The Platform Sutra comprises a wide range of important Chan/Zen Buddhist teachings. Purported to contain the autobiography and sermons of Huineng (638–713), the legendary Sixth Patriarch of Chan, the sutra has been popular among monastics and the educated elite for centuries. The first study of its kind in English, this volume offers essays that introduce the history and ideas of the sutra to a general audience and interpret its practices. Leading specialists on Buddhism discuss t...

Meditation has flourished in different parts of the world ever since the foundations of the great civilizations were laid. It played a vital role in the formation of Asian cultures that trace much of their heritage to ancient India and China. This volume brings together for the first time studies of the major traditions of Asian meditation as well as material on scientific approaches to meditation. It delves deeply into the individual traditions while viewing each of them from a global per...

Although Buddhism has been an important cultural force in the East for thousands of years, the tenets of this religion and belief system were largely unknown throughout much the West until the twentieth century. In this volume, Haldeman-Julius presents a comprehensive overview of Buddhist belief, doctrine, and practice in an introductory format designed to appeal to Western readers.

A radical new interpretation of one of the most important Buddhist sutras—from the great Zen Master and author of The Miracle of Mindfulness.Thich Nhat Hanh’s accessible reading of the Heart Sutra demystifies the foundational teachings of the Buddha, making this a perfect introduction to Buddhism for beginners.In September 2014, Thich Nhat Hanh completed a profound and beautiful new English translation of the Prajñaparamita

The Hidden Lamp is a collection of one hundred koans and stories of Buddhist women from the time of the Buddha to the present day. This revolutionary book brings together many teaching stories that were hidden for centuries, unknown until this volume. These stories are extraordinary expressions of freedom and fearlessness, relevant for men and women of any time or place. In these pages we meet nuns, laywomen practicing with their families, famous teachers honored by emperors, and ...

Discover the ancient wisdom that has made Buddhism the most popular non-Biblical religion in Europe and North America.

Jamgön Kongtrül’s ten-volume Treasury of Knowledge is a unique, encyclopedic masterpiece embodying the entire range of Buddhist teachings as they were preserved in Tibet. Tibetan Buddhist teachers expected their students to study Buddhist philosophical texts as well as practice reflection and meditation; present-day students have also realized that awakening has its source in study as well as in reflection and practice. Buddhism’s Journey to Tibet presents Kongtrül's mast...

Hui-neng (638–713) is perhaps the most beloved and respected figure in Zen Buddhism. An illiterate woodcutter who attained enlightenment in a flash, he became the Sixth Patriarch of Chinese Zen, and is regarded as the founder of the "Sudden Enlightenment" school. He is the supreme exemplar of the fact that neither education nor social background has any bearing on the attainment of enlightenment. This collection of his talks, also known as the Platform or Altar Sutra, is the only Zen recor...

Enter the mind and practice of Zen: apply the insights of one of Zen's classic poems to your life--here and now.Destined to become a trusted, dog-eared companion.Shitou Xiqian’s “Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage” is a remarkably accessible work of profound depth; in thirty-two lines Shitou expresses the breadth of the entire Buddhist tradition with simple, vivid imagery. Ben Connelly’s Inside the Grass Hut unpacks the timeless poem and applies it to...

How do we free ourselves from the demon of self-concern? These instructions are found in Eight Verses for Training the Mind, one of the most important texts from a genre of Tibetan spiritual writings known as lojong (literally "mind training"). The root text was written by the eleventh-century meditator Langritangpa. His Holiness the Dalai Lama refers to this work as one of the main sources of his own inspiration and includes it in his daily meditations.

A new book by author Meath Conlan, PhD takes select teachings of a modern-day Buddhist Master and reveals how common ground of inter-spiritual wisdom can be found between his aphorisms, or sayings, and teachings of the Desert Elders from the early Christian centuries (250 AD to Late Roman Antiquity). Khejok Tulku Rinpoche is one of the diminishing numbers of “old teachers” in the Tibetan Tradition. Born in the 1930s, he is regarded as an incarnation of a renowned lama from the 5th Dalai La...

Gateways to awakening surround us at every moment of our lives. The whole purpose of kōan (gong’an, in Chinese) practice is to keep us from missing these myriad opportunities by leading us to certain gates that have traditionally been effective for people to access that marvelous awakening. The forty-eight kōans of the Gateless Barrier (Chinese: Wumenguan; Japanese: Mumonkan) have been waking people up for well over eight hundred years. Chan tea...