle
Browse This Book On NookBooks
A Buddhist Spectrum is Marco Pallis’ last book. This book is an in-depth survey of many aspects of Buddhism. Pallis had a particular talent for anticipating where Westerners might misunderstand the Buddhist message, and he carefully demonstrates the universal ideals of this great tradition in a way that is both clear and instructive to modern readers in the West. This new edition features an Introduction by Seyyed Hossein Nasr and a Foreword by Wayne Teasdale.
About the Author(s)
Marco Pallis
Marco Pallis was a widely respected author on Tibetan Buddhism and the Perennial Philosophy, but he was also a gifted musician, composer, mountaineer, and translator.
Pallis' book The Way and the Mountain came from his experiences traveling in the Eastern Himalaya region and with Tibetan Buddhism. Pallis also wrote many pieces for the important traditionalist journal Studies in Comparative Religion, some of which are included in his last publication, A Buddhist Spectrum . Marco Pallis' essays are included in the following World Wisdom books:
Read More
Wayne Teasdale
Brother Wayne Teasdale (1945-2004) was a lay monk who combined the traditions of Christianity and Hinduism in the way of Christian sannyasa. An activist and teacher in building common ground between religions, Teasdale served on the board of trustees of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. He was a member of the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue and helped draft their Universal Declaration on Nonviolence. Brother Teasdale was also an adjunct professor at DePaul University, Columbia College, and the Catholic Theological Union (where he lived in Chicago) and was coordinator of the Bede Griffiths International Trust. He was co-editor of The Community of Religions, with George Cairns, and the author of two books, A Monk in the World, and The Mystic Heart and dozens of articles on mysticism and religion. He held an M.A. in philosophy from St. Joseph College and a Ph.D. in theology from Fordham University.
Br. Wayne Teasdale wrote the foreword for the new edition of A Buddhist Spectrum , by Marco Pallis .
Read More
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr (b. 1933) is University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University. The author of over thirty books and three hundred articles, he is one of the world’s most respected writers and speakers on Islam, its arts and sciences, and its traditional mystical path, Sufism.
Read More
Reviews
- …A Buddhist Spectrum has always been one of my favourite Buddhist books, ever since I obtained a copy of the first Allen and Unwin edition in 1980. This new edition has the addition of a Foreword by Wayne Teasdale, and an introduction by Seyyed [Hossein] Nasr. It also has a good index, something that was missing from the earlier edition.
Spirituality & Health magazine
- For insight, and the beauty insight requires if it is to be effective, I find no writer on Buddhism surpassing him.
Pure Land Notes: A Journal of Pure Land Buddhism
- The work of Marco Pallis radiates a distinctively Buddhist ambience. The tone is less combative and more amiable than that found in the work of some of the other traditionalists, but he is no less tough-minded.
Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions and Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief
- The essays of Marco Pallis have been and continue to be a rich resource for the dialogue between Christians and Buddhists. Pallis’ sympathetic understanding of Western culture and theology is balanced by his extra-ordinary grasp of the refinements of Buddhist thought. He is an explorer of terrain whose treasures are already transforming our worldview and spirituality.Readers of Thomas Merton will welcome these writings by an author who influenced the thought of that monk and bridge-builder between East and West.
Harry Oldmeadow, author of Traditionalism: Religion in the Light of the Perennial Philosophy
- An honest and creative attempt to interpret Buddhist teachings and apply them to basic religious issues that are alive today. A Buddhist Spectrum will be an appropriate resource for courses in comparative religion.
Brother David Steindl-Rast OSB
- Without a doubt, there is no better introduction to the main notions of Buddhism for the Western mind than this famous classic. Indeed, A Buddhist Spectrum is remarkable in its ability to convey, in a very elegant and persuasive manner, difficult and sometimes misunderstood aspects of this eastern religion. Many misinterpretations can be avoided by readers who encounter Buddhism for the first time through this book, as well as by more advanced ones.
Joel Brereton, Columbia University
- Marco Pallis’ A Buddhist Spectrum is an admirable compendium of perennial wisdom, an authentic summation of Buddhism encompassing its profoundest truths. It is written in a clear, classical English that is a delight to read, while daring to confront us with the realities of contemporary life dominated as it is by animalistic atavisms, estranging us from our specific humanness. Modern ‘economic man’, Pallis observes, oscillates between the animal and the petra (hungry ghost), alienated as he is from himself, under the illusions of an infinitely expanding consumption, uninterruptedly propagated as a ‘higher standard of living.’ Estranged from ourselves as we are, this noble book can be trusted to overcome some of the almost insurmountable road blocks on our way home.
Jean-Pierre Lafouge, Marquette University
- A Buddhist Spectrum is at once one of the most readable works on Buddhism and a major work on comparative religion and living spirituality. It is the fruit of the thoughts and meditations of a man whose authoritative exposition during several decades of religious questions in general and Buddhism in particular, especially in its Tibetan form, have had a profound influence upon many scholars and practitioners of religion in both East and West.
Fredrick Franck, author of The Zen of Seeing
- Marco Pallis’ contribution is unique and inspiring. At once a brilliant comparative religionist, who moves back and forth with ease from one tradition to another, seeing the commonalities, parallels, and differences, he is also subtle, wise, and committed to an experiential depth of appreciation which is the hallmark of a devoted practitioner. He doesn’t just talk about Buddhism, he also practices it, and so its deeper life is available to him.… His probing mind unites a talented philosopher gifted in metaphysics with the scholar and mystic. [A Buddhist Spectrum is] a timeless treasure!
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, George Washington University, and author .
- [This] book represents more than half a century of the study of and the actual experience of Tibetan Buddhism as well as the deeply sympathetic study of other religions.
Wayne Teasdale, Catholic Theological Union and author
-
Pam Kingsbury, writing in ForeWord Reviews
