Originating in India, Mahayana Buddhism spread across Asia, becoming the prevalent form of Buddhism in Tibet and East Asia. Over the last twenty-five years Western interest in Mahayana has increased considerably, reflected both in the quantity of scholarly material produced and in the attraction of Westerners towards Tibetan Buddhism and Zen.Paul Williams’ Mahayana Buddhism is widely regarded as the standard introduction to the field, used internationally for teaching and research and has been translated into several European and Asian languages. This new edition has been fully revised throughout in the light of the wealth of new studies and focuses on the religion’s diversity and richness. It includes much more material on China and Japan, with appropriate reference to Nepal, and for students who wish to carry their study further there is a much-expanded bibliography and extensive footnotes and cross-referencing. Everyone studying this important tradition will find Williams’ book the ideal companion to their studies. Read more

Candrakīrti's Introduction to the Middle Way (Madhyamakāvatāra) is a central work of Buddhist philosophy for two reasons. First, it provides an introduction to Madhyamaka, one of the three major philosophical schools of Buddhist thought (the other two being Abhidharma and Yogācāra). Second, within Madhyamaka, Candrakīrti's text occupies a very prominent role. This is primarily due to its enormous influence in Tibet, where Candrakīrti's work became the main entry-point into the study of Madhyamaka thought. While the historical importance of the Introduction to the Middle Way for understanding a major section of Buddhist thought is evident, what makes it particularly interesting for students is the role it plays as an 'introduction'. It is one of Candrakīrti's earlier works and presents a comprehensive guide to the key philosophical ideas and problems of Madhyamaka thought.This Oxford Guide is for the philosophically interested student or scholar reading the Introduction to the Middle Way. Westerhoff's commentary focuses on the philosophical content of the text, using Candrakīrti's auto-commentary as the main explicatory resource. Read more

Endorsed by WJEC/Eduqas, the Student Book offers high quality support you can trust. / Written by experienced teachers and authors 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. Read more

In this second edition of the best-selling Introduction to Buddhism, Peter Harvey provides a comprehensive introduction to the development of the Buddhist tradition in both Asia and the West. Extensively revised and fully updated, this edition draws on recent scholarship in the field, exploring the tensions and continuities between the different forms of Buddhism. Harvey critiques and corrects some common misconceptions and mistranslations, and discusses key concepts that have often been over-simplified and over-generalised. The volume includes detailed references to scriptures and secondary literature, an updated bibliography and a section on web resources. Key terms are given in Pali and Sanskrit, and Tibetan words are transliterated in the most easily pronounceable form, making this is a truly accessible account. This is an ideal coursebook for students of religion, Asian philosophy and Asian studies, and is also a useful reference for readers wanting an overview of Buddhism and its beliefs. Read more

In this second edition of the best-selling Introduction to Buddhism, Peter Harvey provides a comprehensive introduction to the development of the Buddhist tradition in both Asia and the West. Extensively revised and fully updated, this edition draws on recent scholarship in the field, exploring the tensions and continuities between the different forms of Buddhism. Harvey critiques and corrects some common misconceptions and mistranslations, and discusses key concepts that have often been over-simplified and over-generalised. The volume includes detailed references to scriptures and secondary literature, an updated bibliography and a section on web resources. Key terms are given in Pali and Sanskrit, and Tibetan words are transliterated in the most easily pronounceable form, making this is a truly accessible account. This is an ideal coursebook for students of religion, Asian philosophy and Asian studies, and is also a useful reference for readers wanting an overview of Buddhism and its beliefs. Read more

Originating in India, Mahayana Buddhism spread across Asia, becoming the prevalent form of Buddhism in Tibet and East Asia. Over the last twenty-five years Western interest in Mahayana has increased considerably, reflected both in the quantity of scholarly material produced and in the attraction of Westerners towards Tibetan Buddhism and Zen.Paul Williams’ Mahayana Buddhism is widely regarded as the standard introduction to the field, used internationally for teaching and research and has been translated into several European and Asian languages. This new edition has been fully revised throughout in the light of the wealth of new studies and focuses on the religion’s diversity and richness. It includes much more material on China and Japan, with appropriate reference to Nepal, and for students who wish to carry their study further there is a much-expanded bibliography and extensive footnotes and cross-referencing. Everyone studying this important tradition will find Williams’ book the ideal companion to their studies.  Read more

This book contains the full and complete daily gongyo meditation service for Nichiren Shu Buddhists. Nichiren Shu practitioners perform a twice daily gongyo meditation service that involves all six senses in an act of celebration, fully immersing themselves into the sublime reality of the Lotus Sutra while taking refuge in the Sanctuary of Awakening. Every gongyo meditation service is a re-creation of the Lotus Sutra's mystical Ceremony in the Air.This book's unique sutra recitation design matches the Japanese Shindoku with English in a side by side, line by line format, making it easy to recite either Shindoku or English while seeing what is the meaning of each line. The English translation is graciously provided with permission by Kosei Publishing of Japan, from their newest translation of the Threefold Lotus Sutra. Their translation is carefully balanced for ease of recitation in English and updated neutralizing gender references making this translation relevant for today's modern practitioners.This book includes the full and complete daily gongyo service, as well as optional Shodaigyo Meditation, memorial service, healing service, meal service, Dharanis, Shomyo hymns, and two silent guided meditations. It provides detailed instructions how to celebrate the various services as well as a short introduction to Nichiren Shu Buddhism.May this book bring you joy and peace and find you well and free of suffering. Read more

Introducing Buddhism is the ideal resource for all students beginning the study of this fascinating religious tradition. It explains the religion’s key teachings and traces its historical development and geographical spread of from its foundations up to present day. Charles S. Prebish and Damien Keown, two of today’s leading Buddhist scholars, devote a chapter each to the major regions where Buddhism has flourished - India, South-east Asia, East Asia and Tibet. In addition, contemporary concerns are discussed, including important and relevant topics such as Engaged Buddhism, Buddhist Ethics, Buddhism and the Western World and Meditation.This new edition includes more material on the different schools of Buddhism including explanations in graphic form, monastic life, popular religion, Buddhist ethics, ritual, the Bodhisattva Path, the Jatakas, the transmission of Buddhism, and class, gender and race.Introducing Buddhism includes illustrations, extracts from original sources, summary boxes, questions for discussion, suggestions for further reading and a companion website at www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415550017Charles S. Prebish is Charles Redd Chair of Religious Studies at Utah State University. Damien Keown is Professor of Buddhist Ethics at Goldsmith's College, University of London. They are the editors of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Routledge, 2007). Read more

This magisterial Norton Anthology, edited by world-renowned scholars, offers a portable library of more than 1,000 primary texts from the world’s major religions. To help readers encounter strikingly unfamiliar texts with pleasure; accessible introductions, headnotes, annotations, pronouncing glossaries, maps, illustrations and chronologies are provided. For readers of any religion or none, The Norton Anthology of World Religions opens new worlds that, as Miles writes, invite us "to see others with a measure of openness, empathy, and good will..."Unprecedented in scope and approach, The Norton Anthology of World Religions: Buddhism brings together over 100 substantial selections from the fifth century B.C.E. to the present day, organised by country to mirror the spread of Buddhism from India to China, Korea, Japan, Tibet and the United States. The volume features Jack Miles’s illuminating General Introduction―“How the West Learned to Compare Religions”―as well as Donald S. Lopez, Jr.’s “In the World of the Buddha,” a lively primer on the history and core tenets of Buddhism. Read more

This comprehensive anthology provides translations of texts illustrative of Buddhist philosophy and doctrine as well as descriptive, concrete accounts of Buddhist practices, rituals, experiences and life situations. This approach does not neglect one dimension of the religion in favor of another and allows instructors to choose what they wish to emphasize in the clroom. The book also covers the development of Buddhism in a wide variety of geographical and cultural areas (India, Southeast Asia, Tibet, China, and Japan), and gives a sense of the historical evolution of the tradition in these areas. Read more

Popular representations of Buddhism often depict it as spiritual, disembodied, and largely devoid of ritual. Yet embodiment, materiality, emotion, and gender shape the way most Buddhists engage with their traditions. The essays within The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice push beyond traditional representations of Buddhism as divided into static schools and traditions, highlighting instead the contested and negotiated character of individual and group identities. This volume will serve as a corrective to the common misconception that Buddhist practice is limited to seated meditation and that ritualized activities are not an integral dimension of authoritative Buddhist practice. Essays in this handbook explore the transformational aims of practices that require practitioners to move, gesture, and emote in prescribed ways, including the ways that scholars' own embodied practices are integral to their research methodology. Authors foreground the role of the body, examining how the senses, gender, specific emotions, and material engagements impact religious experience. They highlight, as well, the multiplicity of methods and theoretical perspectives that scholars of Buddhism use in their research and writing, including field-based, textual, and historical approaches. Given the fluidity and diversity of Buddhist practices, the question that animates this volume is: What makes a given practice Buddhist? Read more

This lively introduction is the ideal starting point for students wishing to undertake a comprehensive study of Tibetan religion. It covers the development and influence of Tibetan Buddhism and the key schools and traditions, including Bon. Geoffrey Samuel helps students get to grips with a complex set of beliefs and practices and provides a clear sense of the historical, cultural and textual background. Important contemporary issues such as gender, national identity and Tibetan Buddhism in the world today are also addressed. Illustrated throughout, the book includes a chronology, glossary, pronunciation guide, summaries, discussion questions and suggestions for further reading that will aid understanding and revision. Read more

Buddhism in America provides the most comprehensive and up to date survey of the diverse landscape of US Buddhist traditions, their history and development, and current methodological trends in the study of Buddhism in the West, located within the translocal flow of global Buddhist culture.Divided into three parts (Histories; Traditions; Frames), this introduction traces Buddhism's history and encounter with North American culture, charts the landscape of US Buddhist communities, and engages current methodological and theoretical developments in the field.The volume includes:- A short introduction to Buddhism- A historical survey from the 19th century to the present- Coverage of contemporary US Buddhist communities, including Theravada, Mahayana, and VajrayanaTheoretical and methodological issues and debates covered include:- Social, political and environmental engagement- Race, feminist, and queer theories of Buddhism- Secular Buddhism, digital Buddhism, and modernity - Popular culture, media, and the artsPedagogical tools include chapter summaries, discussion questions, images and maps, a glossary, and case studies. The book's website provides recommended further resources including websites, books and films, organized by chapter. With individual chapters which can stand on their own and be assigned out of sequence, Buddhism in America is the ideal resource for courses on Buddhism in America, American Religious History, and Introduction to Buddhism. Read more

The Tattvasamgraha, or Encyclopedia of Metaphysics, is the most influential and frequently studied philosophical text from the late period of Indian Buddhism. Its authors-Santaraksita and his commentator and student, Kamalasila-both played key roles in founding the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. In the Tattvasamgraha, they explain, discuss, and critique a range of views from across the South Asian philosophical and religious spectrum, including ideas drawn from Buddhism, Jainism, and traditions now incorporated into Hinduism. The Tattvasamgraha also includes the earliest discussion of Advaita Vedanta in any Buddhist text. In The Tattvasamgraha of Santaraksita, Charles Goodman translates chapters of the text that deal with fundamental philosophical issues like the existence or nonexistence of God and the soul; the nature of matter and causal relationships; the connection between words and their referents; rules of logic; sources of human knowledge; and the compatibility of beliefs about karma with Buddhism's fundamental claim that there is no self. Goodman's introductory chapters discuss translation choices and explain the arguments and reasoning employed by the Tattvasamgraha's original authors. Together, Goodman's accessible translations and introductory chapters give readers an ideal way to familiarize themselves with the argumentative methods and logical principles of Buddhist epistemology, as well as the intellectual and cultural context of Buddhist philosophy. Read more

These three simple guided meditations are all forms of breathing meditation that help to calm the mind, reduce stress, and give rise to an experience of inner peace and wellbeing. The first is a basic breathing meditation that helps to disengage the mind from the busyness of everyday life and create a special feeling of inner peace. The second combines mindfulness of the breath with visualization, or creative imagination, and leads to a deep feeling of inner calm and purity. The third is a special breathing meditation that combines mindfulness of the breath with the recitation of mantra. All these meditations can be practiced by anyone. Background information and guidance is provided in the accompanying 16-page booklet. Read more

In this second edition of the best-selling Introduction to Buddhism, Peter Harvey provides a comprehensive introduction to the development of the Buddhist tradition in both Asia and the West. Extensively revised and fully updated, this edition draws on recent scholarship in the field, exploring the tensions and continuities between the different forms of Buddhism. Harvey critiques and corrects some common misconceptions and mistranslations, and discusses key concepts that have often been over-simplified and over-generalised. The volume includes detailed references to scriptures and secondary literature, an updated bibliography and a section on web resources. Key terms are given in Pali and Sanskrit, and Tibetan words are transliterated in the most easily pronounceable form, making this is a truly accessible account. This is an ideal coursebook for students of religion, Asian philosophy and Asian studies, and is also a useful reference for readers wanting an overview of Buddhism and its beliefs. Read more

Ravana, the demon-king antagonist from the Ramayana, the ancient Hindu epic poem, has become an unlikely cultural hero among Sinhala Buddhists over the past decade. In Ravana's Kingdom, Justin W. Henry delves into the historical literary reception of the epic in Sri Lanka, charting the adaptions of its themes and characters from the 14th century onwards, as many Sri Lankan Hindus and Buddhists developed a sympathetic impression of Ravana's character, and through the contemporary Ravana revival, which has resulted in the development of an alternative mythological history, depicting Ravana as king of the Sri Lanka's indigenous inhabitants, a formative figure of civilizational antiquity, and the direct ancestor of the Sinhala Buddhist people. Henry offers a careful study of the literary history of the Ramayana in Sri Lanka, employing numerous sources and archives that have until now received little to no scholarly attention, as well as the 21st century revision of a narrative of the Sri Lankan people-a narrative incubated by the general public online, facilitated by social media and by the speed of travel of information in the digital age. Ravana's Kingdom offers a glimpse into a centuries-old, living Ramayana tradition among Hindus and Buddhists in Sri Lanka-a case study of the myth-making process in the digital age. Read more

Candrakīrti's Introduction to the Middle Way (Madhyamakāvatāra) is a central work of Buddhist philosophy for two reasons. First, it provides an introduction to Madhyamaka, one of the three major philosophical schools of Buddhist thought (the other two being Abhidharma and Yogācāra). Second, within Madhyamaka, Candrakīrti's text occupies a very prominent role. This is primarily due to its enormous influence in Tibet, where Candrakīrti's work became the main entry-point into the study of Madhyamaka thought. While the historical importance of the Introduction to the Middle Way for understanding a major section of Buddhist thought is evident, what makes it particularly interesting for students is the role it plays as an 'introduction'. It is one of Candrakīrti's earlier works and presents a comprehensive guide to the key philosophical ideas and problems of Madhyamaka thought.This Oxford Guide is for the philosophically interested student or scholar reading the Introduction to the Middle Way. Westerhoff's commentary focuses on the philosophical content of the text, using Candrakīrti's auto-commentary as the main explicatory resource. Read more