New Ebooks

The latest ebooks added to the E-Library

Philosophy of the Buddha

Philosophy of the Buddha is a philosophical introduction to the teaching of the Buddha. It carefully guides readers through the basic ideas and practices of the Buddha, including kamma (karma), rebirth, the not-self doctrine, the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, ethics, meditation, nonattachment, and Nibbana (Nirvana). The book includes an account of the life of the Buddha as well as comparisons of his teaching with practical and theoretical aspects of some Western philosophical outlooks, both ancient and modern.

An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics

This systematic introduction to Buddhist ethics is aimed at anyone interested in Buddhism, including students, scholars and general readers. Peter Harvey is the author of the acclaimed Introduction to Buddhism (Cambridge, 1990), and his new book is written in a clear style, assuming no prior knowledge. At the same time it develops a careful, probing analysis of the nature and practical dynamics of Buddhist ethics both in its unifying themes and in the particularities of different Buddhist traditions. The book applies Buddhist ethics

The Noble Eightfold Path

This book offers a clear, concise account of the Eightfold Path prescribed to uproot and eliminate the deep underlying cause of suffering—ignorance. Each step of the path is believed to cultivate wisdom through mental training, and includes an enlightened and peaceful middle path that avoids extremes. The theoretical as well as practical angles of each of the paths—right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration—are illustrated through examples from contemporary life.

中国禅思想史

代表了当代中国禅宗研究最高水平的著作。葛兆光先生是当代中国屈指可数的宗教思想史研究专家,担任多个国外著名大学的客座讲授。本书重点探讨禅宗发端时期的思想发展,其中多有创见,是研究中国禅不可或缺的资料。

Buddhist Thought

The purpose of this book is straightforward. It is to serve as an
accessible guide for students wishing to reach as quickly as
possible a familiarity with the basic ideas of Buddhist
philosophical and religious thought, and the results of some of the
latest research in the field. A good understanding of the way
Buddhism developed in India is an essential prerequisite for any
appreciation of Buddhist ideas elsewhere, in Tibet, China, or Japan
and the other countries of East Asia.

The Vipassana-dipani

The purpose of Vipassana or the Exercise of Insight is to resolve into the three salient characteristics of Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta the illusory "Soul" (Atta) or imaginary "Self-principle" which from time out of mind has been held to exist in living beings by all Puthujjanas (ordinary unenlightened people) both Buddhist and non-Buddhist.

Buddhist Yoga: A Comprehensive Course

The word yoga has many meanings, including "meditation," "method," and "union." While the physical exercises of Hindu yoga are familiar to Westerners, the subtle metaphysics and refined methods of spiritual development that characterize Buddhist yoga are not yet well known. This volume presents a landmark translation of a classical sourcebook of Buddhist yoga, the Sandhinirmochana-sutra, or "Scripture Unlocking the Mysteries," a revered text of the school of Buddhism known as Vijnanavada or Yogachara.

Early Buddhist Theory Of Knowledge

This book is based primarily on the source material available in the Pali Canon, studied historically and philosophically in the light of the contemporary, earlier and later literary evidence related to the subject. The antiquity and authenticity of the material is vouchsafed by the literary, linguistic, ideological, sociological, and historical evidence existing into Pali Canon itself. The book traces the origin of the theory of knowledge and its development in early Buddhism.

Early Buddhism

A step by step guidebook to what Buddhism really is and was intended to be, perfect for providing a complete overview of Buddhist origins. Paul Tice adds a section explaining how Buddhism was not meant to be a form of religious worship, but an important system of ethics that can still bring personal salvation.

The History and Literature of Buddhism

Before T.W. Rhys Davids and some others ventured into interpretations of obscure sources of Buddhist philosophy and history, most of the material was lying scattered. It was strange, and very characteristic of the real meaning of true Buddhism, that there was no life of Gautama the Buddha in the Buddhist scriptures. Known sources of the Buddha's life story like Malalankara Watthu and the Jataka Book were written much after the days of the Buddha. These were more or less in the same tradition and written in Pali.

Mūlamadhyamakakārikā of Nagarjuna

This is a completely new translation of Nagarjuna`s major work the Mulamadhyamakakarika, accompanied by a detailed annotation of each of the verses. The annotation identifies the metaphysical theories of the scholastics criticized by Nagarjuna, and traces the source material and the arguments utilized in his refutation back to the early discourses of the Buddha. The book shows that Nagarjuna`s ideas are neither original nor are they an advancement from the early Buddhist period. Nagarjuna is not a Mahayanist.

The Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism

This book examines the relationship of Buddhism to its locus, the expanding agrartan economy of the Ganga valley during the periocl 600-300 Be. It outlines the cofttours of the major social and economic groups that were the dramatic personae in this dynamic process, especially the Gahapati, whose entrepreneurial role in the economy has not received the attention it deserves.

The Buddhist Unconscious: The ālaya-vijñāna in the context of Indian Buddhist thought

This work focuses upon an explicit notion of unconscious mind formulated by the Yogācāra school of Indian Buddhism in a series of texts from the third to the fifth centuries CE. These texts describe and defend this "Buddhist" unconscious through a variety of exegetical and metapsychological arguments whose rationales are analyzed in terms of their historical and contemporary context.

Buddhist Sciology

The present study based on Buddhist thought consists of a series of essays on different topics that interest a sociologist or an anthropologist of the present day. The material is primarily taken from early Buddhist texts. The Pali texts are accepted as the earliest available Buddhist sources, and as such, those sources were given the foremost attention. Later Pali as well as Sanskrit sources are used only to expand, elaborate or elucidate what is already found in the “oroginal teachings” or early Buddhist thought.

Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis

This introduction to Buddhism examines its basic philosophical teachings and historical development, setting forth complex and significant ideas in a straightforward and simple style that is easily accessible to the student. The author's orientation is philosophical, rather than religious or sociological. This approach is both the uniqueness and the strength of the work.

The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the transmission of mind

This complete translation of the original collection of sermons, dialogues, and anecdotes of Huang Po, the illustrious Chinese master of the Tang Dynasty, allows the Western reader to gain an understanding of Zen from the original source, one of the key works in its teachings; it also offers deep and often startling insights into the rich treasures of Eastern thought. Nowhere is the use of paradox in Zen illustrated better than in the teaching of Huang Po, who shows how the experience of intuitive knowledge that reveals to a man what he is cannot be communicated by words.

A Buddhist Doctrine of Experience

Giving a new translation and interpretation of the basic works of Vasubandhu, the author shows that Yogacara metaphysics is basically the same as that of the early Buddhism. He contends that the Yogacara writings are open to interpretation in terms of realistic pluralism, and thus challenges their traditional interpretation in terms of idealistic monism. His translation is faithful to the original, arguments convincing and consistent, and presentation clear and readable.

The Literature of the Personalists of Early Buddhism

This is indeed a remarkable book. It has the best treatment of the schools called Vātsiputrīya and four other minor ones (p.5) that espoused the theory that a pudgala (a sort of person) supported the five personal aggregates (skandha) and made possible the Intermediate State (antardbhava) between death and rebirth. The author points out that this school of the Personalists (Pudgalavādin) once had its own version of three classes of scriptures (āgama) but they are now lost. The remaining schools of Buddhism condemned these personalists.

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