Books about Buddhism
Buddhism is a path of practice and spiritual development leading to Insight into the true nature of life. Buddhist practices such as meditation are means of changing oneself in order to develop the qualities of awareness, kindness, and wisdom. The experience developed within the Buddhist tradition over thousands of years has created an incomparable resource for all those who wish to follow a path — a path which ultimately culminates in Enlightenment or Buddhahood.
Because Buddhism does not include the idea of worshipping a creator god, some people do not see it as a religion in the normal, Western sense. The basic tenets of Buddhist teaching are straightforward and practical: nothing is fixed or permanent; actions have consequences; change is possible. Thus Buddhism addresses itself to all people irrespective of race, nationality, or gender. It teaches practical methods (such as meditation) which enable people to realise and utilise its teachings in order to transform their experience, to be fully responsible for their lives and to develop the qualities of Wisdom and Compassion.
There are around 350 million Buddhists and a growing number of them are Westerners. They follow many different forms of Buddhism, but all traditions are characterised by non-violence, lack of dogma, tolerance of differences, and, usually, by the practice of meditation .
The following slides provide an overview of the some of the books on Buddhism by World Wisdom. For a complete list of terms and their definitions commonly found in this religion, please visit The Dictionary of Spiritual Terms.
The following issues are addressed in The Laughing Buddha of Tofukuji:
—In this book a living Zen master reveals personal details of his life and his journey towards becoming a Buddhist monk and Zen master. While most biographies celebrate the lives of past Zen masters, in this book the reader meets a living Zen master, and is introduced to his teachings, accomplishments, and humor.
—What are the principles behind authentic, “pristine” Zen, and what is life like for those who follow this path?
—What is “Zen Mind” and how does it differ from our day-to-day awareness of the world?
What does the Zen master mean by “every day is a fine day”? How can Zen help us to better appreciate our lives?
“The Laughing Buddha of Tofukuj: The Life of Zen Master Keido Fukushima, introduces us to one of the most influential Zen Buddhist teachers of our time. Through this book we encounter a spiritual master and consummate calligrapher whose infectious joy and humor has inspired the devotion of his biographer, Prof. Ishwar Harris, and students. Keido Fukushima Roshi transmits the spirit and teaching of Zen through humor, as well as deep spiritual insight. This volume will contribute to the encounter of Zen Buddhism and Western culture in a positive and illuminating way.”
—Alfred Bloom, Buddhist minister, scholar, and author
A Buddhist Spectrum was 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.
“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.”
—Kenneth Oldmeadow, author of The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity
“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.”
—Joel Brereton, Columbia University
“For insight, and the beauty insight requires if it is to be effective, I find no writer on Buddhism surpassing him.”
—Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions
The current interest in Zen and the popularity of Buddhism in the West are an understandable reaction to the artificiality and ugliness prevalent in the world today, and also to various concepts nowadays judged rightly or wrongly as inoperative.
Those seeking an antidote to new-age materialism and the empty claims of pseudo-spirituality will find it in Schuon’s incisive discernment of the intrinsic orthodoxy of Buddhism. Far from discounting the providential “mythology” of the person of the Buddha, the author relates its historical—and sometimes contradictory—phenomena to their celestial roots in the Divine Qualities and to the human virtues that form the necessary framework for a spiritual life.
Notions crucial to Buddhism such as suffering and its cessation, void-form, nirvana-samsara are elucidated in the light of the Vedantic distinction Atma-Maya, providing an important key to understanding the differences between Western philosophical “individualism” and the serenity of Eastern metaphysics. Here is a perspective that stands above sectarian factionalism while at the same opening unique insights into the multi-faceted spiritual universe that is Buddhism.
The Golden Age of Zen gives a fascinating survey of the early years of Chinese Zen (Chan) Buddhism, staying focused on the movement of Buddhism to the land where Taoism and Confucianism flourished. John Wu’s survey, combined with interesting translations from these earliest Zen masters, reveals a time of spiritual vibrancy and powerful personalities that help explain the later developments of Zen with which western readers are more familiar.
“Wu’s book has long been a primary source for understanding the development of the hugely influential philosophy of Zen Buddhism by students and teachers alike. The Golden Age of Zen explores the philosophy’s history, from its early connections with Taoism to the magnificent flowering forth of the whole movement in the hands of succeeding generations of Chinese sages.”
—Ingram
“Dr. Wu’s [The Golden Age of Zen:] Zen Masters of the T’ang Dynasty presents a thorough exposition of the watershed period in China from which developed everything we’ve come to know as Zen, both East and West. Students of Buddhism will find this book to be a rich source for understanding this significant period of Zen history.”
—John Daido Loori, Abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery
“This book is a rare treasure, proof of the possibility to clarify the profound understanding of Taoism and Zen in their essential relatedness in a warm, poetic, non-academic prose. It reached me on my 94th birthday, moved me by its gentle wisdom, comparable to Daisetz T. Suzuki’s Essence of Zen Buddhism and his quintessential essay ‘Self the Unattainable,’ which he wrote at the age of ninety. I will return to Dr. Wu’s The Golden Age of Zen many times in the months or years still allotted me.”
—Frederick Franck, artist and author of The Zen of Seeing and Messenger of the Heart: The Book of Angelus Silesius
Shinran (1173-1262) is the founder of the Jôdo Shinshû Pure Land Buddhist tradition in Japan during the Kamakura period. This movement, once set in motion, eventually became the largest Buddhist sect in Japan and spread to the West at the end of the nineteenth century.
With these translations of the writings of Shinran the Shin Buddhist tradition can now be explored in depth by western scholars, religious students and seekers, and by members of the tradition. To facilitate this process, The Essential Teachings of Shinran has drawn together important passages and insights of Shinran which are set against the background of his life and spiritual legacy.
Editor Alfred Bloom is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the study of Shin Buddhism. He taught World Religions and Buddhism at the University of Oregon and the University of Hawaii and has written many books and articles on Shin Buddhism and spirituality in general. Prof. Bloom was Dean at the Institute of Buddhist Studies, sponsored by the Buddhist Churches of America. He is an ordained Shin priest.
Zen Buddhism: A History Japan embodies a scholar’s respect for historical research and a monk’s respect for Zen as a religion. With an unparalleled breadth of scope and detail covering both Rinzai and Soto traditions in Japan, the monumental figure of Dogen, Zen in Art and Culture, Zen Master Hakuin, and Modern Movements in post-war Japan, this book is essential reading for any serious student of Japanese Zen. The great merit of Dumoulin’s study is that he presents the history of Zen from the ‘inside’; his version follows that of an unbroken line of Zen Masters and monks, explaining core religious ideas which have shaped generations of Zen practitioners.
Zen Buddhism: A History India and China represents a newly revised and greatly expanded edition of Heinrich Dumoulin’s acclaimed history of Zen Buddhism which was first published over 30 years ago. It has been updated to take into account the wealth of historical research that has gone on in the intervening years, insuring its place as a standard reference work in the field. This volume treats Zen from its roots in ancient Indian Buddhism and Yoga to its flowering in China under the influence of Taoism and Confucian thought. Dumoulin not only introduces the imposing personalities of Zen Buddhism, among them Shakyamuni, Hui-neng, and Lin-chi, but also discusses the various expressions of Zen in the art and culture of India and China.
