Author: Tom Lowenstein
Publisher: Duncan Baird publishers
Year: 1996
Language: English
Pages: 184
ISBN/UPC (if available): 1900131196
Description
One of the world’s great Eastern religions, Buddhism has become an increasingly potent influence in the West. This book is a vivid, richly illustrated guide to the history and legends of Buddhism, and to the main themes and beliefs in the Buddhist spiritual tradition, both today and in the past.
The Buddha’s teaching and the influential concepts of Buddhist philosophy are described in depth, and the book also traces the development of Buddhism as it spread from its Indian homeland to Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Tibet. Each country or region has a chapter devoted to it, allowing the distinctive features in the Buddhism of that country to be thoroughly explored. The often complex doctrines are clearly explained in a lucid, authoritative text.
The final chapter chronicles the growth of Buddhism in the West and shows how, with its mixture of ethical and spiritual teachings and its offering of a complete way of life, the religion has such powerful appeal to Westerners in their quest for an understanding of the human predicament.
A documentary reference section at the back of the book includes a guide to major Buddhist sites, a section on Present-day Buddhist masters, a comprehensive glossary and a list of Buddhist organizations for those who wish to explore the subject further.
Contents
Introduction
THE EARLY DAYS OF THE BUDDHA
The birth of the future Buddha
The Four Sights
Homeless wandering
Karma and samsara
THE ENLIGHTENMENT
The Struggle for enlightenment
Recollection of past lives
The Buddha’s enlightenment
The Middle Way
The Three Characteristics of Existence
The Law of Causality
FROM ENLIGHTENMENT TO DEATH
After the enlightenment
The social and religious context
Jains and Buddhists
The beginning of the religious community
Accounts of the Buddha’s lifetime
Buddhist meditation
The Buddha and the supernatural
The last days of the Buddha
EARLY INDIAN AND MAHAYANA BUDDHISM
After the Buddha’s parinirvana
Buddhism in society
The emperor Ashoka
The growth of Mahayana
The Perfection of wisdom
THERAVADA OR SOUTHERN BUDDHISM
Buddhism is established in Sri Lanka
Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka
The spread of Theravada
Monks and laity in Theravada Buddhism
Buddhist monuments of Southeast Asia
BUDDHISM IN CHINA
The eastward spread of Buddhism
Confucianism
Taoism
The beginnings of Chinese Buddhism
The period of domestication in China
The T’ien-t’ai and Flower Garland schools
The Pure Land sect
Ch’an:the school of meditation
BUDDHISM IN JAPAN
Shinto: the way of the gods
Chinese influence in the Nara period
Tendai Buddhism
Kukai’s Shinngon School
Pure Land in Japan
Nichiren
The beginnings of Zen Rinzai Zen: the study of koans
Soto Zen: Dogen
Soto Zen: Dogen’s practice
Zen and the arts
BUDDHISM IN TIBET
Pre-Buddhist Tibet and the Bon religion
Monks and lamas
Tibetan monastic schools
The Buddhist cosmos
Tantric Buddhism
Vajrayana
Tantric deities
Mandalas and yantras
Symbols of the mandala
BUDDHISM COMES TO THE WEST
The early European linguists
Nineteenth-century Orientalism
Buddhism in modern Europe
North American Mystics
Buddhism in modern North America
DOCUMENTARY REFERENCE
Selected Buddhist sites
Four great modern masters
Map of Asia
Useful addresses
Glossary
Further reading
Index
Picture credits