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dharma
book studyThursday
evenings
7:30 pm to 9:00 pm
You can get the current assignment by going to our dharma book study Yahoo! group by clicking here. -Lar
GMBS has a Dharma book study group which meets weekly to discuss books with Buddhist content that are of interest to the group.
Historically, the group has used selected readings as a jumping off point for a free ranging discussion. Our frequent experience is that the discussion brings to the reading an experience of the living Dharma. These next few weeks, we'll be doing the same, using other Buddhist materials as our "jumping" platform.
If you'd like to make a suggestion for a future book selection, please click contact Jim Shalkham.
The Book Study group has a Yahoo Groups email list which includes announcements of current reading assignments and parallel discussions of the texts. You can join the e-list by sending a blank email message to dharmabookstudy-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, or by following this link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dharmabookstudy/
No fee will be charged for this group. Please consider offering a donation to help cover the costs of this program.
If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, feel free to contact Albert Kaba (e-mail Albert by clicking here or call 415-822-5223)
We meet at the Castro area home of Jim Shalkham. For address information, please email Jim (e-mail Jim by clicking here) or Albert Kaba (e-mail Albert by clicking here) or call Jim at 415-553-8921 or Albert at 415-822-5223.
The following is a list of
books the group has considered. Click on a title to see brief information about the
book from its cover or other sources. The list begins with titles
suggested for our first book in the winter of 2006. Titles that have been added since
then appear at the end of the list, and books we've already read appear in
strikethrough type. If you would like to suggest a title
for consideration, please contact
Lar Bryer, by clicking here.
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The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh -
Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation by Chögyam Trungpa
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Opening the Heart of the Cosmos: Insights on the Lotus Sutra by Thich Nhat Hanh
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A Buddhist Bible (1932)
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Interbeing: 14 guidelines for Engaged Buddhism by Thich Nhat Hanh
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Start Where You Are by Pema Chödrön
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The Meaning of Life from a Buddhist Perspective by the Dalai Lama
Books that have been suggested since Winter, 2006 include:
- Myths of Light--Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal by Joseph Campbell
Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield- Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen
- Bearing Witness by Bernie Glassman
- Working with Anger by Thubten Chödrön
- The Feeling Buddha by David Brazier
- Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation by Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek
- The Buddha Tree by Fumio Niwa
- A Journey to Ladakh by Andrew Harvey
Street Zen: The Life and Work of Issan Dorsey by David SchneiderBuddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening by Stephen Batchelor.The Engaged Spiritual Life (A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World) by Donald Rothberg- Not Always So by Shunryu Suzuki (aka Suzuki Roshi)
- The Noble Eightfold Path (Way to the End of Suffering) by Bhikkhu Bodhi
- Discovering Kwan Yin (Buddhist Goddess of Compassion), A Path Toward Clarity and Peace by Sandy Boucher
- Light on Enlightenment by Christopher Titmuss
- A Path with Heart by Jack Kornfield
- Infinite Life: Seven Virtues for Living Well by Robert Thurman
- What Makes You Not A Buddhist by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse
- Practicing Peace in Times of War by Pema Chödrön
- Diamond That Cuts through Illusion: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Diamond Sutra by Thich Nhat Hanh
- The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra by Thich Nhat Hanh, edited by Peter Levitt
Some information about these books:
From the book cover: In this book, Chögyam Trungpa explores the meaning of freedom in the profound context of Tibetan Buddhism. He shows how our attitudes, preconceptions and even our spiritual practices can become chains that bind us to repetitive patterns of frustration and despair. He also explains the role of meditation in bringing into focus the causes of frustration and allowing these negative forces to become aids in advancing toward true freedom.
Trungpa's unique ability to express the essence of Buddhist teachings in the language and imagery of contemporary American culture makes this book one of the most immediately available sources for the meaning of the Buddhist doctrine ever written.
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Opening the Heart of the Cosmos: Insights on the Lotus Sutra by Thich Nhat Hanh
Amazon.com customer review by: Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
In Opening The Heart Of The Cosmos: Insights On The Lotus Sutra, Vietnamese Buddhist monk, poet, teacher, writer, peace and human rights activist Thich Nhat Hanh draws upon his more than 30 years of study and experience to focus upon one of the most important of the sutras and reveal how it can be of invaluable service in transforming ourselves and the world around us. By way of illustration, Hanh provides commentary on a number of current issues and enduring world problems ranging from the Palestinian-Israeli impasse, to the threats posed by international terrorism, to the continuing degradation of our planetary environment. Opening The Heart Of The Cosmos is a superbly articulated and presented contribution to the growing body of Buddhist literature for western readers.
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The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche (3 votes)
Amazon.com editorial review: In 1927, Walter Evans-Wentz published his translation of an obscure Tibetan Nyingma text and called it the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Popular Tibetan teacher Sogyal Rinpoche has transformed that ancient text, conveying a perennial philosophy that is at once religious, scientific, and practical. Through extraordinary anecdotes and stories from religious traditions East and West, Rinpoche introduces the reader to the fundamentals of Tibetan Buddhism, moving gradually to the topics of death and dying. Death turns out to be less of a crisis and more of an opportunity. Concepts such as reincarnation, karma, and bardo and practices such as meditation, tonglen, and phowa teach us how to face death constructively. As a result, life becomes much richer. Like Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Sogyal Rinpoche opens the door to a full experience of death. It is up to the reader to walk through. --Brian Bruya
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A Buddhist Bible (1932), by Dwight Goddard. Available in paperback and online at http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/bb/index.htm
Amazon.com "spotlight review": by Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States)
Dwight Goddard's collection of Buddhist Sutras and related texts, first published in 1932, is available in paperback with introductions by Robert Aitken and Houston Smith. The importance of this book lies in its role in the development of American Buddhism as well as, of course, in the texts themselves.
Dwight Goddard, according to Aitken's introduction, was an enigmatic figure with training first as an engineer (where he became wealthy as a result of an invention) and as a Christian minister. In the latter role, he traveled to the East and became interested in Eastern Religions -- a seeker in the true sense of the term. In the 1930s, while in his 60s he produced this collection of texts, many of which he translated himself, which give a broad view of the nature of the teachings of Buddhist schools. The book helped teach Buddhism to Americans beginning in the 1930s.
In the 1950s, Jack Kerouac, then living in San Jose, California discovered Goddard in the public library. He carried the book with him wherever he went and used it as the basis of whatever knowledge of Buddhism he had. The beats in the 1950s were one of the sources leading to the growth of American Buddhism, and Goddard's book was Kerouac's teacher.
The main value of this book, though, is not in its role in Buddhist History in the United States but lies in the texts themselves. Goddard presents in one volume a selection of primary source materials from the Theravada, Mahayana, Zen, Tibetan, and and other Buddhist traditions. Many of these texts have been more recently translated, but the translations in this book are readable, at the least and they are all in one volume. They are not easy reading and will require many rereadings, but they do present a compilation of basic Buddhist materials for those wishing to benefit from them. My own familiarity with Buddhist texts is primarily with the earlier texts in Theravada Buddhism. This book is comparatively light on Theravada texts but gave me the opportunity to read the texts of other Buddhist Schools.
This is a very fine anthology and is of historical interest for the transmission of the Buddha's teaching to the United States. I have found that many people interested in Buddhism restrict themselves to the practice of meditation or to books setting out Buddhist teachings rather than availing themselves of the original source materials. This book is a great way to read the original texts. There will be something of meaning in them for you.
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Interbeing: 14 guidelines for Engaged Buddhism by Thich Nhat Hanh
From the Publisher: The Fourteen Precepts of the Order of Interbeing are a penetrating expression of traditional Buddhist morality coming to terms with contemporary issues. Interbeing presents these precepts, offering a practical guide for living mindfully. This second edition includes a new introduction updating the development of the worldwide community practicing these precepts and the text of the Charter of the Order of Interbeing.
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When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön
From Publishers Weekly: Pema Chodron, a student of Chogyam Trunpa Rinpoche and Abbot of Gampo Abbey, has written the Tibetan Buddhist equivalent of Harold Kushner's famous book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. As the author indicates in the postscript to her book: "We live in difficult times. One senses a possibility they may get worse." Consequently, Chodron's book is filled with useful advice about how Buddhism helps readers to cope with the grim realities of modern life, including fear, despair, rage and the feeling that we are not in control of our lives. Through reflections on the central Buddhist teaching of right mindfulness, Chodron orients readers and gives them language with which to shape their thinking about the ordinary and extraordinary traumas of modern life. But most importantly, Chodron demonstrates how effective the Buddhist point of view can be in bringing order into disordered lives.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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The Places That Scare You by Pema Chödrön
Editorial review from Amazon.com: Pema Chödrön may have more good one-liners than a Groucho Marx retrospective, but this nun's stingers go straight to the heart: "The essence of bravery is being without self-deception"; "When we practice generosity, we become intimate with our grasping"; "Difficult people are the greatest teachers." These are the punctuations to specific teachings of fearlessness. In The Places That Scare You, Chödrön introduces a host of the compassionate warriors' tools and concepts for transforming anxieties and negative emotions into positive living. Rather than steeling ourselves against hardship, she suggests we open ourselves to vulnerability; from this comes the loving kindness and compassion that are the wellsprings of joy. How do we achieve it? Through meditation, mindfulness, slogans, aspiration, and several other practices, such as tonglen, which is taking in the pain and suffering of others while sending out happiness to all--emphasis on the all. Chödrön introduces each of these practices in turn, backing them up with succinct practical reasoning and a framework of ideas that offers fresh interpretations of familiar words like strength, laziness, and groundlessness. Chödrön is the type of person you'd like to have with you in an emergency, and to deal with the extremes of daily life. In her absence, The Places That Scare You will do nicely. --Brian Bruya
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Start Where You Are by Pema Chödrön -
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chögyam Trungpa
From the Publisher: In this modern spiritual classic, the Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa highlights the commonest pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism. The universal tendency, he shows, is to see spirituality as a process of self-improvement—the impulse to develop and refine the ego when the ego is, by nature, essentially empty. "The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use," he said, "even spirituality." His incisive, compassionate teachings serve to wake us up from this trick we all play on ourselves, and to offer us a far brighter reality: the true and joyous liberation that inevitably involves letting go of the self rather than working to improve it. It is a message that has resonated with students for nearly thirty years, and remains fresh as ever today.
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The Meaning of Life from a Buddhist Perspective by the Dalai Lama
Publisher Comments: The Dalai Lama presents the basic worldview of Buddhism while offering answers to some of life’s most profound and challenging questions: Why are we in this situation? Where are we going? Do our lives have any meaning? How should we live our lives?
Basing his explanation on the twelve links of dependent-arising as depicted in the Buddhist image of the Wheel of Life, His Holiness vividly describes how human beings become trapped in a counterproductive prison of selfishness and suffering, and shows how to reverse the process, changing the limiting prison into a source of help and happiness for others. Suffused with the Dalai Lama’s intelligence, wit, and kindness, these teachings address such issues as how to deal with aggression from within and without; how to reconcile personal responsibility with the doctrine of selflessness; how to face a terminal illness; how to help someone who is dying; how to reconcile love for family with love for all beings; and how to integrate this practice into everyday life.
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The Power of Compassion by the Dalai Lama
From Tibet.com: Many people have asked the Dalai Lama to speak on the current difficulties facing humanity. In these talks given in London he speaks about a wide range of issues, including war in Bosnia, racial hatred, gender and environmental protection. He describes clearly and simply how to live and die well, and how to infuse one's life with wisdom and compassion.
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One Dharma by Joseph Goldstein
From Library Journal: Separated by time and space, the several traditions of Buddhism and their many internal variations grew from the Buddha's original teachings into disparate systems of practice on the path to liberation. Having himself confronted these discrepancies, Goldstein, a highly respected teacher of meditation, cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society, and widely read coauthor (with Jack Kornfield) of Seeking the Heart of Wisdom and The Path of Insight Meditation, seeks here to define the One Dharma "the essential point common to all the teachings." To this end, he reviews the development of Buddhist traditions and explores various meanings of nirvana, liberation, lovingkindness, and other concepts as viewed primarily from Theravada, Tibetan, and Zen perspectives. Novices to Buddhist literature will find these teachings made accessible by a clear, simple eloquence and enlivened by anecdotes from Goldstein's personal spiritual journey. More experienced seekers will discover an excellent overview and a useful lead-in to David Brazier's The New Buddhism. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. James R. Kuhlman, Univ. of North Carolina Lib., Asheville
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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Queer Dharma: Voices of Gay Buddhists edited by Winston Leyland
From the publisher: "...a multi-cultural approach: historical essays, fiction, poetry, but with the main emphasis on articles by practitioners from various traditions (Zen, Vipassana, Tibetan, etc.) on the integration of their gay sexuality and Buddhist practice."
The poetry and prose in Queer Dharma represents the diversity of the gay Buddhist experience, from hermits like Whitney and scholars like Cabezon to "garden variety" queers who practice Buddhism in the course of an active life. Poets like John Giorno and the late Allen Ginsberg share a forum with Christopher Osborne, a teenager who "survived" high school in the heartland as an openly gay Buddhist. Though Osborne was verbally and physically attacked by religious and sexual bigots, he is quick to point out that "there is wisdom one can gain through being a practicing gay Buddhist in a closed Christian community."
Queer Dharma was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the category of Spirituality and Religion. Even non-Buddhists can learn from its wisdom and poetry.
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Books that have been suggested since Winter, 2006 include:
- Myths of Light--Eastern Metaphors of
the Eternal by Joseph Campbell
Book Description from Amazon.com: Following such volumes as Baksheesh and Brahman, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, and Thou Art That, this previously unpublished title is Volume six in the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell series. It shows Campbell's remarkable mind engaged with a favorite topic, the myths and metaphors of Asian religions. Myths of Light collects seven lectures and articles on subjects ranging from the ancient Hindu Vedas to Zen koans, Tantric yoga, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. A worthy companion to Campbell's Asian journals, this volume conveys complex insights through warm, accessible storytelling, revealing the intricacies and secrets of his subjects with his typical enthusiasm.
(to top of list) Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield- Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen
Amazon.com editorial review: You might want to digest this book slowly, a few pages at a time. Although Zen teacher Steve Hagen has a knack for putting the philosophy of Buddhism in a "plain and simple" package, it may take a while to sink in. There is so much there. Seeing reality, realizing the wisdom of the self, breaking free of dualistic thinking--this is pretty heady stuff. Thankfully, Hagen passes it along in the form of examples from life, psychological tidbits, and stories from Buddhist teachers past and present. And when it clicks in, it can be life-transforming. Hagen explains this shift in outlook and how the fundamental way we look at the world affects everything we do. As an outline, Hagen follows the basic teachings of the Buddha, and we see that, rather than dogmatic truths, they are reminders for us as we reconsider the life we have taken for granted for so long. As it turns out, Buddhism is life, plain and simple. --Brian Bruya
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Bearing Witness by Bernie Glassman
(--out of print)
From Booklist: In January 1994, as Zen teacher Bernie Glassman marked his fiftieth year, he did something special, founding the Zen Peacemaker Order. This order would comprise a community of activists, both organized and individual, and would provide them with a center from which to share stories and information. Yet, most important, the order's core would be spiritual--a universal spirituality. Glassman, who has been very active in social service activities, founding entrepreneurial ventures in economically blighted communities as well as spearheading the founding of some of this country's first AIDS hospice centers, is not new to spiritual action. He brings a centered, even, and balanced perspective to what one might do to better the current state of social affairs. Through the people Glassman meets and ordains as Peacemakers, the reader gathers a sense of what it means to devote oneself to the universal task of making peace with the here and now and, most important, past. Raul Nino
(to top of list) - Working with Anger by Thubten
Chödrön
From the author's website, Thubtenchodron.org: Anger plagues all of us on a personal, national, and international level. Yet, we see people, such as the Dalai Lama, who have faced circumstances far worse than many of us have faced -- including exile, persecution, and the loss of many loved ones -- but who do not burn with rage or seek revenge. How do they do it?
Working with Anger presents a variety of Buddhist methods for subduing and preventing anger, not by changing what is happening, but by framing it differently. No matter what our religion, learning to work with our anger is effective for everyone seeking personal happiness as well as world peace.
(to top of list) - The Feeling Buddha by David
Brazier
Amazon.com customer review by M. A. Syverson (Austin, TX USA):
Most Buddhists can recite the catechism of the four noble truths taught by the Buddha, and most believe they understand these timeless truths as a logical progression: human existence is marked by suffering (also translated as affliction, dis-ease, or stress); suffering is caused by thirst (desire, grasping); suffering can be extinguished; the way to extinguish suffering is by following the eight-fold path. There has been little dissent about these basic truths and their sequence. Brazier sets 2500 years of teaching on its ear with a startling and yet completely plausible interpretation that reverses this sequence and furthermore offers a convincing case for his view. In the process he clarifies why these truths can be understood as both *noble* and *ennobling*. This interpretation challenges the conventional notion of Buddhist practice as the earnest attempt to live the eight-fold path in order to extinguish our suffering through ending the desire that causes it.
By Brazier's account, the Buddha taught that suffering is the inescapable fact of human existence: to face this fact squarely, clearly, is noble. Arising *together with* suffering is thirst, the natural human response to suffering. Recognizing this dependent arising of thirst with suffering as the second truth is also noble. The third noble truth is not about cessation or extinction of suffering but *containment*, the "banking" of the fire of suffering and thirst so that its energy becomes transforming, rather than destructive. The consequence of this containment is a life that unfolds as the eight-fold path. This truth, too, is both noble and ennobling. The perfectly logical exposition of this original perspective on the fundamental teachings shared by all branches of Buddhism seems eerily natural. Consider the lives of so many of the figures we revere as spiritually enlightened throughout history and it is clear that not one managed, through whatever practices, to transcend human suffering: even the Buddha grew old, became terribly ill, and died. He saw his disciples die before him, his country ravaged, and those he loved killed. His teachings were the product of the transformation of this suffering, not its ending.
Read this book and be prepared to have your convictions challenged and your mind freshened as if a window had been thrown open on a crisp spring day. Whether you end up in agreement or disagreement with Brazier's view, you will gain a new perspective and appreciation for the subtlety of the four noble truths, the Buddha's most fundamental and enduring teaching.
(to top of list) - Good Life, Good Death:
Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation by Rimpoche Nawang Gehlek
Book Description from Amazon.com: Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How do we get there? Gelek Rimpoche, one of the last reincarnated lamas to be educated in Tibet, examines these universal questions with a combination of ancient tradition and contemporary thought-revealing an empowering connection between what we believe and how we live our lives. He offers a bigger picture of life after life, with meditations for facing the dying process, overcoming negative emotions and cultivating compassion.
(to top of list) - The Buddha Tree by Fumio Niwa
From our member Jim Shalkham: "This is fiction. The author is the son of a Buddhist priest and was a priest himself. His story is about a Buddhist priest who falls prey to his own sensuality. It's a remarkable insight into human weakness, a sensitive sketch of the Japanese countryside, and a revelation on the materialism of the modern Buddhist church in Japan."
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From our member, Jim Shalkham: "This is more than a travelogue about a trip to the most sparsely populated region of India, the mountains of Ladakh, where the purest form of Tibetan Buddhism is still practiced today and has been since three centuries before the birth of Christ. It blends the wondrous and the commonplace, the sacred and the hilarious, and is a delightful story on the Western experience of Tibetan spiritual life."
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- Street Zen: The Life and Work of Issan Dorsey
by David Schneider
From Library Journal: Issan Dorsey once described himself as a "faggot speed-freak cross dresser," a description that only hints at the outrageousness of his life of substance abuse, prostitution, and female impersonation before embracing Zen in late-Sixties San Francisco. Author Schneider, himself a Zen practitioner and friend of Dorsey, presents an evenhanded account of Dorsey's extraordinary life and death. Dorsey is probably best remembered for his work with the gay community in San Francisco and the establishment of the Maitri hospice for people with AIDS, where he died of the disease in 1990. This work is not an introduction to Zen, but for anyone with an interest in the subject the book raises important questions. It gives a clear handling of the paradox that was Dorsey and the great compassion that he embodied. Recommended for public libraries. - Mark Woodhouse
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc
(to top of list) Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening by Stephen Batchelor.
- The Engaged Spiritual Life (A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World) by Donald Rothberg
From Amazon.com: This book is definitely one of the most important books I have read in my life. Its a practical guide to transformation on the personal, relational, and collective levels. Its unbelievably comprehensive and well thought out. I'm always very excited to find books that involve practical aspects that I can immediately apply to my life; this ceratinly is that type of book. The author is extremely well informed, well read, and highly educated in his field. The Engaged Spiritual Life is definitely a book that should be added to your collection and used on a daily basis if you desire to live a spiritual life and act as a catalyst for Universal Transformation. Highly recommended as a text for a spiritual life.
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(From the text) The information for Not Always So comes from the later lectures of Shunryu Suzuki and is compiled by one of his students, Edward Espe Brown. It is a companion piece to Suzuki’s first book, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, which was published in 1971 and quickly became an authoritative volume on Buddhism. With Suzuki’s passing in December of 1971, Brown has done a valuable service by choosing and editing the best of his speeches which otherwise would be lost to future students of enlightenment.
Suzuki uses plain language mixed with humor to bring the hazy ideas of Zen into focus for those new to the precepts of that way of life. There is a comforting feeling of his leading the reader gently by the hand through unfamiliar territory. Without the prodding and pushing associated with some gurus, this trip into self-exploration is a pleasant one. He manages to make the reader feel as if his teachings are a revelation that has been under the surface of their consciousness just waiting for him to awaken it.
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(Author) The present book aims at contributing towards a proper understanding of the Noble Eightfold Path by investigating its eight factors and their components to determine exactly what they involve. I have attempted to be concise, using as the framework for exposition the Buddha's own words in explanation of the path factors, as found in the Sutta Pitaka of the Pali canon. To assist the reader with limited access to primary sources even in translation, I have tried to confine my selection of quotations as much as possible (but not completely) to those found in Venerable Nyanatiloka's classic anthology, The Word of the Buddha. In some cases passages taken from that work have been slightly modified, to accord with my own preferred renderings. For further amplification of meaning I have sometimes drawn upon the commentaries; especially in my accounts of concentration and wisdom (Chapters VII and VIII) I have relied heavily on the Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification), a vast encyclopedic work which systematizes the practice of the path in a detailed and comprehensive manner.
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- Discovering Kwan Yin (Buddhist Goddess of Compassion), A Path Toward Clarity and Peace by Sandy Boucher
Amazon: In her book, Sandy Boucher celebrates the goddess Kwan Yin, who is known throughout Asia as the Goddess of Compassion. Boucher begins by giving a short and accessible history of this goddess and then tells stories about women from both Eastern and Western cultures who have found support in her. She includes both classic rituals used to honor Kwan Yin and contemporary songs and poems written in her honor. This book will inspire a broad range of spiritual seekers including Buddhists, mystics, people struggling with illness and adversity, and women looking for positive role models. Kwan Yin is, in Boucher's book, an entity one can dialogue with and get comfort from. This is a beautifully written and uplifting book.
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From Shambhala Press. Jack Kornfield says it "offers readers enormous gifts. It is filled with a profound spirit of inquiry. It challenges us to awaken." Titmuss worked as a news reporter in London, Turkey, Laos, Australia, then spent six years as a buddhist monk in Thailand and India. He gives teachings on spiritual awakening and leads insight meditation retreats worldwide.
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This is a real direct book that approaches practice in a personal way. Also, it builds one chapter on top of the previous, so it makes a good study-type book for a group.
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In this book, Robert Thurman presents the Mahayana tradition, emphasizing universal compassion and dedication to the well-being of others. It's really a guide to eliminiating the effects in our lives of negative emotions by replacing them with gratitude, generosity, etc.
The chapters are structured around the paramitas of wisdom,generosity, patience, contemplation, justice (discipline) and creativity (diligence). Then he adds a seventh: the `Art' of infinite living. I like it because it has very practical application in our daily lives.
All of the reviews are extremely positive. If you are interested you can learn more here: http://tinyurl.com/3793c6
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Here are the first three paragraphs from the book's introduction:
Once I was seated on a plane in the middle seat of the middle row on a trans-Atlantic flight, and the sympathetic man sitting next to me made an attempt to be friendly. Seeing my shaved head and maroon skirt, he gathered that I was a Buddhist. When the meal was served, the man considerately offered to order a vegetarian meal for me. Having correctly assumed that I was a Buddhist, he also assumed that I don't eat meat. That was the beginning of our chat. The flight was long, so to kill our boredom, we discussed Buddhism.
Over time I have come to realize that people often associate Buddhism and Buddhists with peace, meditation, and nonviolence. In fact many seem to think that saffron or maroon robes and a peaceful smile are all it takes to be a Buddhist. As a fanatical Buddhist myself, I must take pride in this reputation, particularly the nonviolent aspect of it, which is so rare in this age of war and violence, and especially religious violence. Throughout the history of humankind, religion seems to beget brutality. Even today religious-extremist violence dominates the news. Yet I think I can say with confidence that so far we Buddhists have not disgraced ourselves. Violence has never played a part in propagating Buddhism. However, as a trained Buddhist, I also feel a little discontented when Buddhism is associated with nothing beyond vegetarianism, nonviolence, peace, and meditation. Prince Siddhartha, who sacrificed all the comforts and luxuries of palace life, must have been searching for more than passivity and shrubbery when he set out to discover enlightenment.
Although essentially very simple, Buddhism cannot be explained. It is almost inconceivably complex, vast, and deep. Although it is nonreligious and nontheistic, it's difficult to present Buddhism without sounding theoretical and religious. As Buddhism has traveled to different parts of the world, the cultural characteristics it accumulated have made it even more complicated to decipher. Theistic trappings such as incense, bells, and multicolored hats can attract people's attention, but as the same time they can be obstacles. People end up thinking that is all there is to Buddhism and are diverted from its essence.
From Amazon.com: With war and violence flaring all over the world, many of us are left feeling vulnerable and utterly helpless. In this book Pema Chödrön draws on Buddhist teachings to explore the origins of aggression, hatred, and war, explaining that they lie nowhere but within our own hearts and minds. She goes on to explain that the way in which we as individuals respond to challenges in our everyday lives can either perpetuate a culture of violence or create a new culture of compassion.
"War and peace begin in the hearts of individuals," declares Pema Chödrön at the opening of this inspiring and accessible book. She goes on to offer practical techniques any of us can use to work for peace in our own lives, at the level of our habits of thought and action. It's never too late, she tells us, to look within and discover a new way of living and transform not only our personal lives but our whole world.
- Diamond That Cuts through Illusion: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Diamond Sutra by Thich Nhat Hanh
In the Diamond Sutra the Buddha tries to help Subhuti unlearn his preconceived and limited notions of what reality is, the nature of Enlightenment, and compassion and teaches that what makes Bodhisattvas so great is that the Bodhisattvas do not take pride in their work to save others, nor is their compassion calculated or contrived. They practice sincere compassion that comes from deep within, without any sense of ego or gain.
- The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra by Thich Nhat Hanh, edited by Peter Levitt
The Heart Sutra is a member of the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñaparamita) class of Mahayana Buddhist literature, and along with the Diamond Sutra, is considered to be the primary representative of the genre.
Various commentators divide this text in different numbers of sections. Briefly the sutra introduces the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteśvara, who in this case is representing the faculty of wisdom. His analysis of phenomena is that there is nothing which lies outside the five aggregates of human existence — form, feeling, volitions, perceptions, and consciousness.
Avalokiteśvara then addresses Śariputra, who in this text — as with many other Mahayana texts — is a representative of the Early Buddhist schools, described in many other sutras as being the Buddha's foremost disciple in wisdom. Avalokiteśvara famously states that, "form is emptiness and emptiness is form" and declares the other skandhas to be equally empty — that is, without an independent essence. Avalokiteśvara then goes through some of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings such as the Four Noble Truths and explains that in emptiness none of these labels apply. This is traditionally interpreted as saying that Buddhist teachings, while accurate descriptions of conventional truth, are mere statements about reality — they are not reality itself — and that they are therefore not applicable to the ultimate truth that is by definition beyond dualistic description. Thus the bodhisattva, as the archetypal Mahayana Buddhist, relies on the perfection of wisdom, defined in the larger Perfection of Wisdom sutras to be the wisdom that perceives reality directly without conceptual attachment. This perfection of wisdom is condensed in the mantra with which the Sutra concludes. Gate Gate, Para Gate, Parasam Gate, Bodhi Svaha!