Follow the brilliant and hilarious adventures of the Zen Buddhist monk who became one of China's greatest folk heroes!During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Ji Gong studied at the renowned Ling Yin monastery, nestled in the steep hills above Hangzhou. The Chan (Zen) Buddhist masters of the temple tried to instruct Ji Gong in the spartan practices of their sect, but the young monk, following in the footsteps of other great ne'er-do-wells, distinguished himself mainly b...

The Bells of Mindfulness is part of the Parallax Press Moments series of short ebooks. Thich Nhat Hanh presents a dramatic vision of the future of our planet, a call for environmental awareness, and Buddhist teachings on interconnectedness. Ultimately, Nhat Hanh believes that engaging with the world is the key to our individual and collective survival. Selected from his best-selling title The World We Have.

Discover the origins of Buddhism and its tenets from the seminal textsDrawn from the sacred books of Buddhism, this collection reveals the insights and beliefs at the heart of the world's fourth-largest religion. Siddhartha Guatama, a sixth-century Hindu warrior prince, renounced the world in his search for the meaning of life and became the Buddha, or "Enlightened One," while meditating at Bodh Gaya.From that moment forward the Buddha sought to share his o...

The renowned psychoanalyst and New York Times –bestselling author of The Art of Loving unites philosophy from the East and West.In 1957, social philosopher and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm invited Daisetz T. Suzuki, the most famous Zen Buddhist master in the Western world, to a seminar at his new home in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Their discussion was one of the highlights of Fromm's lif...

A lively, topical guide on how to respond to life’s inevitable difficulties—from personal crises to broader societal challengesThe issue of difficulty in life is at the very essence of Buddhism. One can reasonably translate the first noble truth as, “life is full of difficulties,” with the remaining noble truths serving as Buddhism’s analysis of those difficulties and how to work with them. In Solid Ground, celebrated Buddhist teachers Sylvia Boorstein, Zo...

An engagingly contemporary approach to Buddhism—through the lens of an iconic film and its memorable charactersHumorous yet spiritually rigorous in the tradition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and The Tao of Pooh, drawing from pop culture and from personal experience, The Dharma of "The Princess Bride " teaches us how to understand and navigate our most important personal relationships from a twenty-first-century Bud...

Achaan Chah spent many years walking and meditating in the forest monastery of Wat Ba Pong, engaging in the uncomplicated and disciplined Buddhist practice called dhudanga. A Still Forest Pool reflects the quiet, intensive, and joyous practice of the forest monks of Thailand. Achaan Chah's humble words, compiled by two Westerners who are former ordained monks, awaken the spirit of inquiry, wonderment, understanding, and deep inner peace.Attachment, according to Achaan Chah...

This is not a dry scholarly book on Zen. It is a fascinating introduction into a study of self-enlightenment and inner reason that has been a driving force of all Japanese culture. Written by Reginal Horace Blyth (1898-1964) this is a volume free of the dry pedantry that has hobbled so many well meaning French and English studies of Zen. It is free also of the breathless mystery-mongering that unfortunately has bloated American Zen.Blyth reads easily. The questions he poses; the vi...

The Path of Light is Barnett's 1909 translation of an important text to Mahayana Buddhism. It is the treatise of the Bodhicharyavatara of Santideva--part of the Wisdom of the East series. Barnett gives a detailed introduction to Mahayana Buddhism and its significance.

'The natural sympathy and understanding of people everywhere must be the soil in which the new humanism can thrive.' For Daisaku Ikeda, whose words these are, education has long been one of the fundamental priorities of his work and teaching. And his emphasis on the intellectual legacy bequeathed to humanity by the great teachers of civilization is in this volume encapsulated by the notion of a 'new humanism': a significant residue of wisdom that in the right circumstances may be passed on...

Engaging and inspiring true stories designed to motivate readers to change their lives and the world through intentional acts of compassion."A treasure for the spiritually motivated activist." —Marianne WilliamsonCompassion is much more than a state of mind. That's because it has the power to move people to act on behalf of others.Here more than forty, first-person stories by the likes of John F. Kennedy, Jr., Pema ...

“Where have we come from and where do we go? Why are we born? Are our lives just random events or do they have some greater purpose? What is the meaning of death? How can we become happy?” Ikeda explores these questions through his lectures on “The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life”. The treatise is one of the key writings of Nichiren in which he clarified that Myoho-renge-kyo is the great Law that enables all people to overcome the sufferings of birth and death.