Buddhism Books

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewBringing together leading specialists in the Chinese Buddhist canon, Spreading Buddha's Word in East Asia makes a major contribution to our understanding of both the textual and the social history of one of the most impressive textual projects in the history of the world. -- John Kieschnick, Stanford University The Sinitic Buddhist canons rank among the largest bodies of sacred literature ever produced by any religious tradition. The compilation, editing, and publication of these massive collections required a commitment of money and manpower that was the medieval equivalent of the moon landings of the 1960s. This groundbreaking volume gives these canons the sustained attention they have long deserved from the scholarly community and will help to demonstrate that they are among the preeminent cultural achievements of the wider Sinitic world. -- Robert E. Buswell Jr., University of California, Los Angeles One measure of the maturity of a discipline is its critical awareness of its sources. This collection of nine expert and groundbreaking essays on the Chinese Buddhist canon, augmented by a magisterial preface by a doyen of the field and two eminently useful bibliographical appendices, marks a genuine advance in the study of Chinese Buddhism. Now, with the appearance of this quite essential book, students of Buddhism in China have a reliable map and a guide to what is arguably the largest single collection of authoritative texts of any of the world's great religions. All who study Chinese Buddhism must keep this book handy as they pursue their research into scholarly territory now more clearly mapped. -- Robert M. Gimello, University of Notre Dame Intellectually sound, informative and well written... [Spreading Buddha's Word in East Asia] introduce[s] readers to the political, economic, social, and religious complexities involved in the creation and dissemination of one of the world's largest repositories of sacred literature... Highly recommended. Choice The editors should be commended for bringing together these essays and shedding light on this important and neglected topic of Buddhist study. Journal of the American Academy of Religion A significant contribution... The volume importantly encourages scholars to continue fusing together multiple disciplines. H-BuddhismTable of ContentsPreface, by Lewis Lancaster Acknowledgments Conventions Introduction, by Jiang Wu and Lucille Chia Part I: Overview 1. The Chinese Buddhist Canon Through the Ages: Essential Categories and Critical Issues in the Study of a Textual Tradition, by Jiang Wu 2. From the "Cult of the Book" to the "Cult of the Canon": A Neglected Tradition in Chinese Buddhism, by Jiang Wu Part II: The Formative Period 3. Notions and Visions of the Canon in Early Chinese Buddhism, by Stefano Zacchetti 4. Fei Changfang's Lidai sanbao ji and Its Role in the Formation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, by Tanya Storch Part III: The Advent of Printing 5. The Birth of the First Printed Canon: The Kaibao Edition and Its Impact, by Jiang Wu, Lucille Chia, and Chen Zhichao 6. The Life and Afterlife of Qisha Canon, by Lucille Chia 7. Managing the Dharma Treasure: Collation, Carving, Printing, and Distribution of the Canon in Late Imperial China, by Darui Long Part IV: The Canon Beyond China 8. Better Than the Original: The Creation of Goryeo Canon and the Formation of Giyang Pulgyo, by Jiang Wu and Ron Dziwenka 9. Taisho Canon: Devotion, Scholarship, and Nationalism in the Creation of the Modern Buddhist Canon in Japan, by Greg Wilkinson Appendix 1. A Brief Survey of the Printed Editions of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, by Li Fuhua and He Mei Appendix 2. The Creation of the CBETA Electronic Tripitaka Collection in Taiwan, by Aming Tu Bibliography List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisGeoffrey Barstow explores the tension between Buddhist ethics and Tibetan cultural norms to offer a novel perspective on the spiritual and social dimensions of meat eating within Tibetan religiosity. Barstow offers a detailed analysis of the debates over meat and vegetarianism from the tenth century through the Chinese invasion in the 1950s.Trade ReviewA creative and nuanced exploration of Tibetan religiosity that has heretofore remained largely in the dark. An important and exciting book. -- Andrew Quintman, Yale University A very welcome and entirely novel work on the place of vegetarianism in Tibet, Food of Sinful Demons will make a solid scholarly contribution to religious studies, Buddhist studies and Tibetan studies. Covering a topic of broad interest in fields from religion to animal rights, it offers something new for specialists but is also accessible to undergraduates as well as educated Buddhists trying to understand the role of vegetarianism and meat-eating in Tibetan Buddhism. -- Gray Tuttle, Leila Hadley Luce Associate Professor of Modern Tibetan Studies, Columbia University In this first in-depth study of the history of vegetarianism in Tibet, Geoffrey Barstow clearly shows that vegetarianism has always existed in Tibetan culture and was essentially motivated by compassion for the animals. Food of Sinful Demons is a most welcome contribution to the important debate over the relationships between and among vegetarianism, health, and religion. -- Matthieu Ricard, author of A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with CompassionTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on Transliteration and TranslationMap of TibetIntroduction1. A Brief History of Vegetarianism in Tibet2. Meat in the Monastery3. The Importance of Compassion4. Tantric Perspectives5. A Necessary Evil6. A Positive Good7. Seeking a Middle WayEpilogue: Con temporary TibetTibetan Names and TermsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisLove Letters from Golok chronicles the courtship between two Buddhist tantric masters, Tare Lhamo (1938–2002) and Namtrul Rinpoche (1944–2011), and their passion for reinvigorating Buddhism in eastern Tibet during the post-Mao era. Holly Gayley retrieves the personal and prophetic dimensions of their courtship and its consummation.Trade ReviewAn extraordinary set of letters between a man and woman lie at the heart of this study of love, religious transcendence, and cultural trauma in post-Cultural Revolution Tibet. I know of no body of material that gives a more intricate picture of how Tibetan Tantric Buddhism could penetrate and transform worldly troubles and politics into the sublime aspirations of tantric vision. Gayley offers us an unparalleled view of 20th century Tibetan religion as it touched every aspect of human life. Plus an astonishing account of a female master whose romance with another master elevated them both into heroes for Eastern Tibet during most challenging times. -- Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies, Harvard University Holly Gayley has that rarest of gifts, a scholar's eye and a story-teller's ear. Her book is filled with nuance and insight about the power of Tibetan cultural narratives of gendered spiritual prowess and the navigation of coded relationships. Never merely theoretical, Gayley grounds every observation in dynamic detail and a story-line compelling as any novel. -- Anne C. Klein, Professor Rice University and co-Founder, Dawn Mountain Author of Meeting the Great Bliss Queen, translator of Khetsun Sangpo's Strand of Jewels Gayley weaves together life writing, ethnography, and letters in an unprecedented fashion, and it pays off: her treatment of difficult primary sources - translated here for the first time - is inviting and engaging. Love Letters from Golok addresses issues of real and abiding concern in contemporary China. -- Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia and Chair of the Religious Studies departmentTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration and Translation Introduction: Journey to Golok 1. Daughter of Golok: Tare Lhamo's Life and Context 2. Local Heroine: The Hagiography of Cultural Trauma 3. Inseparable Companions: A Buddhist Courtship and Correspondence 4. Emissaries of Padmasambhava: Tibetan Treasures and Healing Trauma 5. A Tantric Couple: The Hagiography of Cultural Revitalization Epilogue: The Legacy of a Tantric Couple Appendix A: Catalogue of the Letters of Namtrul Rinpoche Appendix B: Catalogue of the Letters of Tare Lhamo Abbreviations Notes Glossary of Tibetan Names Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shōbōgenzō) is the masterwork of Dōgen (1200–1253), founder of the Sōtō Zen Buddhist sect in Kamakura-era Japan. Steven Heine provides a comprehensive introduction to this essential Zen text, offering a textual, historical, literary, and philosophical examination of Dōgen’s treatise.Trade ReviewThis book, quite simply, may be the single best detailed survey and explanation of what Dogen was on about that I have ever read by an academic. * Treeleaf *[This] volume is warmly recommended to all students of Buddhism. -- Lehel Balogh, Hokkaido University * Religious Studies Review *Readings of Dōgen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye is a wise book. -- Zuzana Kubovčáková * Journal of Buddhist Ethics *With clarifying beams of insight, Heine deftly evinces how Dōgen’s teachings are a creative response to a range of Buddhist sutras, kōans, and Chinese and Japanese teachers. Illuminating with philosophical virtuosity the dynamic nature of Dōgen’s written teachings and erudite explication of entangled versions of Dōgen’s writings, Heine animates Dōgen’s teachings and practices as he offers nuggets of sagacity throughout. -- Paula Arai, author of Painting Enlightenment: Healing Visions of the Heart SutraVigorous and insightful, Readings of Dōgen's Treasury of the True Dharma Eye provides a deep inspection of central themes in Dōgen's vast literal legacy. In a clear and inspiring manner, Heine’s analysis sheds crucial light that clarifies both the beauty and complexity of this giant Zen Master. -- Eitan Bolokan, Tel Aviv UniversityHeine has written a comprehensive, detailed, and accessible analysis of the textual, religious, and philosophical intricacies of Dōgen’s master work, Shōbōgenzō. This careful work of synthesis builds on his own original scholarship on Zen and the Shōbōgenzō itself, and is one of the most thorough overviews of Dōgen’s thought to date. -- Richard Jaffe, author of Seeking Sakyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Japanese BuddhismHeine illuminates Dōgen's innovative re-readings of Zen tradition, highlighting his insights into 'being-time' and the 'oneness of practice realization.' Grounded in recent scholarship and embracing historical, literary, and practice perspectives, this comprehensive treatment of the Treasury will be welcomed by Dōgen enthusiasts and others interested in Japanese Buddhism. -- Jacqueline Stone, author of Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismA foremost Dōgen expert's long-awaited, thorough, and comprehensive examination of the sublime thinker whose monumental elucidation of dharma is beginning to inspire meditators and beyond worldwide. -- Kazuaki Tanahashi, author of Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master DōgenShōbōgenzō, Dōgen's brilliant guidebook for the practice of Zen, is now widely recognized as one of Buddhism's greatest masterworks. The importance of the text and its complex difficulties cannot be overemphasized. Steven Heine's Readings provides excellent guidance through the text's crucial issues. Truly, a monumental achievement—now the best book on Dōgen. -- Dale S. Wright, author of Buddhism: What Everyone Needs to KnowTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsPrefacePart I. Textual Sources and Resources1. Creativity and Originality: Orientations, Reorientations, and Disorientations2. Receptivity and Reliability: Numerous Levels of Significance3. Multiplicity and Variability: Differing Versions and InterpretationsPart II. Religious Teachings and Practices4. Reality and Mentality: On Perceiving the World of Sentient and Insentient Beings5. Temporality and Ephemerality: On Negotiating Living and Dying6. Expressivity and Deceptivity: To Speak or Not to Speak7. Reflexivity and Adaptability: The Functions and Dysfunctions of Meditation8. Rituality and Causality: On Monastic Discipline and MotivationAppendix 1: Titles of Treasury FasciclesAppendix 2: Comparison of Versions of the TreasuryAppendix 3: Timeline for Dōgen and the TreasuryAppendix 4: Complete Translations of the TreasuryCharacter GlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shōbōgenzō) is the masterwork of Dōgen (1200–1253), founder of the Sōtō Zen Buddhist sect in Kamakura-era Japan. Steven Heine provides a comprehensive introduction to this essential Zen text, offering a textual, historical, literary, and philosophical examination of Dōgen’s treatise.Trade ReviewThis book, quite simply, may be the single best detailed survey and explanation of what Dogen was on about that I have ever read by an academic. * Treeleaf *[This] volume is warmly recommended to all students of Buddhism. -- Lehel Balogh, Hokkaido University * Religious Studies Review *Readings of Dōgen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye is a wise book. -- Zuzana Kubovčáková * Journal of Buddhist Ethics *With clarifying beams of insight, Heine deftly evinces how Dōgen’s teachings are a creative response to a range of Buddhist sutras, kōans, and Chinese and Japanese teachers. Illuminating with philosophical virtuosity the dynamic nature of Dōgen’s written teachings and erudite explication of entangled versions of Dōgen’s writings, Heine animates Dōgen’s teachings and practices as he offers nuggets of sagacity throughout. -- Paula Arai, author of Painting Enlightenment: Healing Visions of the Heart SutraVigorous and insightful, Readings of Dōgen's Treasury of the True Dharma Eye provides a deep inspection of central themes in Dōgen's vast literal legacy. In a clear and inspiring manner, Heine’s analysis sheds crucial light that clarifies both the beauty and complexity of this giant Zen Master. -- Eitan Bolokan, Tel Aviv UniversityHeine has written a comprehensive, detailed, and accessible analysis of the textual, religious, and philosophical intricacies of Dōgen’s master work, Shōbōgenzō. This careful work of synthesis builds on his own original scholarship on Zen and the Shōbōgenzō itself, and is one of the most thorough overviews of Dōgen’s thought to date. -- Richard Jaffe, author of Seeking Sakyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Japanese BuddhismHeine illuminates Dōgen's innovative re-readings of Zen tradition, highlighting his insights into 'being-time' and the 'oneness of practice realization.' Grounded in recent scholarship and embracing historical, literary, and practice perspectives, this comprehensive treatment of the Treasury will be welcomed by Dōgen enthusiasts and others interested in Japanese Buddhism. -- Jacqueline Stone, author of Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese BuddhismA foremost Dōgen expert's long-awaited, thorough, and comprehensive examination of the sublime thinker whose monumental elucidation of dharma is beginning to inspire meditators and beyond worldwide. -- Kazuaki Tanahashi, author of Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master DōgenShōbōgenzō, Dōgen's brilliant guidebook for the practice of Zen, is now widely recognized as one of Buddhism's greatest masterworks. The importance of the text and its complex difficulties cannot be overemphasized. Steven Heine's Readings provides excellent guidance through the text's crucial issues. Truly, a monumental achievement—now the best book on Dōgen. -- Dale S. Wright, author of Buddhism: What Everyone Needs to KnowTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsPrefacePart I. Textual Sources and Resources1. Creativity and Originality: Orientations, Reorientations, and Disorientations2. Receptivity and Reliability: Numerous Levels of Significance3. Multiplicity and Variability: Differing Versions and InterpretationsPart II. Religious Teachings and Practices4. Reality and Mentality: On Perceiving the World of Sentient and Insentient Beings5. Temporality and Ephemerality: On Negotiating Living and Dying6. Expressivity and Deceptivity: To Speak or Not to Speak7. Reflexivity and Adaptability: The Functions and Dysfunctions of Meditation8. Rituality and Causality: On Monastic Discipline and MotivationAppendix 1: Titles of Treasury FasciclesAppendix 2: Comparison of Versions of the TreasuryAppendix 3: Timeline for Dōgen and the TreasuryAppendix 4: Complete Translations of the TreasuryCharacter GlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisBelief in wizard-saints who protect their devotees and intervene in the world is widespread among Burmese Buddhists. The Buddha’s Wizards is a historically informed, ethnographic study that explores the supernatural landscape of Buddhism in Myanmar to explain the persistence of wizardry as a form of lived religion in the modern era.Trade ReviewWhen hospital visiting hours are over in contemporary Myanmar, Thomas Nathan Patton reports in this compelling book, the supernatural heroes known as weizzā stay behind—in images and statues of them, in dreams, and sometimes in visions—to comfort and embolden the sick. This is one example of how the men and women of modern-day Myanmar make lives for themselves in the everyday company of Buddhist wizard-saints, to the anxious consternation of religious and political authorities. Written with historical depth, attentive throughout to comparative phenomena in other religions, and based on extensive fieldwork, The Buddha’s Wizards is a major contribution to the critical reexamination of lived religion in the modern world. -- Robert A. Orsi, author of History and PresenceIn this path-breaking and richly textured study, Patton presents a much needed revision of the literature on Burmese Buddhist practices. His comprehensive study accounts of the ways in which many lay Buddhists in Myanmar form affective relations with wizards like Bo Min Gaung in dreams, visions, and through their material embodiments of power. Buddhist wizards and the stories about them transcend not only time and space; they also help devotees or fight the threat of Buddhist decline while giving voice to traditional Theravada sentiments. The reader will leave this book with a nuanced understanding of Theravada Buddhist practices as lived religion and its imaginaries that goes far beyond monolithic depictions of Buddhist institutions or texts by showing the reader how followers of the Buddha’s wizards make sense of the world around them. Anthropologists of religion and scholars of Buddhism, Southeast Asia, and especially Myanmar will want to introduce their students to Patton’s wonderful book. -- Juliane Schober, author of Modern Buddhist Conjunctures in Myanmar: Cultural Narratives, Colonial Legacies, and Civil SocietyPatton’s gift to us is that he has opened a door into the mystical and miraculous world of the weizzā, Burmese Buddhism’s furtive wizard-saints. Resisting colonial, state, and institutional religious power, the wizards belong to the people. In affective bonds with their devotees, they disrupt, occupy, heal, and transform. Readers will not forget their encounter with the most potent wizard of all, Grandpa Bo Min Gaung. Grandpa is more proximate and accessible to his devotees than the Buddha himself. Patton’s intimate and vivid ethnographic study of the material and spiritual worlds of lived religion in Myanmar will transform how we think about Buddhism. -- Jennifer Scheper Hughes, author of Biography of a Mexican Crucifix: Lived Religion and Local Faith from the Conquest to the PresentBeginning from the very first page, Patton whisks us away on an exciting journey through the magical world of the Buddhist wizards of Myanmar. Based on in-depth and long-term ethnographic research, this book provides an intimate and deeply empathetic exploration of the roles wizards play as healers, bestowers of good luck, defenders of the faith, spirit guides and teachers, and, most importantly, as familiar presences in the everyday lives of contemporary Burmese Buddhists. -- C. Pierce Salguero, author of Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern SourcesIn The Buddha’s Wizards, the prose sparkles—the writing is crisp without being dry and evocative without being flowery—and Patton has achieved a nice balance between personal stories, primary research, and secondary source citations. He puts the voices of actual Burmese weizzā and practitioners (both female and male) first and foremost while also drawing upon a plethora of Burmese-language sources. -- Justin Thomas McDaniel, author of The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical MonkAn elegant, rich, and thought-provoking study. Thomas Nathan Patton weaves theoretical reflection through graceful ethnographic and historical narrative and in the process develops a sophisticated framework for thinking about religious bodies and their worlds. -- Donovan Schaefer, author of Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power[An] elucidating anthropological monograph on Burmese Buddhism. . . . Filled with absorbing stories of wizards and magic, this book would fit easily into undergraduate or graduate courses on Asian religions and Southeast Asia. * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *Eloquently demonstrates the power of studying religions as lived phenomena. I hope it will find readers far and wide, both among specialists and in the undergraduate classroom. * Reading Religion *An accessible text suitable for undergraduate students and scholars alike interested in Buddhist encounters with modernity and Southeast Asian lived religiosity broadly. * Religious Studies Review *A multilayered history and ethnography. . . . Patton’s work is especially important for the way in which he allows the voices of his informants to be heard. * Choice *Well-written and informative. * New Books Asia *A work of lucid scholarship on a novel topic of interest not only to students of Theravada Buddhism but also to ethnographers, theorists of affect, and historians of religion. -- Justin W. Henry, Georgia College & State University * Bulletin for the Study of Religion *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsA Note on AbbreviationsA Note on TransliterationIntroduction1. Vanguards of the Sāsana2. The Buddha’s Chief Wizard3. Women of the Wizard King4. Pagodas of Power5. Wizards in the ShadowsConclusionNotesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisA companion to Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern Sources, this work presents a collection of modern and contemporary texts and conversations from across the Buddhist world dealing with the multifaceted relationship between Buddhism and medicine covering the early modern period to the present.Trade ReviewBuddhism and Medicine is an invaluable sourcebook for the complex interplay between religion and medicine in Asia. It breaks ground on an astonishing range of topics and materials, and should be of interest to historians, anthropologists, and scholars of religion. -- Robert H. Sharf, D. H. Chen Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of California, BerkeleyThis excellent volume should be an essential resource for students and scholars in the fields of Buddhism and science, medicine, magic, and healing. By drawing on a wide variety of both textual and ethnographic sources from colonial critiques to modern Facebook posts from across the Buddhist world, the editor and his contributors have provided a rare view into the study of Buddhism and medicine that goes far beyond the contemporary study of mindfulness and well-being. -- Justin Thomas McDaniel, author of The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk: Practicing Buddhism in Modern ThailandIn this elegant sourcebook, C. Pierce Salguero and his collaborators demonstrate, with unprecedented scope, how very diverse are the world's Buddhisms and the world's medicines. Neither romanticizing nor dismissing the contributions of Asian religion to the history of healing, this project teaches us much about how humans have dealt with suffering, today and in the past. -- Judith Farquhar, Max Palevsky Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of ChicagoHealth and illness have always been concerns of practitioners. These translations of exemplary medical texts from the recent past demonstrate the enduring medical tradition within Buddhism. Not merely a religious tradition, or a system of doctrinal claims, or the texts that contain those claims and their philosophic rationales, Buddhism is effectively a culture in its own right. -- Richard K. Payne, author of Language in the Buddhist Tantra of Japan: Indic Roots of MantraThe book always provides the tools the reader needs to make sense of what is being presented. Overall it succeeds wonderfully in conveying the vitality of the ongoing encounter of Buddhism and medicine. Readers with any interest in thisfield are likely tofind it a constant source of stimulation and enlightenment. * Isis *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroductionEarly Modernity1. Buddhist Monastic Physicians’ Encounters with the Jesuits in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Japan, as Told from Both Sides, by Katja Triplett2. On Sickness, Society, and the New Self in Early Edo Japan: Soshin’s Dharma Words (Seventeenth Century), by Katja Triplett3. Buddhism and Scholarly Medicine in Seventeenth-Century China: Three Preaces to the Work of Yu Chang (1585–1664), by Volker Scheid4. An Eighteenth-Century Mongolian Treatise on Smallpox Inoculation: Lobsang Tsültim’s “The Practice of Preparing Medicine for the Planting of Heaven’s White Flower” (1785), by Batsaikhan Norov, Vesna A. Wallace, and Batchimeg Usukhbayar5. Psychosomatic Buddhist Medicine at the Dawn of Modern Japan: Hara Tanzan’s “On the Difference Between the Brain and the Spinal Cord” (1869), by Justin B. Stein6. No Sympathy for the Devils: A Colonial Polemic Against Yakṣa Healing Rituals (1851), by Alexander McKinley7. “Enveloped in the Deep Darkness of Ignorance and Superstition”: Western Observers of Buddhism and Medicine in the Kingdom of Siam in the Colonial Era, by C. Pierce SalgueroRuptures and Reconciliations8. Three Tibetan Buddhist Texts on the Dangers of Tobacco (Late Nineteenth to Twenty-First Century), by Joshua Capitanio9. Buddhism and Biomedicine in Republican China: Taixu’s “Buddhism and Science” (1923) and Ding Fubao’s Essentials of Buddhist Studies (1920), by Gregory Adam Scott10. Reconciling Scripture and Surgery in Tibet: Khyenrap Norbu’s Arranging the Tree Trunks of Healing (1952), by William A. McGrath11. Healing Wisdom: An Appreciation of a Twentieth-Century Japanese Scientist’s Paintings of the Heart Sūtra, by Paula K. R. Arai12. Mantras for Modernity: Nida Chenagtsang’s "Mantra Healing Is an Indispensable Branch of Tibetan Traditional Medicine” (2015) and “A Rough Explanation of How Mantras Work” (2003), by Ben P. Joffe13. Science and Authority in Tibetan Medicine: Gönpokyap’s “Extraordinarily Special Features of the Human Body” (2008), by Jenny Bright14. “Eat Less Meat to Save the World”: Monk Changlyu’s The Book of Diagnosis and Natural Foods (2014), by Emily S. WuHybridities and Innovations15. Taiwanese Tantra: Guru Wuguang’s Art of Yogic Nourishment and the Esoteric Path (1966), by Cody R. Bahir16. Making a Modern Image of Jīvaka: “First Encounters with Jīvaka Komārabhacca, the High Guru of Healers and the Inspiration for Sculpting His Image” (1969), by Anthony Lovenheim Irwin17. Gross National Happiness: Buddhist Principles and Bhutanese National Health Policy, by Charles Jamyang Oliphant of Rossie18. Using Buddhist Resources in Post-disaster Japan: Taniyama Yōzō’s “Vihāra Priests and Interfaith Chaplains” (2014), by Levi McLaughlin19. Medicine Wizards of Myanmar: Four Recent Facebook Posts, by Thomas Nathan PattonMeditation and Mental Health20. Naikan and Psychiatric Medicine: Takemoto Takahiro’s Naikan and Medicine (1979), by Clark Chilson21. A Contemporary Shingon Priest’s Meditation Therapies: Selections from the Writings of Ōshita Daien (2006–2016), by Nathan Jishin Michon22. Mindfulness in Westminster: The All-Party Parliamentary Group’s Mindful UK (2014), by Joanna Cook23. Medicalizing Sŏn Meditation in Korea: An Interview with Venerable Misan Sŭnim, by Lina Koleilat24. Misuses of Mindfulness: Ron Purser and David Loy’s “Beyond McMindfulness” (2013), by David L. McMahanCrossing Boundaries25. Rediscovering Living Buddhism in Modern Bengal: Maniklal Singha’s The Mantrayāna of Rārh (1979), by Projit Bihari Mukharji26. Conversations with Two (Possibly) Buddhist Folk Healers in China, by Thomas David DuBois27. Interview with a Contemporary Chinese American Healer, by Kin Cheung and C. Pierce Salguero28. “We Need to Balance Out the Boisterous Spirits and Gods”: Buddhism in the Healing Practice of a Contemporary Korean Shaman, by Minjung Noh and C. Pierce Salguero29. Among Archangels, Aliens, and Ascended Masters: Quan Yin Bodhisattva Joins the New Age Pantheon, by C. Pierce SalgueroBuddhist Healing in Practice30. Buddhism and Resistance in Northern Thai Traditional Medicine: An Interview with an Unlicensed Thai Folk Healer, by Assunta Hunter31. Burmese Alchemy in Practice: A Conversation with Master U Shein, by Céline Coderey32. Mental Illness in the Sowa Rigpa Clinic: A Conversation with Dr. Teinlay P. Trogawa, by Susannah Deane33. Biographical Interview with the Tantric Meditator Tshampa Tseten from Bhutan, with a Translation of His “Edible Letters,” by Mona Schrempf34. Japanese Buddhist Women’s “Way of Healing,” by Paula K. R. Arai35. Conversations About Buddhism and Health Care in Multiethnic Philadelphia, by C. Pierce SalgueroAppendix: Geographic Table of ContentsGlossaryReferencesList of ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisThis wide-ranging and powerful book argues that Theravada Buddhism provides ways of thinking about the self that can reinvigorate the humanities and offer broader insights into how to learn and how to act.Trade ReviewCollins’ previous books have all been field-changing works. Wisdom as a Way of Life is no exception. This powerful work provides original and stimulating ways of understanding Pali texts while creating a bridge between scholars of the Pali world and intellectual historians working elsewhere. His thoughtful comparative engagement with studies of asceticism and courtly-literary culture offers much of value to scholars of South and Southeast Asia, as well as other premodern arenas. -- Anne M. Blackburn, author of Locations of Buddhism: Colonialism and Modernity in Sri LankaSteven Collins' last book is a gift. Providing a fresh reading on texts and stories we thought we knew, Collins makes the case that the Pali literature associated most often with Theravada Buddhism is also much more than that—it is a treasure trove of insight into the human condition and how we might meaningfully navigate it. Collins' genuine respect and appreciation for the sophisticated commentary to be found in Pali texts, combined with his signature straight talk and pull-no-punches style, makes for a provocative book that will be equally rewarding and illuminating to scholars of Buddhist texts and researchers of Buddhist practice. I am grateful to the editor and his collaborators for making this posthumous manuscript available to the rest of us and for placing its intellectual contributions in the context of Collins' other work. After reading it, I find it impossible to experience anything having to do with Theravada Buddhism—its rituals, its texts, its art—in quite the same way again. -- Nancy Eberhardt, author of Imagining the Course of Life: Self-Transformation in a Shan Buddhist CommunityIn his books and articles, Steve Collins asked that we approach Pali texts—narratives and systematic ones—on their own terms, and demanded that we make every effort to understand their arguments and assumptions without reducing them to our own categories. At the same time, he also required that we also recognize our shared humanity with the authors who held such different notions about the nature of the world and experience. That like ours, the cultures and societies that privileged Pali as a prestige language, were filled with laughter, anger, love, birth, and death. Wisdom as a Way of Life is a fitting realization of his vision and approach to these texts. His interpretation of the corpus of the previous lives of the Buddha is rich and incisive, and his interrogation into askesis and monasticism provides us with many questions worth thinking through. In bringing this forth, McDaniel deserves our deep felt gratitude and respect. -- Thomas Borchert, editor of Educating Monks: Minority Buddhism on China’s Southwest BorderWisdom as a Way of Life shows a brilliant mind at work and at struggle with the problems of his primary field of interest. Steven Collins introduces us to the blacksmith's shop: we feel his sweat, we sense his temper, we regret a few easy or even failed strokes, but we see the artwork taking shape. -- Louis Gabaude, Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-OrientScholars, friends, colleagues, and students will treasure this last instance of Collins' distinctive and humane sensibility. * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *Table of ContentsPreface, by Dan ArnoldEditor’s Introduction, by Justin Thomas McDanielPart One: WisdomPart Two: Practices of SelfConclusionAfterword: Reading Collins Today, and Tomorrow, by Charles HalliseyNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisMatthew W. King offers a groundbreaking account of the literary, social, and political history of the circulation, translation, and interpretation of Faxian’s The Record of Buddhist Kingdoms. He reads its many journeys at multiple levels, contrasting the textual and interpretative traditions of the European academy and the Inner Asian monastery.Trade ReviewA lucidly written, thoroughly researched and consistently fascinating account of the modern travels of an ancient travelogue. * Inner Asia *The questions King asks demand complex answers, but raising them in the first place is what makes this book unique. It's a very significant contribution to Buddhist studies, and shines a whole new light on how we look at texts such as Faxian's. -- John Butler * Asian Review of Books *This is a fascinating study by a considerable scholar. -- T.H. Barrett * Journal of the American Oriental Society *Starting with Faxian's remarkable memoir of his trip from China to India in the fifth century CE to gather Buddhist teachings, this book takes the reader on a journey of journeys. Matthew King's ingenious 'circular' historiography tracks the travel of a Chinese Buddhist monk to the Buddha's birthplace; the journey of the memoir of that travel to European scholars in the nineteenth century; and then how the Orientalist scholarship that the memoir inspired made its way back to Siberia, Inner Asian scholars, and finally displaced Tibetan refugee scholars in northern India: all in service of delivering Buddhist Asia into the realm of knowledge. Replete with an expert English translation of the Tibetan translation of the Mongolian translation of the French translation of the original Chinese memoir (you get the idea), this masterfully conceived book will captivate Asianists and historians of knowledge alike. -- Janet Gyatso, author of Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern TibetThis beautifully written 'travelogue' of Faxian's Record takes us on the text's journeys from Chang'an to Paris, thence from the French into Buriyati Mongol and into the Tibetan lands. Matthew King, who is as learned a polyglot as the writers he discusses, discloses the different cosmic pasts 'made anew from a history.' -- Prasenjit Duara, author of The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable FutureIn the Forest of the Blind, another excellent and interesting book by Matthew W. King, calls for new interpretative frameworks from those that dominated social and intellectual history in Western academia. King's idea to trace and follow the reception of Faxian's fifth-century classic, Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat’s interpretation, and its reception in Inner Asia is innovative and fascinating. -- Vesna Wallace, author of The Inner Kalacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the IndividualKing succeeds in not only offering a fascinating insight into Fǎxiǎn’s Record but also forces the reader to acknowledge how they are privy to and even part of the ongoing debate on how Western and non-Westernepistemologies should be interpreted. * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsConventionsIntroduction1. Chang’an to India2. Beijing to Paris3. Buddhist Asia to Jambudvīpa4. Jambudvīpa to Science5. Science to History of the DharmaConclusionAppendix. The Inner Asian RecordNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisMatthew W. King offers a groundbreaking account of the literary, social, and political history of the circulation, translation, and interpretation of Faxian’s The Record of Buddhist Kingdoms. He reads its many journeys at multiple levels, contrasting the textual and interpretative traditions of the European academy and the Inner Asian monastery.Trade ReviewA lucidly written, thoroughly researched and consistently fascinating account of the modern travels of an ancient travelogue. * Inner Asia *The questions King asks demand complex answers, but raising them in the first place is what makes this book unique. It's a very significant contribution to Buddhist studies, and shines a whole new light on how we look at texts such as Faxian's. -- John Butler * Asian Review of Books *This is a fascinating study by a considerable scholar. -- T.H. Barrett * Journal of the American Oriental Society *Starting with Faxian's remarkable memoir of his trip from China to India in the fifth century CE to gather Buddhist teachings, this book takes the reader on a journey of journeys. Matthew King's ingenious 'circular' historiography tracks the travel of a Chinese Buddhist monk to the Buddha's birthplace; the journey of the memoir of that travel to European scholars in the nineteenth century; and then how the Orientalist scholarship that the memoir inspired made its way back to Siberia, Inner Asian scholars, and finally displaced Tibetan refugee scholars in northern India: all in service of delivering Buddhist Asia into the realm of knowledge. Replete with an expert English translation of the Tibetan translation of the Mongolian translation of the French translation of the original Chinese memoir (you get the idea), this masterfully conceived book will captivate Asianists and historians of knowledge alike. -- Janet Gyatso, author of Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern TibetThis beautifully written 'travelogue' of Faxian's Record takes us on the text's journeys from Chang'an to Paris, thence from the French into Buriyati Mongol and into the Tibetan lands. Matthew King, who is as learned a polyglot as the writers he discusses, discloses the different cosmic pasts 'made anew from a history.' -- Prasenjit Duara, author of The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable FutureIn the Forest of the Blind, another excellent and interesting book by Matthew W. King, calls for new interpretative frameworks from those that dominated social and intellectual history in Western academia. King's idea to trace and follow the reception of Faxian's fifth-century classic, Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat’s interpretation, and its reception in Inner Asia is innovative and fascinating. -- Vesna Wallace, author of The Inner Kalacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the IndividualKing succeeds in not only offering a fascinating insight into Fǎxiǎn’s Record but also forces the reader to acknowledge how they are privy to and even part of the ongoing debate on how Western and non-Westernepistemologies should be interpreted. * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsConventionsIntroduction1. Chang’an to India2. Beijing to Paris3. Buddhist Asia to Jambudvīpa4. Jambudvīpa to Science5. Science to History of the DharmaConclusionAppendix. The Inner Asian RecordNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisJacob P. Dalton offers a history of early tantric Buddhist ritual through the lens of the Tibetan manuscripts discovered near Dunhuang on the ancient Silk Road. He argues that the spread of ritual manuals offered Buddhists an extracanonical literary form through which to engage with their tradition in new and locally specific ways.Trade ReviewWhen we read the tantras, they often strike us as merely magic. How did these strange texts, filled with demonic deities, become the foundation for the empowering rituals and sophisticated meditations so widely practiced across the Buddhist world? This book, with its profound analyses and precise translations, finally answers that question. -- Donald S. Lopez Jr., Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, University of MichiganBased on a somewhat random cache of largely tenth-century Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang, Jacob Dalton delivers to us a masterful new narrative of much of the history of Indo-Tibetan tantric Buddhism. This innovative history rests on the plastic and more human genre of local ritual manuals, rather than the formalized tantric scriptures. Dalton's lens of analysis allows us to see the creative shifts in ritual practice that unfolded over the centuries, from the chanting of spells to self-visualization, the inner experiences of sexual yoga, and beyond. Replete with full translations of key works, this book is highly recommended for university courses on Buddhist ritual and tantrism, not to mention lay students of Asian religion and yogic practitioners alike. -- Janet Gyatso, author of Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern TibetThis unique, approachable and well-organized book not only mines an extraordinary number of Dunhuang manuscripts, of which Dalton is one of the acknowledged experts, but also offers excellent examinations of the practices and controversies in the development of forms of Buddhist tantra in the eighth century. -- Ronald M. Davidson, author of Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric MovementTable of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction1. Ritual Manuals and the Spread of the Local2. From Dhāraṇī to Tantra: The SarvadurgatipariśodhanaAppendix: A Sarvadurgatipariśodhana Initiation Manual3. Evoking Possession: The Sarvatathāgata-tattvasaṃgrahaAppendix: Tattvasaṃgraha-sādhanopāyika4. Secretory Secrets: Sexual Yoga in Early MahāyogaAppendix: The Generation of Fortune Sādhana5. Circles of Blazing Breaths: A Manual for Mantra RecitationAppendix: Samādhi Sādhana with CommentaryConclusionsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisJacob P. Dalton offers a history of early tantric Buddhist ritual through the lens of the Tibetan manuscripts discovered near Dunhuang on the ancient Silk Road. He argues that the spread of ritual manuals offered Buddhists an extracanonical literary form through which to engage with their tradition in new and locally specific ways.Trade ReviewWhen we read the tantras, they often strike us as merely magic. How did these strange texts, filled with demonic deities, become the foundation for the empowering rituals and sophisticated meditations so widely practiced across the Buddhist world? This book, with its profound analyses and precise translations, finally answers that question. -- Donald S. Lopez Jr., Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, University of MichiganBased on a somewhat random cache of largely tenth-century Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang, Jacob Dalton delivers to us a masterful new narrative of much of the history of Indo-Tibetan tantric Buddhism. This innovative history rests on the plastic and more human genre of local ritual manuals, rather than the formalized tantric scriptures. Dalton's lens of analysis allows us to see the creative shifts in ritual practice that unfolded over the centuries, from the chanting of spells to self-visualization, the inner experiences of sexual yoga, and beyond. Replete with full translations of key works, this book is highly recommended for university courses on Buddhist ritual and tantrism, not to mention lay students of Asian religion and yogic practitioners alike. -- Janet Gyatso, author of Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern TibetThis unique, approachable and well-organized book not only mines an extraordinary number of Dunhuang manuscripts, of which Dalton is one of the acknowledged experts, but also offers excellent examinations of the practices and controversies in the development of forms of Buddhist tantra in the eighth century. -- Ronald M. Davidson, author of Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric MovementTable of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction1. Ritual Manuals and the Spread of the Local2. From Dhāraṇī to Tantra: The SarvadurgatipariśodhanaAppendix: A Sarvadurgatipariśodhana Initiation Manual3. Evoking Possession: The Sarvatathāgata-tattvasaṃgrahaAppendix: Tattvasaṃgraha-sādhanopāyika4. Secretory Secrets: Sexual Yoga in Early MahāyogaAppendix: The Generation of Fortune Sādhana5. Circles of Blazing Breaths: A Manual for Mantra RecitationAppendix: Samādhi Sādhana with CommentaryConclusionsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisA wide-ranging exploration of Asian immigrant religionTrade Review"In expanding the geographical frame of scholarly narratives and appealing to new primary sources, Issei Buddhism in the Americas opens bold new conversations about Buddhism in the western hemisphere."--Thomas Tweed, author of Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of ReligionTable of ContentsContributors are Noriko Asato, Michihiro Ama, Masako Iino, Tomoe Moriya, Lori Pierce, Cristina Rocha, Keiko Wells, Duncan Ryuken Williams, and Akihiro Yamakura.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThose who take the journey with Ziporyn will find a rich and rewarding work, not simply due to the mind-boggling Tiantai doctrine, but also because of Ziporyn's respect for the tradition and his extraordinary finesse in presenting its demanding ideas. * Publishers Weekly *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Just Here Is the End of Suffering: Letting Suffering Be in Early Buddhism 2. Rafts and Arrows: The Two Truths in Pre-Tiantai Buddhism 3. Neither Thus Nor Otherwise: Mahāyāna Approaches to Emptiness 4. Buddha-nature and Original Enlightenment 5. How to Not Know What You're Doing: Introduction to the Lotus Sūtra 6. The New Middle Way: Highlights of the Lotus Sūtra in Tiantai Context 7. The Interpervasion of All Points of View: From the Lotus Sūtra to Tiantai 8. Tiantai: The Multiverse as You 9. Experiencing Tiantai: Experiments with Tiantai Practice 10. Tiantai Ethics and the Worst Case Scenario Epilogue: So Far and Yet So Close NotesBibliography and Suggested ReadingIndex

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Book SynopsisBy clarifying the ways in which agreement on moral issues between people from different traditions can be pursued through moral discourse, this book provides a coherent conceptual framework for addressing the political, social and environmental problems arising from unresolved moral conflict.Trade Review“The book is a helpful contribution to ongoing conversations about whether and how persons from very different moral traditions may argue productively about moral issues across cultural and religious gulfs.” —Theological Studies“Moral Discourse in a Pluralistic World is not only an eloquent philosophical work, but also very relevant for moral practice. It is a book to be studied and taken to heart.” —Journal of Moral Education

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Readers that are interested in Indian history and current affairs, as well as those curious about the heritage management aspects of a World Heritage designation will surely enjoy this book ." * World Heritage Site Blog *"[W]ith a long and wide-open lens, he explores Bodh Gaya's overlapping histories, governance and land reform struggles, and the religio-ethnic complexities at work in its centuries-old place making...He tacks among the global, national, and hyperlocal forces that have shaped Bodh Gaya's built environment, sought to reclaim India's Buddhist heritage, and formed a dense network of pan-Asian Buddhists that dominate the ritual life of Bodh Gaya, often in tension with local authorities and Hindu and Muslim residents." * American Ethnologist *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Note on Translation and Transliteration Map of Bodh Gaya Introduction 1. The Light of Asia 2. Rebuilding the Navel of the Earth 3. The Afterlife of Zamindari 4. Tourism in the Global Bazaar 5. A Master Plan for World Heritage Conclusion Notes Glossary References Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Readers that are interested in Indian history and current affairs, as well as those curious about the heritage management aspects of a World Heritage designation will surely enjoy this book ." * World Heritage Site Blog *"[W]ith a long and wide-open lens, he explores Bodh Gaya's overlapping histories, governance and land reform struggles, and the religio-ethnic complexities at work in its centuries-old place making...He tacks among the global, national, and hyperlocal forces that have shaped Bodh Gaya's built environment, sought to reclaim India's Buddhist heritage, and formed a dense network of pan-Asian Buddhists that dominate the ritual life of Bodh Gaya, often in tension with local authorities and Hindu and Muslim residents." * American Ethnologist *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Note on Translation and Transliteration Map of Bodh Gaya Introduction 1. The Light of Asia 2. Rebuilding the Navel of the Earth 3. The Afterlife of Zamindari 4. Tourism in the Global Bazaar 5. A Master Plan for World Heritage Conclusion Notes Glossary References Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Buddhas and Ancestors would be an excellent addition in any upper-level undergraduate or graduate class on premodern Korean history, Korean religions, or Buddhism in East Asia." * Journal of Asian Studies *"[A] work of impressive scholarship." * IIAS Newsletter (International Institute for Asian Studies) *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Buddhas and Ancestors would be an excellent addition in any upper-level undergraduate or graduate class on premodern Korean history, Korean religions, or Buddhism in East Asia." * Journal of Asian Studies *"[A] work of impressive scholarship." * IIAS Newsletter (International Institute for Asian Studies) *

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Book SynopsisExamines the many ways in which people living along an international border negotiate their ethnic, cultural, and political identitiesTrade Review“Johnson’s careful documentation of local histories is an important contribution and gives unusual time depth to his discussion of contemporary ethnic identification. Consequently, this book is a valuable addition to studies of Thai ethnicities, particularly the complex formations of Thai-ness that take shape on and around the borders of Thailand. -- Mary Beth Mills * Pacific Affairs: Volume 86 *"The Buddha on Mecca’s Verandah is a captivating narrative of how a marginalized minority inhabiting the complex reality of a borderland area manages its cultural political identity....This book presents the results of a much-needed investigation that further contributes to our understanding of inter-ethnic relations in Malaysia, Thailand's own religious politics, and the legacy of British colonialism in Southeast Asia to mention just a few. More generally it is a welcome addition to the literature on ethno-religious diversity, borderland histories, and identity construction." -- Chiara Formichi * Southeast Asian Studies *"This ethnographic consideration of an overlooked borderland is a welcome addition to Southeast Asian Studies. Recommended." * Choice *"Original and important. . . . The Buddha on Mecca’s Verandah remains one of the most nuanced and detailed ethnographic studies of a single minority community in Malaysia. The range of sources Johnson employs, the nuance of analysis, and the depth of his arguments make this study an essential one to scholars and graduate students interested in Buddhism, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, and minority identity." -- Jeffrey Samuels * Journal of Asian Studies *"An empirically rich, clearly written ethnography. . . . Johnson’s monograph raises descriptive dilemmas and interpretative questions that are worth pursuing more broadly in academic scholarship on modern Asian Buddhism. . . . The overall vision of Ban Bor On as a mobile village of Thai Buddhists struggling with and against their invisible, minority, and peripheral status as Malaysia citizens is illuminating, accessible, and thought-provoking whether one is a general academic reader or a regional or disciplinary specialist." -- Erick White * H-Buddhism *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Orthography and Terminology Introduction 1. Places 2. Gaps 3. Forms 4. Circuits 5. Dreams Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisExamines the many ways in which people living along an international border negotiate their ethnic, cultural, and political identitiesTrade Review“Johnson’s careful documentation of local histories is an important contribution and gives unusual time depth to his discussion of contemporary ethnic identification. Consequently, this book is a valuable addition to studies of Thai ethnicities, particularly the complex formations of Thai-ness that take shape on and around the borders of Thailand. -- Mary Beth Mills * Pacific Affairs: Volume 86 *"The Buddha on Mecca’s Verandah is a captivating narrative of how a marginalized minority inhabiting the complex reality of a borderland area manages its cultural political identity....This book presents the results of a much-needed investigation that further contributes to our understanding of inter-ethnic relations in Malaysia, Thailand's own religious politics, and the legacy of British colonialism in Southeast Asia to mention just a few. More generally it is a welcome addition to the literature on ethno-religious diversity, borderland histories, and identity construction." -- Chiara Formichi * Southeast Asian Studies *"This ethnographic consideration of an overlooked borderland is a welcome addition to Southeast Asian Studies. Recommended." * Choice *"Original and important. . . . The Buddha on Mecca’s Verandah remains one of the most nuanced and detailed ethnographic studies of a single minority community in Malaysia. The range of sources Johnson employs, the nuance of analysis, and the depth of his arguments make this study an essential one to scholars and graduate students interested in Buddhism, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, and minority identity." -- Jeffrey Samuels * Journal of Asian Studies *"An empirically rich, clearly written ethnography. . . . Johnson’s monograph raises descriptive dilemmas and interpretative questions that are worth pursuing more broadly in academic scholarship on modern Asian Buddhism. . . . The overall vision of Ban Bor On as a mobile village of Thai Buddhists struggling with and against their invisible, minority, and peripheral status as Malaysia citizens is illuminating, accessible, and thought-provoking whether one is a general academic reader or a regional or disciplinary specialist." -- Erick White * H-Buddhism *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Orthography and Terminology Introduction 1. Places 2. Gaps 3. Forms 4. Circuits 5. Dreams Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisEngaging with the teachings of the Buddha, as well as those of Freud and Winnicott, this book offers a look at desire, anger, and insight and helps reinterpret the Buddha's Four Noble Truths and central concepts, such as egolessness and emptiness in the psychoanalytic language of our time.Trade Review"The book is an autobiographical journey based on the author's personal experience and professional expertise, backed up by solid research findings from Buddhist scholars and well-known psychologists. . . . Ultimately, the author finds that both Buddhism and psychology can foster the willingness to be fully alive through accepting the unknown in ourselves. What is key is how in touch we are with what we are internalizing, even in our confusion."—Library Journal"An excellent introduction and amplification of connections between Buddhism and psychotherapy and what they contribute to our understanding of the human condition. This is not just an interesting read, but a meaningful one."—Michael Eigen, author of Feeling Matters and The Sensitive Self"Psychotherapy without the Self is mandatory reading for anyone seeking to understand today's axial event in psychoanalysis—the encounter of the Freudian and subsequent schools with the Buddhist psychological tradition. Epstein's insights are utterly penetrating, brilliant in uncanny comparisons and clear critical contrasts, altogether illuminating. It is elegantly and wittily written—a real pleasure to read. And don't worry, there is a self, just different from the one that can't be found!"—Robert A. F. Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University, author of Inner Revolution and Infinite Life

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Book SynopsisThe fascinating account of how the story of the Buddha was transformed into the legend of a Christian saint.Trade Review"A literary detective story of the first order, in which Donald S. Lopez Jr. and Peggy McCracken recapture the color and excitement of every breakthrough along the way." -- Jack Miles, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of God: A Biography

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Book SynopsisComposed by Tibet's great yogi-scholar and founder of the Ge-luk-ba school, Dzong-ka-ba's (1357-1419) "The Essence of Eloquence" stands as a landmark in Buddhist philosophy. This title focuses on how the conflict between appearance and reality is presented in the Mind-Only, or Yogic Practice, School.

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Book SynopsisThis beautifully written work sheds new light on the origins and nature of Mahayana Buddhism with close readings of four well-known texts--the Lotus Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Tathagatagarbha Sutra, and Vimalakirtinirdesa. Treating these sutras as literary works rather than as straightforward philosophic or doctrinal treatises, Alan Cole argues that these writings were carefully sculpted to undermine traditional monastic Buddhism and to gain legitimacy and authority for Mahayana Buddhism as it was veering away from Buddhism's older oral and institutional forms. His sophisticated and sustained analysis of the narrative structures and seductive literary strategies used in these sutras suggests that they were specifically written to encourage devotion to the written word instead of other forms of authority, be they human, institutional, or iconic.Trade Review"An important and rewarding work that merits the attention of any serious scholar or student of Buddhist literature." H-Net ReviewsTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Text as Father 2. Who's Your Daddy Now? Reissued Paternity in the Lotus Sutra 3. The Domino Effect: Everyone and His Brother Convert to the Lotus Sutra 000 4. "Be All You Can't Be" and Other Gainful Losses in the Diamond Sutra 5. Sameness with a Difference in the Tathagatagarbha Sutra 6. Vimalakirti, or Why Bad Boys Finish First Conclusion: A Cavalier Attitude toward Truth-Fathers Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisOffers a look at Soka Gakkai Buddhism, one of Japan's most influential and controversial religious movements. In this work, an American professor of religion trying to come to terms with the death of his wife, travels to Japan in search of the spirit of the Soka Gakkai. Here, he tells of his journey.Trade Review"Seager does a superb job of giving outsiders an inside look at Soka Gakkai Buddhism." - David Machacek, author of Soka Gakkai in America: Accommodation and Conversion "This book paints vivid portraits of the major players of Soka Gakkai. Seager is forthright about the checkered political path Soka Gakkai has taken in Japan, while providing insight into why the rough spots occur." - Phillip Hammond, D. Mackenzie Brown Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara "Encountering the Dharma is a marvelous book that bristles with fresh observations about Japanness and Americanness, the local and the global, spirituality and secularity. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written, this is the definitive work on the globalization of Soka Gakkai." - Stephen Prothero, author of American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon"Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Preface 1. Mystic Opportunity 2. Creating Value 3. Mentor's Vision 4. Rising Star 5. Sea Change 6. Countervailing Trends 7. Zuiho-bini 8. World House 9. Intrepid Navigators Notes Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisPhilip Whalen was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and key figure in the literary and artistic scene that unfolded in San Francisco in the 1950s and '60s. When the Beat writers came West, Whalen became a revered, much-loved member of the group. This book deals with his life and work.Trade Review"With this book, Schneider has opened the window on a man who was not originally one of the 'famous Beats' but who may find a posthumous place in the new generation's pantheon." Shambhala Times "An unconventional man deserves an unconventional biography ... A major figure in both American poetry and the growth of Zen Buddhist practice in America, Whalen was brilliant, erudite, humorous, earthy yet chaste, improvident, as lovable to those who knew him as he probably will be, thanks to Schneider, to those who read about him." - STARRED Booklist "If Whalen was a poet's poet, then Schneider's book is a biographer's biography... Schneider, who was ordained as a Zen priest in 1977, writes with verve and precision, and draws creatively on Whalen's unpublished journals and voluminous correspondence. Quotations are woven into the text and make for lively reading." San Francisco Chronicle "The whole book is a must-read." The Allen Ginsberg Project "Not only one of the most keenly observed books on the Beats ever published, but it's also a fascinating exploration of the life and dharma of one of the first American-born Zen teachers." -- Steve Silberman Buddhadharma "One garners from this well written and sensitive biography of a key American author a sense of the energy and openness of the whole Beat and San Francisco Poetry Renaissance of the 1950s to 1970s." -- Larry Smith New York Journal of Books "Crowded by Beauty serves as a reminder that among all the celebrity and cachet of rebelliously prescient intellects, the one most radical in his approach to American poetry has been overlooked." -- Pat Nolan The New Black Bart Poetry Society

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Book SynopsisRepresents the major aspects of the author's work and provides an overview of her methodology in women's studies in religion and feminism. This work demonstrates how feminist scholars in the 1970s shifted the paradigm away from an androcentric model of humanity and forever changed the way we study religion.Trade Review"In this book, the reader absorbs the intelligence of Rita Gross' mind, the frustrations and sorrows of her role as a reformer, her perseverance and her yearning." Shambhala Sun "An indispensable collection of her best collected writing from the past forty years... Gross' writing is strikingly beautiful." Feminist Review "This compilation only whets the reader's appetite for another such volume." WaterwheelTable of ContentsI. INTRODUCTORY MATERIALS Introducing A Garland of Feminist Reflections 1. How Did This Ever Happen to Me? A Wisconsin Farm Girl Who Became a Buddhist Theologian When She Grew Up II. FIVE ESSAYS ON METHOD 2. Androcentrism and Androgyny in the Methodology of History of Religions 3. Where Have We Been? Where Do We Need to Go? Key Questions for Women Studies in Religion and Feminist Theology 4. The Place of the Personal and the Subjective in Religious Studies 5. Methodology: Tool or Trap? Comments from a Feminist Perspective 6. What Went Wrong? Feminism and Freedom from the Prison of Gender Roles III. THEORY APPLIED: THREE TESTS 7. Menstruation and Childbirth as Ritual and Religious Experience among Native Australians 8. Toward a New Model of the Hindu Pantheon: A Report on Twenty-Some Years of Feminist Reflection 9. The Prepatriarchal Hypothesis: An Assessment IV. FEMINIST THEOLOGY 10. Steps toward Feminine Imagery in Jewish Theology 11. Is the (Hindu) Goddess a Feminist? 12. Life-Giving Images in Vajrayana Buddhist Ritual 13. Feminist Theology as Theology of Religions V. BUDDHIST FEMINISM: FEMINIST BUDDHISM 14. The Clarity in the Anger 15. Why (Engaged) Buddhists Should Care about Gender Issues 16. The Dharma of Gender 17. Yeshe Tsogyel: Enlightened Consort, Great Teacher, Female Role Model 18. Buddhist Women and Teaching Authority 19. Is the Glass Half-Empty or Half-Full? A Feminist Assessment of Buddhism at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century 20. Being a North American Buddhist Woman: Reflections of a Feminist Pioneer Notes

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Prodigious precision. . . . It shows the complexity of relations within the Tibetan administration, between the latter and the Chinese administration in Lhasa, and within the Chinese intelligentsia in Tibet itself." * Journal of Chinese Studies *

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Book SynopsisThis study and edition of Bcom Idan ral gri's (12271305) Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi 'od was likely composed in the late 13th century. It is a systematic list of Sutras, Tantras, Shastras, and related genres translated primarily from Sanskrit and other Indic languages, holding a vital place in the history of Buddhist literature.

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Book SynopsisMountains have always been integral components of China’s religious landscape. Early in Chinese history five mountains were co-opted into the imperial cult and declared sacred peaks—yue—demarcating and protecting the imperium’s boundaries. Here, Robson demonstrates the value of local and Buddho-Daoist studies in research on Chinese religion.Trade ReviewThis volume breaks new ground in the ever-growing body of scholarship on important mountains in China, and thus deserves the close attention of anyone interested in Chinese culture in general and Chinese religious history in particular. -- J. M. Hargett * Choice *

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Book SynopsisThe first full-length biography of a premodern Japanese nun, The Princess Nun is the story of Bunchi (16191697), daughter of Emperor Go-Mizunoo and founder of Enshoji. The study incorporates issues of gender and social status into its discussion of Bunchi's ascetic practice to rewrite the history of Buddhist reform and Tokugawa religion.

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Book SynopsisJonathan A. Silk provides the most comprehensive philological accounting of this fundamental work of Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu. The edition and translation of the Sanskrit text includes core verses and author commentary based directly on manuscript evidence, accompanied by texts from the Tibetan Tanjurs and a manuscript from Dunhuang.

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Book SynopsisMaho Iuchi presents the first known work devoted solely to Rwa sgreng monastery, the mother monastery of the Bka' gdams school founded by 'Brom ston Rgyal ba'i 'byung gnas in 1057. This illuminates the history of Rwa sgreng monastery and the early Bka' gdams school—and more broadly, important aspects of Tibetan history.

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Book SynopsisKorean Buddhists, despite living under colonial rule, reconfigured sacred objects, festivals, urban temples, propagation—and even their own identities—to modernize and elevate Korean Buddhism. By focusing on six case studies, this book highlights the centrality of transnational relationships in the transformation of colonial Korean Buddhism.

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Book SynopsisTraces the development of Buddhism in China since the Han Dynasty and describes its impact on Chinese culture.Trade Review"A precious contribution to Buddhistic studies ... The first true history of Chinese Buddhism written in a Western language. Not only does it till an important gap in research, but it is composed and written in a masterly manner."--Pacific Affairs

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Book SynopsisThe Lotus Sutra is arguably the most famous of all Buddhist scriptures. Composed in India in the first centuries of the Common Era, it is renowned for its inspiring message that all beings are destined for supreme enlightenment. Here, Donald Lopez provides an engaging and accessible biography of this enduring classic. Lopez traces the many roles tTrade Review"In the raft of entertaining characters found in the [Lotus Sutra] itself ... Lopez's book adds a cast of historical figures across two millennia united only by their passion for the book... Lopez's book shows us that translators are the unsung heroes of religious, as much as literary, history."--Chandrahas Choudhury, Wall Street Journal "With scholarly acumen, contextual nuance, and adaptive storytelling, he deftly traces the historical trajectory of the Lotus Sutra by examining various people, places, and political contexts that influenced the transmission of the text... A great pedagogical tool, Lopez's book is also an enjoyable read for anyone interested in Buddhism and Eastern religion, or the global reach of a single sacred text."--Publishers Weekly "In The Lotus Sutra: A Biography, Donald Lopez promises to trace the various roles of the Lotus Sutra as it has traversed the globe - and he delivers."--Paul Swanson, BuddhadharmaTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 1 Plot Summary 12 2 The Lotus Sutra in India 21 3 The Lotus Sutra in China 43 4 The Lotus Sutra in Japan 65 5 Across the Atlantic 116 6 The Lotus Sutra in the Twentieth Century 179 7 Across the Pacific 208 Notes 223 Index 243

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Lopez Jr. and Stone’s detailed analysis makes for a welcome, admirable addition to the large repertoire of more general Lotus Sutra studies." * Publishers Weekly *"The Lotus Sūtra . . . is given a near perfect summary when the authors write that it is a 'sūtra that never ends, an assembly that never disperses, and a mission that is ongoing'."---Nilanjan Bhowmick, Los Angeles Review of Books"While scholarly in nature, this work’s engaging, thoughtful manner serves its subject well. Essential for readers with academic-level interest in Buddhist studies." * Library Journal *

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Book SynopsisTaking readers from the 19th century to today, the author shows how Buddhism in the U.S. has given rise to new contemplative forms within American Judaism and shaped the way Americans understand and practice Buddhism.Trade Review"Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies""[A] fascinating book."---Simon Rocker, Jewish Chronicle"The book leaves the reader with something that Jews and Buddhists alike may find familiar: more questions than answers, but a feeling that getting further from a solution has somehow made you wiser."---Matthew Abrahams, Tricycle"American JewBu offers a unique perspective on the current, lively debate on religious mixing. The book is fluently written and highly illuminating. It offers an accessible entry to important questions in the study of lived religious practice." * Sociology of Religion *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Bei Shan Tang Catalogue Prize, Association for Asian Studies""Spectacular. . . . Impressive [and] important. . . . The nine volumes deliver brilliantly on the promise to assist the reader in visualizing Dunhuang and invite further research."---Sarah E. Fraser, Archives of Asian Art

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Lopez Jr. and Stone’s detailed analysis makes for a welcome, admirable addition to the large repertoire of more general Lotus Sutra studies." * Publishers Weekly *"The Lotus Sūtra . . . is given a near perfect summary when the authors write that it is a 'sūtra that never ends, an assembly that never disperses, and a mission that is ongoing'."---Nilanjan Bhowmick, Los Angeles Review of Books"While scholarly in nature, this work’s engaging, thoughtful manner serves its subject well. Essential for readers with academic-level interest in Buddhist studies." * Library Journal *

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Book SynopsisTaking readers from the 19th century to today, the author shows how Buddhism in the U.S. has given rise to new contemplative forms within American Judaism and shaped the way Americans understand and practice Buddhism.Trade Review"Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies""[A] fascinating book."---Simon Rocker, Jewish Chronicle"The book leaves the reader with something that Jews and Buddhists alike may find familiar: more questions than answers, but a feeling that getting further from a solution has somehow made you wiser."---Matthew Abrahams, Tricycle"American JewBu offers a unique perspective on the current, lively debate on religious mixing. The book is fluently written and highly illuminating. It offers an accessible entry to important questions in the study of lived religious practice." * Sociology of Religion *

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Book SynopsisThis treatise challenges Western assumptions concerning medieval Tantric Buddhism. The author draws on interviews and archival research to demonstrate that Tantric beliefs promoted co-operative relationships between men and women and relied upon women as a source of spiritual insight.

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