Lucid and economical, this introductory text delivers a brisk, fast-moving survey of Tibetan Buddhism. For many years Powers's nearly 600-page Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism has served as the field's most authoritative and comprehensive overview of Tibet's distinctive Buddhist tradition. A Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism explains the core Buddhist doctrines and the practices of meditation and tantra and provides a survey of the four main schools of Tibetan Budd...

From bodhi to the true meaning of Zen, this comprehensive new encyclopedia captures the rich diversity of the Buddhist tradition.'Well presented, easy to use and authoritative.' Living TraditionsFrom the teachings of the early masters to the growth of the tradition in the West, this authoritative new reference tool contains over 900 entries supplying information on all the key doctrines, practices, and figures central to Buddhism.

January 1968-John Powers opens a letter no young man wants to see: "Greetings from the United States Army." Overnight, he's ripped from civilian life and thrown into the chaos of basic training, the scorching deserts of Texas, and eventually, the sweltering warzone of Vietnam.From dodging rattlesnakes at Fort Bliss to gripping an M60 as a helicopter door gunner over enemy territory, Powers delivers an unflinching, heart-pounding account of life as a soldier. You'll march beside him...

As the pace of economic change seems to only quicken, including rapid technological advance, today’s advanced economies face uncertainty from a number of directions, most of which have the potential to change established modes of thinking and the institutional arrangements that underpin basic economic organization. Labor-saving technological advances are accompanied by risks to jobs due to automation. Work is being made more insecure for a wide variety of workers and skill levels because o...

The Bolex camera, 16mm reversal film stocks, commercial film laboratories, and low-budget optical printers were the small-gauge media technologies that provided the infrastructure for experimental filmmaking at the height of its cultural impact. Technology and the Making of Experimental Film Culture examines how the avant-garde embraced these material resources and invested them with meanings and values adjacent to those of semiprofessional film culture. By reasserting the physica...

Historical Dictionary of Tibet, Second Edition is a comprehensive resource for Tibetan history, politics, religion, major figures, prehistory and paleontology, with a primary emphasis on the modern period. It also covers the surrounding areas influenced by Tibetan religion and culture, including India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Central Asia, and Russia.It contains a chronology, a glossary, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referen...

Tibet is a land bounded by the world’s highest mountains, and it is the repository of an ancient culture. For centuries it was viewed by Europeans as a remote, mystical place populated by Buddhist masters with supernatural powers and profound wisdom. In contrast to this image, it was once a warlike country whose expansionist rulers conquered a vast empire that incorporated much of central Asia and parts of China. Even now the Tibetan Plateau remains a scene of contestation, both ideologica...

In this unique city, it’s less “Welcome to Boston” and more welcome Boston to you. From street names to driving customs to weather, nothing is as it is wherever you call home, and the locals are proud of it. Boston writer John Powers turned his experience of living in Boston for over fifty years into this fun yet practical guide which brings visitors into the real Boston. Fresh with Peter Wallace’s animated illustrations, The Boston Handbook gives the inside scoop on everything fr...

Bill Belichick is a different man on Fridays. With preparations for Sunday's game essentially complete, and the media presence reduced to those regulars Belichick calls the "Friday Warriors," the normally terse coach is known to open up in provocative, entertaining, and expansive fashion. Fridays With Bill provides a rare glimpse inside one of history's greatest football minds, featuring insights and musings from the man who has won five Super Bowl championships and who is destine...

Despite Chinese efforts to stop foreign countries from granting him visas, the Dalai Lama has become one of the most recognizable and best loved people on the planet, drawing enormous crowds wherever he goes. By contrast, China's charismatically-challenged leaders attract crowds of protestors waving Tibetan flags and shouting "Free Tibet!" whenever they visit foreign countries. By now most Westerners probably think they understand the political situation in Tibet. But, John Powers argues, ...

It is fast-moving and often downright funny." New York Times "He has recaptured childish innocence and presented it with adult enlightenment plus a touch of cynicism yet never with irreverence." Book-of-the-Month Club News First confession and its terrors. Eighty-four first graders in a classroom ruled by just one nun. The agony and the ecstasy of Lent. The dubious honor of being declared the worst altar server ever. Dinah Shore and the Blessed Virgin haunting your dreams. This is Eddie Ry...

The androgynous, asexual Buddha of contemporary popular imagination stands in stark contrast to the muscular, virile, and sensual figure presented in Indian Buddhist texts. In early Buddhist literature and art, the Buddha’s perfect physique and sexual prowess are important components of his legend as the world’s “ultimate man.” He is both the scholarly, religiously inclined brahman and the warrior ruler who excels in martial arts, athletic pursuits, and sexual exploits. The Buddha effortle...