Author: Lama Khenpo Karma Ngedön
Publisher: Rabsel Editions
ISBN: 2360170309
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 86
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Book Description
Upon completing the path that led him to fully develop compassion and wisdom, Shakyamuni arrived at enlightenment, the state of Buddhahood that marks the end of suffering.Replying to the requests made of him, he transmitted three cycles of teachings to explain the path he had taken and the methods he used.Traditionally, Buddhism counts 84,000 teachings, and the four seals of the Dharma contain the essence of all these. Like a royal seal that historically proved authenticity and authority, the four seals give a true description of our current situation and that to which we can progress:All phenomena are impermanent by nature.All contaminated phenomena are suffering by nature.All phenomena are empty and devoid of inherent existence.Nirvana is a state of absolute peace.The first two seals allow us to understand the characteristics of our condition and the last two, the qualities of liberation. In this way, the teaching shows the Buddha' s path and the Buddhist perspective.Today, Buddhism is no longer an exotic movement but a methodology that has taken root and is practiced in the West. Nevertheless, do we really know what it means to be Buddhist? Using the introspective process of investigation that is precious to this tradition, Lama Khenpo Nged&ö n directly involves the reader in this discovery by asking simple, to-the-point questions and then bringing together the elements of an answer connected with these four statements.
Author: Narada Thera
Publisher: Pariyatti Publishing
ISBN: 1681720647
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 87
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Book Description
This new Pariyatti Edition of the classic Buddhism in a Nutshell is an excellent introductory overview of the fundamental principles of Buddhist doctrine. Topics covered include: the life of the Buddha, the Dhamma (Is it a philosophy? A religion? An ethical system?), the Four Noble Truths, the Law of Kamma, Rebirth, Dependent Origination, Anatta, and Nibbana. Recommended for beginners.
Author: Thubten Chodron
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 161429545X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 400
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Book Description
The second volume in the Dalai Lama’s definitive and comprehensive series on the stages of the Buddhist path, The Library of Wisdom and Compassion. Volume 1, Approaching the Buddhist Path, contained introductory material that set the context for Buddhist practice. This second volume, The Foundation of Buddhist Practice, contains the important teachings that will help us establish a flourishing Dharma practice. The Foundation of Buddhist Practice begins with the four seals shared by all Buddhist philosophies, and moves on to an explanation of the reliable cognition that allows us to evaluate the veracity of the Buddha’s teachings. The book provides many other essential Buddhist teachings, including: the relationship of a spiritual mentor and student, clarifying misunderstandings about this topic and showing how to properly rely on a spiritual mentor in a healthy, appropriate, and beneficial manner; how to structure a meditation session; dying and rebirth, unpacking the often difficult-to-understand topic of multiple lives and explaining how to prepare for death and aid someone who is dying; a fruitful explanation of karma and its results; and much more. His Holiness’s illumination of key Buddhist ideas will support Western and contemporary Asian students in engaging with this rich tradition.
Author: Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834823160
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 149
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Book Description
An innovative meditation master cuts through common misconceptions about Buddhism, revealing what it truly means to walk the path of the Buddha So you think you’re a Buddhist? Think again. Tibetan Buddhist master Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, one of the most creative and innovative lamas teaching today, throws down the gauntlet to the Buddhist world, challenging common misconceptions, stereotypes, and fantasies. In What Makes You Not a Buddhist, Khyentse reviews the four core truths of the tradition, using them as a lens through which readers can examine their everyday lives. With wit and irony, he urges readers to move beyond the superficial trappings of Buddhism—beyond the romance with beads, incense, or exotic robes—straight to the heart of what the Buddha taught. Khyentse’s provocative, non-traditional approach to Buddhism will resonate with students of all stripes and anyone eager to bring this ancient religious tradition into their twenty-first-century lives.
Author: Bhikkhu Bodhi
Publisher: Buddhist Publication Society
ISBN: 955240116X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 151
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Book Description
The Buddha's teachings center around two basic principles. One is the Four Noble Truths, in which the Buddha diagnoses the problem of suffering and indicates the treatment necessary to remedy this problem. The other is the Noble Eightfold Path, the practical discipline he prescribes to uproot and eliminate the deep underlying causes of suffering. The present book offers, in simple and clear language, a concise yet thorough explanation of the Eightfold Path. Basing himself solidly upon the Buddha's own words, the author examines each factor of the path to determine exactly what it implies in the way of practical training. Finally, in the concluding chapter, he shows how all eight factors of the path function in unison to bring about the realization of the Buddhist goal: enlightenment and liberation.
Author: Khenpo Gawang
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 1590309979
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241
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Book Description
This concise handbook of Tibetan Buddhist teachings, designed for Western students, is centered on a sitting practice called Contemplative Meditation. This practice can be used as a way to change troublesome habits, even by someone with little knowledge of Buddhism. Although the teachings are based it on a nineteenth-century text by Lama Mipham, they are presented in a non-scholarly way, with examples drawn from modern life and everyday experience. In particular, the author addresses the unique attitudes and questions of twenty-first-century Westerners who are exploring Buddhism. The practice taught in the book consists of a reflection on four subjects, known as the Four Seals of the Buddha's teaching: multiplicity, impermanence, suffering, and emptiness. Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche explains how to investigate each of these topics in a way that helps you recognize your innate wisdom mind, which is your ultimate teacher. Once you learn how to examine your own mind and your life with this method, you will start to look at everything differently. By helping to dissolve negative thoughts and habits, the practice can increase your focus, confidence, self-esteem, and happiness. Along with exercises and questions, short readings, a glossary, and checklists for study, this book provides a complete handbook, with simple instructions for additional practices: • the Ninefold Exhalation, a breathing method for expelling stale air before meditation • visualization of buddhas and great teachers to inspire practice • the practice of bodhichitta, or generating love and compassion for all beings • the seven-branch offering, seven devotional thoughts to strengthen efforts • dedication of merit—the positive energy from the meditation--for the benefit of all beings Finally, the appendix gives translations of two short readings: The Wheel of Analytical Meditation by Lama Mipham, which is the source of this book's teaching, and the Heart Sutra, a famous brief teaching on emptiness, along with a traditional commentary.
Author:
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231106566
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
One of the most popular Asian classics for roughly two thousand years, the Vimalakirti Sutra stands out among the sacred texts of Mahayana Buddhism for its conciseness, its vivid and humorous episodes, its dramatic narratives, and its eloquent exposition of the key doctrine of emptiness or nondualism. Unlike most sutras, its central figure is not a Buddha but a wealthy townsman, who, in his mastery of doctrine and religious practice, epitomizes the ideal lay believer. For this reason, the sutra has held particular significance for men and women of the laity in Buddhist countries of Asia, assuring them that they can reach levels of spiritual attainment fully comparable to those accessible to monks and nuns of the monastic order. Esteemed translator Burton Watson has rendered a beautiful English translation from the popular Chinese version produced in 406 C.E. by the Central Asian scholar-monk Kumarajiva, which is widely acknowledged to be the most felicitous of the various Chinese translations of the sutra (the Sanskrit original of which was lost long ago) and is the form in which it has had the greatest influence in China, Japan, and other countries of East Asia. Watson's illuminating introduction discusses the background of the sutra, its place in the development of Buddhist thought, and the profundities of its principal doctrine: emptiness.
Author: Evan Thompson
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300226551
Category : Buddhism
Languages : en
Pages : 239
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Book Description
"A provocative essay challenging the idea of Buddhist exceptionalism, from one of the world's most widely respected philosophers and writers on Buddhism and science. Buddhism has become a uniquely favored religion in our modern age. A burgeoning number of books extol the scientifically proven benefits of meditation and mindfulness for everything ranging from business to romance. There are conferences, courses, and celebrities promoting the notion that Buddhism is spirituality for the rational; compatible with cutting-edge science; indeed, "a science of the mind." In this provocative book, Evan Thompson argues that this representation of Buddhism is false. In lucid and entertaining prose, Thompson dives deep into both Western and Buddhist philosophy to explain how the goals of science and religion are fundamentally different. Efforts to seek their unification are wrongheaded and promote mistaken ideas of both. He suggests cosmopolitanism instead, a worldview with deep roots in both Eastern and Western traditions. Smart, sympathetic, and intellectually ambitious, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in Buddhism's place in our world today."--Provided by publisher.
Author: Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788127341275
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Author: Maitreya
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 155939482X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 409
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Book Description
The Buddha's definitive teachings on how we should understand the ground of enlightenment and the nature and qualities of buddhahood. All sentient beings, without exception, have buddha nature—the inherent purity and perfection of the mind, untouched by changing mental states. Thus there is neither any reason for conceit nor self-contempt. This is obscured by veils that are removable and do not touch the inherent purity and perfection of the nature of the mind. The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra, one of the “Five Treatises” said to have been dictated to Asanga by the Bodhisattva Maitreya, presents the Buddha’s definitive teachings on how we should understand this ground of enlightenment and clarifies the nature and qualities of buddhahood. This seminal text details with great clarity the view that forms the basis for Vajrayana, and especially Mahamudra, practice.
