good essay topics about buddhism

137 Buddhism Essay Topics

Welcome to our enlightening compilation of Buddhism essay topics! Explore the profound teachings, rich traditions, and philosophical insights of this ancient religion that encompasses diverse beliefs and practices. Find the best Buddhism research paper topics and project ideas about Buddhism mindfulness, compassion, and the pursuit of enlightenment to uncover the wisdom and relevance of this religion in contemporary society.

☸️ TOP 10 Buddhism Essay Topics

🏆 best buddhism research paper topics, 👍 catchy buddhism project ideas, 🎓 interesting buddhism essay topics, 💡 simple buddhism essay topics, ❓ more research questions about buddhism.

• The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.
• Buddhism and Modern Psychology.
• The Spread of Buddhism.
• Buddhist Ethics.
• Buddhism’s Concept of Nirvana.
• The Role of Meditation in Buddhist Practice.
• Karma and Rebirth in Buddhism.
• Buddhist Art and Iconography.
• Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Comparison.
• The Eightfold Path: Exploring the Pathway to Spiritual Liberation.
• Buddhism and the Life Teaching of Siddhartha Most scholars observe that the roots of Buddhism are very deep, and though Siddhartha contributed a lot to the development of the religion.
• What Is Buddhism? History of the Religion, Beliefs, and Rituals This paper will set out to elaborate on what Buddhism is by providing a history of the religion and underscoring some of the beliefs and rituals practiced in this religion.
• Buddhist Meditation Practices The paper looks at the differences between acalminga (samatha) and ainsighta (vipasana) Mahayana teachings of Buddhist meditation.
• Buddhism and Classical Hinduism Each religion of the East teaches separate principles from one another. This paper compares and contrasts the fundamental concepts and values of Buddhism and Classical Hinduism.
• Buddhism’ Religion: The Life and Teaching of Siddhartha The paper studies the teaching of Buddhism according to the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination and reveals spread of Buddhism and upheaval of democracy in India.
• The Christian and Buddhist Perspectives in Healthcare This paper purposes to conduct a comparative analysis on the Christian and Buddhist perspectives regarding healthcare provision and its implications for healthcare practice.
• Deities in Hinduism and Buddhism This paper dwells upon the differences in roles of Hindu and Buddhist deities from mythological and scientific perspectives.

• Buddhist Spirituality: Contribution to Psychological Well-Being Buddhist Spirituality is based on the principles that can enhance one’s psychological well-being significantly. Buddhism teaches people how to avoid negative emotions and harmful mental states.
• Self-Concept in Buddhist Reductionism This paper investigates the idea of self in its relation to the Buddhist perception of suffering and discusses the notion of objectual and intentional properties.
• Death and Dying in Christianity and Buddhism Using Christianity and Buddhism as two diverse religious perspectives, this discussion explores how patient’s health demands can be met by healthcare practitioners.
• Christianity and Buddhism for Terminally Ill Patient The patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has been thinking about euthanasia. Christianity and Buddhism offer different answers to death-related questions.
• Euthanasia in Christianity and Buddhism This paper provides a discussion on a case study on euthanasia of a man, who finds out he has a severe disease that will disable him within several years.
• Human Life and Death in Christianity and Buddhism Illness often leads to agony and prompts the search for the meaning of life as people try to understand the reasons behind their predicaments.
• Medical Ethics: Christianity and Buddhism Perspectives Ethical concerns are present in any working conditions. However, ethics in medicine is particularly important, and it has many complicated issues.
• Buddhism and Classical Hinduism Concept and Values Buddhism and classical Hinduism are the oldest religions in the world. It is worth to note that both religions originated from India.
• Spiritual Philosophy: Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism as spiritual philosophies stress on the acceptance of things the way they are, overcoming desires and humility.
• Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist Teachings Theravada and Mahayana are both schools of Buddhism. The primary differences that exist between the two came into existence after Buddha’s death.
• Beliefs in Buddhism and Classical Hinduism This paper shows that Buddhism progressed from Hinduism, with the main difference being that they do not share similar beliefs.
• Buddhist Religion and Western Psychologies Buddhists believe that any conception of “self” is an illusion; no separate “self” exists, only a collection of parts.
• Buddhism and Life: Living the Principles of the Buddhist Religion Contrary to the popular thought that suggests that the Buddhist belief seeks to view the world from a negative perspective, the religion conceives life from its imperfect face.
• Buddhism, Caring and Moral Obligations This paper argues that the Buddhist account of the personality and the self provides an applicable approach to caring as well as moral obligations.
• Zen Buddhism in America Zen Buddhism is a separate school of Mahayana Buddhism that emphasizes mindfulness and meditation practices as the path to achieving enlightenment.
• Death & Dying Ethics in Christianity and Buddhism The paper will discuss the attitude toward the deliberate ending of life from the viewpoint of Christianity and Buddhism.
• Incurable Disease in Christianity and Buddhism This paper examines Christianity and Buddhism in regards to views on life and death and applies the concepts to the case study of a patient with an untreatable illness.
• Death & Dying Ethics in Buddhism and Christianity The paper describes the ethical challenge the patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is facing and the best approaches to support him using religious values or ideas.
• King Asoka Spreading Buddhism Along the Silk Road King Asoka’s commitment to Buddha’s Four Noble Truths and the encouragement of missionary work substantially facilitated the transmission of Buddhism to distant states.
• Hinduism and Buddhism: Similarities and Differences Buddhism and Hinduism are two very similar religions. They both believe in reincarnation, they both believe in their religion focusing on more than one god.
• The Religious Position of Women and Men in Buddhist Countries: Sri Lanka The position accorded to women in all spheres of activity has been a subject of considerable interest in recent decades.
• Personality Psychology and Zen Buddhism Zen Buddhism is a movement that occurred in the 1960s and involves monks, their feats and their monasticism, and the study of doctrines.
• Buddhist Culture in Thailand In Thailand, Buddhism is the official religion of the state based on century-old traditions and principles.
• Zen Buddhism: Basic Teachings The principles and beliefs of Buddhism is what has given it popularity and a vast fellowship. These beliefs are founded on human experience.
• Zen Buddhism: Brief Giude The major point of Zen Buddhism is single – every human being is a Buddha and he or she needs only to realize this by reaching enlightenment.
• Christianity and Buddhism: Religion Comparison Christianity only became a religion, in full sense of this word, when materialistic spirit of Judaism was being transformed into something opposite to what it originally used to be by European mentality.
• Zen Buddhism: Main Features Zen Buddhism can safely be considered as a philosophy due to its lack of a “god” aspect. It is a religion that is based on basically the act of meditation.
• Cosmogony: Catholic and Buddhist Approaches This paper presents a dialogue between two believers- a Catholic and a Buddhist concerning creation of the world.
• Tibetan Buddhism and Zen Buddhism Comparison The Five Tibetan rituals are considered to be life changing which helps the Tibetan’s in the spiritual and religious obligations they desire. It’s also actually great for your body
• How Buddhism do not believe in Gods? Our research focuses and defends the basic concept of how and in what manner Buddhists do not stick to the existence of the Omnipotent.
• Religion and Architecture: Christian Church, Buddhist, Islamic Mosques Religious architecture is mainly concerned with design and building of houses of reverence or holy deliberate places such as stupas, mosques, churches and temples.
• Buddhism and Christianity: Understanding of Religions This essay is intended to help bring out the Buddhist’s understanding of Christianity and correct the wrong perceptions through pointing out relevant scriptures.
• Judaism and Buddhism: Similarities and Differences The differences and similarities between Judaism and Buddhism in relation to their origination, foundation, beliefs, rituals and major prophets.
• Environmental, Social or Political Conflict in Buddhism There is a simple fact which is known to every Buddhist: although Buddha was beyond routine, still, he gave guidelines concerning good government.
• Non-christian World Religions: History, Concepts, and Beliefs of Buddhism Buddhism is one of the widespread non-Christian religions in the world today. This paper discusses the history, beliefs, ethics, people and subdivisions of Buddhism.
• Foundations of Buddhism and Meditation Different religions illustrate the diversity of philosophies, customs, many different communities in the world are inspired by similar truths and purposes.
• Gender Roles in Society: Hinduism and Buddhism Both Hindu and Buddhist beliefs have a strained relationship with the concept of gender, while in the two cases, men and women are supposed to be equal, it is not really true.
• Buddhism in China and Japan Buddhism is one of the major religions in the world, and it is now practiced in various countries, including China and Japan.
• Description of “Buddhism in America” by Seager This paper covers the first seven chapters of the book “Buddhism in America”. The author starts by giving background information concerning the American Buddhist landscape.
• Karma and Rebirth in Hinduism and Buddhism Religions The principles of Karma and rebirth provide an emotional and intellectual account of suffering and evils in Hinduism and Buddhism religions.
• Buddha as a Leader of a Buddhism Religion This essay will analyze the reasons behind Buddha’s teachings, events, and ideas that shaped the views during his time and the relevance of Buddhism presently.
• Tea in the Prism of Zen Buddhism and Health The tea ceremony is connected with Zen Buddhism not only in its actual development but mainly in preserving the spirit with which it is imbued.
• Healthcare Provider and Faith Diversity: Native American Spirituality, Buddhism, and Sikhism This paper outlines an explicit view on the following diverse faiths in regard to healthcare provision: Native American spirituality, Buddhism, and Sikhism.
• Buddhism’s Resilience from Western Ideologies This paper addresses how believers of the Buddhism faith have been initiating and planning various methods to make the religion resilient from western ideologies and Christianity.
• China Buddhism vs. Japan Buddhism and Shintoism Buddhism is a religion that uses Buddha’s perspective, such as the traditions and beliefs attributed to the religious faith.
• Discussion of History of Buddhism The discussion describes the short history of Buddhism from the 19th century and how it overcame some of the challenges arising from Christianity.
• Buddhism: New Religions and Human Balance The paper indicates that Buddhism, one of the fundamental world religions, has been introduced in a series of new forms over the past years.
• Comparison Between Buddhism and Christianity This paper seeks to compare and contrast the two religions’ differences and similarities based on three key aspects such as Afterlife, Suffering, and Rituals.
• The Dukkha Concept in Buddhism Dukkha is a traditional element of the religious philosophy of Buddhism, aimed at describing the prevailing situation in the surrounding material world.
• Basic Beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism This paper gives an insight into how the concepts of Karma and Rebirth are practiced in the religious traditions of both Hinduism and Buddhism.
• Christianity and Buddhism: Interreligious Relations There are many similar points between Christianity and Buddhism, but the differences are likely to outweigh them.
• Religion Research: Hinduism and Buddhism The paper describes and compares two religion: Hinduism and Buddhism from aspects of history, popularity and areas of rerligion.
• Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism: The Afterlife Concepts The purpose of this paper is to compare the afterlife, as presented in Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism, through an examination of both primary and secondary sources.
• Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity in Society This paper analyses three of the most common religions: Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity, in order to identify their role in the life of society.
• The Pragmatic Theory of Truth in Buddhism and Christianity Pragmatically, the Buddha belief and the Christians’ beliefs are true as believers tend to achieve their desired effects.
• Buddhism in the Novel “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse In “Siddhartha”, Hermann Hesse presents the theme of enlightenment as a quest for the truth, which he considers essential for a connection with the world.
• Buddhism and Hinduism: Differences and Comparisons Buddhism and Hinduism are two ancient world religions, which have their origins in India. These religions share many similar concepts and terminologies.
• God Concept in Christianity and Buddhism Religions The core purpose of Christianity is to love God, forgive others, and repent for one’s sins. The key beliefs in Buddhism revolve around nirvana and Four Noble Truths.
• Principles and Values of Buddhism The paper states that it is challenging for people of other confessions to understand Buddhism. It is essential to communicate with Buddhism followers.
• The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism in Personal Life Buddha spent time learning the basic teachings of the Four Noble Truths, dealing with human suffering, which he had fully understood.
• Buddhism: The Concept of Mahayana The Mahayana is believed to be the largest Buddhist section worldwide, and its practice is extreme compared to other Buddhist movements.
• Karma and Reincarnation in Buddhism Karma presumably is among the primary associations with Buddhism; a non-professional individual, who does not have a complete understanding of the notion.
• Aspects of Buddhist Monasticism The paper discusses Buddhist monastic orders. They are the oldest types of institutionalized monasticism and Buddhism’s essential organizations.
• Gender Roles in the Buddhist Culture In the Buddhist culture, women are considered weak beings and require men to provide them with protection. Furthermore, men are considered to be the strong and family breadwinners.
• Hinduism vs. Buddhism: Similarities & Differences The differences and similarities between Buddhism and Hinduism do not reveal their weaknesses or strengths but prove how diverse and critical human beliefs can be.
• Secularism and Buddhism: Rise of Violent Buddhist Rhetoric Since the dawn of civilization, the paradigm of religion has been one of the central narratives for a national community and its value system.
• World Religions: Researching of Buddhism Buddhism will be examined from the perspective of the crucial concepts within the philosophy, namely the Four Noble Truths, the wheel of birth and death, karma, and Nirvana.
• The History of Tibetan Buddhism The history of Buddhism is rich and full of interesting nuances. There are different schools of Tibetan Buddhism, their development, and the influence they had.
• The Importance of the Dalai Lama in Buddhism The paper discusses the significance of the Dalai Lama in Buddhism as an authority figure who unites the Tibetan people, a teacher of the religion, and a promoter of compassion.
• Buddhism and Denver Zen Center Experience For the purposes of learning more about different traditions and writing this assignment, the author visited the Denver Zen Center and found out more about Buddhism.
• Christianity and Buddhism Comparison Christianity is a more pragmatic religion than Buddhism. It is due to more realistic principles and practices. In addition, Christianity is based on real historical events.
• Buddhism vs. Christianity: Studying Religions Buddhism and Christianity are both of the most popular religions. The followers of Buddhism are primarily concentrated in the Asian region, with India being its birthplace.
• Tibetan Buddhism, Scottish, and Mexican National Cultures The paper discusses Tibetan Buddhism, Scottish, and Mexican national cultures. They place such a strong focus on serenity and freedom.
• The History and Beliefs of the Theravadan Buddhism
• Biblical Worldview and Buddhism Worldview
• Parallels, Departures, and What Science Can Gain From Buddhism
• Buddhism: The Role Desires Play in Our Everyday Lives
• Doctrinal and Philosophical Sizing of Buddhism
• Basic Philosophical Differences Between Zen, Buddhism, and Taoism
• Buddhism as Religion That Offers Peace, Wisdom, and True Enlightenment
• The History and Evolution of Buddhism Across the World
• Bodhisattvas and the Evolution of Buddhism
• The Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism
• Buddhism and the Vietnamese Buddhist Association
• Key Differences Between Christianity and Buddhism
• Korean Development and the Influences of Shamanism, Confucianism, and Buddhism
• Buddhism: The Four Noble Truths
• The Dalai Lama and the Spiritual Leader of Buddhism
• Comparing Buddhism and Shinto in Japan
• Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path, and the Four Noble Truths
• Ancient Greek Philosophy, Buddhism, and Vedanta Hinduism
• Beliefs and Practices: Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism
• Buddhism: Seeing the Familiar in the Strange
• Hinduism and Buddhism’s Influence of Indian Culture in Southeast Asia
• The Political and Religious Impact of Buddhism in Thailand
• What Are the 4 Main Beliefs of Buddhism?
• Is Buddhism a Belief System or Ideology?
• How Has Buddhism Impacted the World?
• What Are the Differences Between Mainstream Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism?
• Does Anything Survive Death in Buddhism?
• How Did Early Buddhism Impact Western Culture?
• What Are the Two Main Branches of Buddhism?
• Who Were the Founders of Buddhism in Japan?
• Are Women Allowed to Practice Buddhism?
• How Has Buddhism Interacted With Nature and Environment?
• What Are the Gender Roles in Buddhism?
• Does Neuroplasticity Relate to Buddhism?
• How Does Buddhism Reflect the Human Understanding of God?
• Are There Similarities Between Buddhism and Islamic Religion?
• How Does Dalai Lama Exemplify the Ultimate Meaning of Buddhism in His Life and Works?
• What Is the Link Between Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese Culture?
• How Did Buddhism Spread Through China?
• What Does Buddhism Teach About Human Life?
• How Does Buddhism Treat Its Women?
• Is There Social Conflict Between Buddhism and Catholicism?
• How Does Geoffrey Samuels Portray Tibetan Buddhism?
• What Are the Origins, History, and Beliefs About Evil in Buddhism?
• How Does Samsara Work in Buddhism?
• Does Buddhism Believe in Equality?
• What Are the Similarities Between Buddhism and Other Eastern Religions?
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Buddhism Essay Topics & Ideas

• Buddhism Essay Topics for High School Students
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Argumentative Essay Topics About Buddhism

Good essay topics about buddhism, persuasive essay topics about buddhism.

• Interesting Essay Topics About Buddhism

✒️ Buddhism Essay Topics for High School Students

• A Case of Buddhism
• A Look at The Beliefs of Karma, Reincarnation, Samsara and Enlightenment as Depicted in Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism
• A Personal Analysis of Buddhism
• A Research Paper on The Metaphysics of Buddhism
• aeminar on Buddhism and Modern Science
• An Analysis of the Eight Fold Path of Buddhism
• Anger Emotion and Buddhism
• AP World History Compare and Contrast: The Spread of Christianity and Buddhism in the End of the Classical Period
• Ashoka and the spread of buddhism
• Asian Philosophy: Veddic Period and Early Buddhism
• Asian Studies: Confucianism and Buddhism in China
• Basic Concepts of Buddhism
• Bhagavad Gita: Buddhism and Ancient Indian Philosophy
• Bioethics: Roman Catholicism vs Buddhism
• Breaking Down Buddhism from The Perspective of Cultural Anthropology
• Buddha and Religion of Buddhism
• Buddhism (The Buddha)
• Buddhism & Converting To Taoism
• Buddhism & Hinduism: Comparisons and Contractions Research
• Buddhism & History
• Buddhism 4 Noble Truths
• Buddhism and Buddhist teachings
• Buddhism and Christianity
• Buddhism and Christianity as Social Reform Movements

✨ Best buddhism Topic Ideas & Essay Examples

• The Comparison of Taoism and Buddhism Taoism and Buddhism were born in the same century. Siddhartha reached enlightenment in approximately 535 B.C. and Lao Tzu’s teachings were recorded around 500 B.C. There are many similarities in the basics of these two religions. Some of the ….
• Mahayana Buddhism The religion of Buddhism was founded by a person named Siddhartha. Later in his life he was known as Gautama. He traveled with a guru for a while and then he practiced as asceticism. He did these two things to find enlightenment. These things did ….
• Buddhism in America Essay Inhale… exhale… concentrating on your breathing. This is often an exercise many do in yoga or meditation. Many Americans have incorporated yoga and meditation into their lives, not knowing its origins. Buddhism is one origin of these exercises. The ….
• Assignment about Buddhism Its fundamental teaching is that the Buddha who, through his enlightenment, showed the way out of the wheel Of rebirth or conditioned reality created by inorganic and attachment; its fundamental sociological expression is the samara, or order of ….
• Buddhism At a High School Level Buddhism, founded in the late 6th century BC by Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha), is an important religion in most of the countries of Asia. Buddhism has come in many different forms, but in each form there has been an attempt to draw from the life ….
• Essence of the Zen Buddhism Koans The Zen Koan is a written or verbal puzzle used in the teaching of Buddhism to bring the student to the level of satori or enlightenment. According to D T Suzuki in An Introduction To Zen Buddhism, the word Koan “…now denotes some anecdote of an ….
• Facts About Zen Buddhism It is a conservative view of some, that the world is a very strange place. Once upon a time, four men and a woman all wished they could meet the perfect person. Each in his or her own way received a message to be at a certain bar at a time and at ….
• The Role of Compassion in Buddhism The Role of Compassion in Buddhism Buddhism as a way of life calls for people to leave the “ordinary” and become extraordinary” persons promoting and working towards a state of enlightenment or nirvana. Compassion is a virtue that differentiates ….
• Overcoming Human Weaknesses in Buddhism Buddha is the central symbol and reality of Buddhism, because he embodies the way of thinking and living. It is an analysis and description of human existence as conditioned by desire and ignorance and a method of attainment of spiritual freedom ….
• Spread of Buddhism Buddhism a religion some claim was founded by Barbarians’, some claimed was just as good Con- fusionism, and Laozism. The spread of this religion was for the most part responded to in a good way, because how it would help people prosper during China’….
• Aspect Of Buddhism The most devoted followers of the Buddha were organized into a sangha. Its members were identified by their shaved heads and robes made of un-sewn orange cloth. The early Buddhist monks, or bhikkus, wandered from place to place, settling down in ….
• Spread of Buddhism in China DBQ: Buddhism in China After reviewing the given documents, it is clear that the response to Buddhism was positive at earlier time periods in China (220 CE – 570 CE) because there was political instability and disunity and as soon as the imperial ….
• Shintoism and Buddhism The Japanese religions, including Shintosim and Buddhism, are rich and complex, and it contains many condradictory trends which may puzzle a Westerner. In the center of the tradition is Shinto, the “natural” religion of Japan. Also in the center is ….
• Reflection paper On Buddhism Buddhists past and present have looked to the incidents in Buddha’s life for inspiration. Pick any three major episodes in the Buddha’s life and discourse what lessons they impart to a typical Buddhist homeowner. 1. His first clip recognizing go ….
• Buddhism Has a Very Long Drawn Out Origination Buddhism has a very long drawn out origination starting in about 565 B.C. with the birth of Siddhartha Gautama. The religion has guide lines in two forms in which Buddhist followers must follow the “Four Noble Truths” and the “Eightfold Path” There ….
• Theravada vs Mahayana Buddhism A question asked by many people is ” What is the difference between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism?” To find the answer let us look at the history of Buddhism and compare and contrast the beliefs and philosophies of the two. The Buddah, Siddhartha ….
• Essay about the Hitory of Buddhism The story of Buddhism might be said to have begun with a loss of innocence. Siddhartha Gautama, a young prince of the Shakhya clan in India, had been raised in a life of royal ease, shielded from the misery and cruelties of the world outside the ….
• Dale Miller – Ideals and Thoughts of Buddhism Dale MillerThe river in this piece of writing can symbolize many different ideals and represents many thoughts of Buddhism. In a sense, the river represents on a larger scale the life Siddhartha should lead; one of calmness and peace while having ….
• Development and Spread of Buddhism in China When Buddhism first began to spread into china, reactions were mixed. While many people supported the idea, others were neutral, and a large number opposed Buddhism’s growing popularity. The opinions on the spread were not always cultural; many had ….
• Theravadan Buddhism Throughout history there have been numerous religions and theologies that men and women have entrusted their lives and ways of living to. One of the most intriguing is that of Buddhism. The great Buddha referred to his way as the middle way, and he, ….

✍ Buddhism Compare and Contrast Essay Topics

• Buddhism and Christianity: Comparative Religious Analysis
• Buddhism and Confucianism in Modern China
• Buddhism And Education
• Buddhism and Greater Peace: Conflict, Visions of Peace Term
• Buddhism and Hinduism Differences
• Buddhism and Hinduism Religions
• Buddhism and Hinduism Research
• Buddhism and Hinduism: A Comparison
• Buddhism and Hinduism: Religious Differences
• Buddhism and Hinduism: Similarities and Differences Compare and Contrast
• Buddhism and its impact on Japan
• Buddhism and Sexuality: Restraining Sexual Desires for Enlightenment
• Buddhism and Sikhism Comparison: Four Noble Truths
• Buddhism and William James’ Theory of Religions
• Buddhism Animal Ethics Essay (Article)
• Buddhism as a religion
• Buddhism as a Sacred Tradition
• Buddhism as the Most Peaceful Religion
• Buddhism Believer’s Practice: Meditation Proposal
• Buddhism Characteristics and Attributes
• Buddhism from a Philosophical Standpoint
• Buddhism has developed in a variety of different forms
• Buddhism in ‘The World’s Religions’ by Huston Smith
• Buddhism in a Post- Han China Analytical
• Buddhism in Canada
• Buddhism in China and Thailand revision
• Buddhism in China, Its Spread and Sinification
• Buddhism in China: Origin and Expansion
• Buddhism in China: Yogācāra Buddhism
• Buddhism In Countries
• Buddhism in Different Historical Regions
• Buddhism in East Asia
• Buddhism in Japan from Prehistoric to Kamakura Period
• Buddhism in Koryo Analysis
• Buddhism In Other Countries
• Buddhism in Taiwan Then and Now
• Buddhism in the 19th and 20th Centuries
• Buddhism in the Himalayas
• Buddhism in the United States
• Buddhism is the reality
• Buddhism Practices, Theories, Teachings, Rituals Report
• Buddhism Religion History in China Term
• Buddhism Religion in the East Asian Societies
• Buddhism Religion: Basic Beliefs and Practices
• Buddhism Revitalization in China and Japan
• Buddhism Spread as Globalization of Knowledge
• Buddhism Studies in the Far East Report
• Buddhism Studies: A Visit of the Jade Buddha Temple
• Buddhism vs Jainism
• Buddhism vs. Hinduism
• Buddhism vs. Judaism
• Buddhism without Beliefs
• Buddhism: Definition and Origins of Buddhism
• Changes to Buddhism in Modern Times
• Christianity and Buddhism
• Christianity vs Buddhism
• Christianity vs. Buddhism
• Compare and Contrast Analysis of Hinduism and Buddhism
• Compare and Contrast Analysis of Two Religions: Hinduism and Buddhism
• Compare and Contrast Buddhism and Christianity
• Compare and Contrast Essay: Similarities and Differences Between Buddhism and Hinduism
• Compare and Contrast the spread of Christianity and Buddhism
• Comparison between Hinduism and Buddhism
• Comparison of Buddhism and Sikhs
• Comparison of Buddhism and the Baptist Religions Coursework
• Comparison of Hinduism and Buddhism Rituals Report (Assessment)
• Comprehending Heart Sutra in Mahayana Buddhism
• Concepts of Buddhism Research
• Confucianism and Daoism Influence on Zen Buddhism Proposal
• Critical Thinking Assignment: Buddhism
• Critical Thinking Essay: Buddhism Worldview
• Critically Discuss the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism
• Dalai Lama and Buddhism Tradition
• Daoism’s Influence on Chan Buddhism in China Research
• David Hume’s and Buddhism Self Concepts Correlation Essay (Critical Writing)
• Dbq Response Spread of Buddhism in China
• Death and Dying in Christianity and Buddhism
• Death and Dying in Hinduism and Buddhism
• Death of the Historical Buddha in Zen Buddhism Research
• Differences and Similarities Between Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism
• Differences Between Hinduism and Buddhism
• Differences between in India and China about Buddhism
• Dualism, Ignorance, and Clinging in the Buddhism Writings
• Emptiness in Mahayana Buddhism
• Environmental Thoughts in Theravada Buddhism
• experiencing Buddhism Through My Religious Site Visit
• FINAL REPORT buddhism
• Four Noble Truths as Buddhism Fundamentals
• Habits and Buddhism Essay (Article)
• Hinduism and Buddhism in India
• Hinduism and Buddhism vs. Confucianism and Taoism
• History of Buddhism
• History of Buddhism and the Life of Buddha
• History: Women in Hinduism and Buddhism
• How Does Buddhism Explain the Nature of Our Existence? Report
• How Tibetan Buddhism is Represented by Hollywood Report

⭐ Interesting Essay Topics About Buddhism

• Ideas Contradicting The Interpretations Of Buddhism
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• Lotus Versus Zen Buddhism
• Mahayana and Theravada as Teachings of Buddhism
• Middle Path’ in Chinese Buddhism and Zen Buddhism Research
• Misconceptions about Buddhism Research
• Morality in Buddhism
• Nature of Self, Death, and Ethics in Buddhism
• Newspaper Response on Buddhism Essay (Article)
• Nirvana and Other Buddhism Concepts
• Nirvana in Buddhism and Atman in Hinduism Term
• No-Self or Anatman Concept in Buddhism
• Perceptions of Heaven and Hell in Christianity and Buddhism
• Philosophy of Confucius Compared to That of Buddhism Research
• Philosophy of Science: Approaches on Buddhism Research
• Presenting Christianity to Buddhism Research
• Purpose of Meditation in Buddhism

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Buddhism - Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

Buddhism is a spiritual tradition and philosophy based on the teachings of Buddha. Essays could explore the basic tenets of Buddhism, its historical evolution, various schools of Buddhist thought, and its influence on culture and society. Comparisons between Buddhism and other religious or philosophical traditions could also provide a comprehensive understanding. A vast selection of complimentary essay illustrations pertaining to Buddhism you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

The Religion of Buddhism

Siddhartha Gautama was numerous things. He was a ruler, an educator, the Buddha and later a divine being. He showed the religion of Buddhism. Moreover, he even affected Indian history until the end of time. Buddhism has spread to numerous nations including Thailand and Mongolia. The Buddha was conceived in sixth Century BCE. He was fundamentally secured up a castle for a large portion of his initial life in light of the fact that a prescience told that his family […]

Christianity Vs Buddhism

Because I was brought up in an extremely strict Pentecostal church does not imply that I will be conceded everlasting life in the Kingdom of Paradise. In fact, it means that my curiosity for other religions has always been peaked. I have always been interested as to fundamental standards, actualities, and demonstrated sciences behind every one of them. I was instructed to place confidence in that which can't be seen, to never scrutinize the Lord or his reasonings, and to […]

Buddha’s Lost Children

This paper is devoted to one remarkable documentary made by director Mark Verkerk in 2006 called Buddha’s Lost Children (Buddha Elveszett Gyermekei). Buddha’s Lost Children is about one remarkable Buddhist monk called Abbot Khru Bah Neua Chai Kositto, who has devoted himself to the orphaned and abandoned children came from poor and problematic families of remote villages in Northern Thailand. Khru Bah used to be a Thai boxer, later he became a Buddhist monk. I would like to talk about […]

An Analysis of Buddhism on the Hermann Hesse’s Siddh?rtha

Siddhartha is a novel written by Herman Hesse. It is about a young man named Siddhartha who is the son of Brahmin. Everyone thinks that Siddhartha should follow in his father's footsteps, but Siddhartha thinks otherwise. Siddhartha practices all of the religion rituals, but he is not satisfied. He feels something is missing. He wants to find enlightenment as a munk. So he goes on a journey with his friend named Govinda and does just that. One day a group […]

The Four Noble Truths

The Four noble truths are one of the stories covered in the book "World views: Classic and contemporary readings" by Elizabeth Hair, Mike Krist, Richard Harnett and Roger West. The four noble truths are the teaching of the Buddhist path and is a summary of the awakening path. They are the key components that helps one understand Buddhism and the teachings of Buddha. It is often defined in four interdependent and logical steps. The truths have been defined differently by […]

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“4 C’s” in Buddhism

Every religion is different. They all do the things they do for different reasons. Buddhism is no exception to this. Catherine Albanese's definition of religion is "A system of symbols (creed, code, cults) and by means of which people (community) orient themselves in the world with reference to both ordinary and extra ordinary values, powers, and meanings". This definition is known as the "4 C's". The "creed" are the beliefs within the religion. The "Four Noble Truths" is the core […]

Buddhism in Society

With approximately 400 million people practicing Buddhism, it is one of the largest religions in the world. Buddhism encompasses a variety of beliefs, traditions and spiritual practices that are attributed to the teachings of the Buddha. These teachings focus on spiritual personal development. The teachings and scriptures of Buddhism reiterate that violence is not a good thing and that being peaceful will lead to a better life on earth and a chance to reach nirvana. Even though Buddhism has a […]

The Fictional Character Siddhartha and Buddha

Siddhartha is a fictional character created by Herman Hesse, but that name is also the name of Buddha before he became enlightened. Siddhartha was known as a rich, intelligent and good-looking man in town he lived in. Despite being seen as someone with intellectual prowess he left home because he was not content with what he was being taught. He believed the knowledge he was learning with his father was true and wise, yet he believed there was more for […]

Buddhism in Myanmar

Buddhism in Myanmar was very early spread into Myanmar. Buddhist missionaries from Gangetic India who reached Upper Burma through Bengal and Manipur. Others, amongst whom is Rhys Davids, supposed that Buddhism was introduced from China. It is not unlikely, however, that the Burmese obtained both their religion and their alphabet through the Talaings. The Burmese alphabet is almost the same as the Talaing, and the circular form of both strongly indicates the influence of the Singalese, or the Tamulic type […]

What is Buddhism?

Buddhism is one of the most privilege religions, spread throughout Vietnam, China, Japan and most parts of Asia. Buddhism has opened a door for many people to practice mindfulness especially the right way to meditate to relieve the stress and help them forgive that past or things that shouldn't be on their mind. Buddha has taught people many things that people can apply to daily life, and also bring a good environment to other people surrounding them. "There is no […]

History of Meditation

The Axial Age: the earliest written records of meditation come from the Hindu tradition of Vedantism around 1500 B.C.E. The Vedas discussed the ancient traditions of meditation which came from India. In the fifth and sixth century, B.C.E. meditation seems to develop other forms in Taoist China and Buddhist India. Dyhana in early Buddhism takes effect in Vedanta somewhere around century B.C.E. Buddhist meditation exact organs are still under debate by most scholars. Multilevel of meditation are seen in Buddhism’s […]

Christianity and Buddhism

Christianity originated during the 1st-century in Israel, starting with the birth of Jesus Christ, while Buddhism originated in the 6th-century India from the birth and life of Siddhartha, Buddha. While Buddhism and Christianity began with a single founder who sacrificed their lives for the suffering of humans, they did not share the same views on God. Christians put their faith in God while Buddhists ignored the widespread religious belief in a controlling higher power other religions adapted to. Built on […]

What are the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism?

According to The Register and InfoPlease, Buddhism has become one of the top five religions of the world while being one of the top three most practiced. Buddhism originated in eastern central Asia and it encompasses the idea of reaching enlightenment by following the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhism has increased in popularity over the centuries because of its stance as not only a religion, but as a philosophy. Buddhism focuses on compassion and does not preach about reaching the […]

Buddhism – the Four Noble Truths

"Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional" –Buddha. Suffering is something that all human beings in society must endure over the course of their lifetime. It is perceived to be a negative part of life and something that cannot be avoided. However, has one ever dug deeper into the roots of suffering? Why do humans suffer? Is it something that can be further understood and better overcome? Buddhism explores the notion of suffering through its path to enlightenment by practicing such […]

Buddhism in my Life

The foundations of Buddhism are built upon the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths are a summary of the things that the Buddha witnessed and examined in his life, such as Dukkha or suffering, Dukkha is the result of tanha or selfish desire, the cure is get rid of tanha and to get rid of tanha you must follow the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path involves eight steps to reach nirvana, including right knowledge, right […]

“Three Legged Buddha”

The "Three Legged Buddha" is a structure influenced by the Buddhist philosophy and ideas. The creator Zhang Huan was greatly inspired by the catastrophe of ruins and destroyed monasteries from the time of the Cultural Revolution in Tibet. Zhang collected copper and steel from the leftover fragments of Buddhist sculptures in Tibet to construct the "Three Legged Buddha". The sculpture was created in 2007 and stands at the height of twenty-eight feet tall and forty-eight feet wide. The sculpture, given […]

Rituals in Buddhism

In Buddhism, rites and rituals expressed by human condition, including our relationships to others and to our spiritual life. As ways of being mindful, rites and rituals can bring a heightened awareness of the interpretation of life and humanity. Through both mental and physical trainings, rites and rituals set followers onto the passage toward their personal goals. Spreading world-wide in all directions and into numerous languages since around 2,500 years ago, Buddhism teachings have developed into many brunches. Among all […]

Buddhism and Islam Worlds Apart

Buddhism and Islam are both major religions of the world. World religions are divided into two areas Eastern and Western. Buddhism is an eastern religion and Islam is a western religion. In this paper, I plan to showcase the similarities as well as differences in the two religions. Buddhism and Islam seem on the surface worlds apart. While some major differences do exist the core teachings and beliefs are essentially the same. Both Buddhism and Islam have dealt with stereotypes […]

Buddhism in Thailand

Introduction Religion system is one of the fundamental parts of any society, which is the practice of that connected to supernatural beings and forces. This practice modifies human's attitudes and beliefs that fulfills several social and psychological needs. Buddhism, one of the most worldwide popular religion, is a religious tradition that emphasizes spiritual growth at a personal level and focusses on the study of the nature of life. History of Buddhism can be traced back to the 6th century BC […]

History and Comparison of Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam

What is Religion? For a long time, people has been asking question about it, but no one has corrected answer whether one religion is right, or another religion is wrong. Every person explains religion in different way. Religion is a cultural system for group of people who have shared same beliefs. As any person can remember religion has been part of history for long time. There are nearly 10,000 religious where people are born into or they can choose which […]

Representation of Religion in Asian Buddha Statues

Artistic concepts are broad. Art may be interpreted either literally or symbolically depending on a person's insights. It goes a long way in the depiction of reality or imaginary insinuation, be it a person or a place. However, the study of artistic features gives more profound meaning and relates each work of art to the subjects under study for example religion. Eliade Mircea once said that the Buddha's iconography had been changed to spiritual existence from human nature[1]. Considering the […]

The Rising of Christianity and the Fall of Buddhism

Christianity is considered to be the world's largest religion today, there are more than two billion Christians worldwide. Christianity began to grow in the 1st-century from a Jewish following. Christianity has been spread and adopted throughout the nation and it became and still is a successful spiritual mission that is changing people's lives across the globe. The Christian belief is centered around the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians are monotheistic, which means that they only believe in […]

How Buddhism Agrees with Science

Compatibility is defined as the degree of agreement between two separate ideas. In relation to the Dalai Lama's discussions of modern physics and evolutionary biology as well as the article "Cosmology and Meditation" by Rupert Gethin, we can find several similarities and differences between Buddhism and scientific realism. Also, it would be appropriate to argue the compatibility between these two like-minded concepts. Buddhism is very simple in its teachings. The essence of this school of thought promotes a way of […]

Development of Buddhism under Siddhartha Gautama and Ashoka

The pioneer, innovator, and/or originator of Buddhism is said to be Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha was born into a wealthy royal family in Nepal, India. He lived a secluded life away from the world’s sadness, poverty, and pain. Even though his life did not have these particular challenges, he left home at 29 to explore. At that time, India was in an intellectual decay of the old Brahmanic orthodoxy. There was a strong skepticism and moral vacuum which was being filled […]

Earth-touching Buddha

This semester I took History of far Eastern Art, as a project assignment we had to visit a museum, I chose the freer gallery of art in Washington D,C. I visited the section " Encountering the buddha, Art and practice across Asia." In this section you found "collections of Buddhist art from Afghanistan, India, Southeast Asia, China and Japan(web)." My experience at freer gallery of art was great, I was able to learn a lot more from the Asian art […]

Essay about the Matrix and Buddhism

The enemy in The Matrix is ignorance, a trait that is embedded in everyone and is difficult to overcome. Although the he violence and bullets within the movie is the opposite of what buddhist believe in - they believe in peace and do not believe in violence, it can be viewed metaphorically in which it is used to show the struggle to overcome and defeat one’s ignorance and illusion of reality. However, although there are different levels of enlightenment or […]

Buddhism Meets Christanity

When you think of Christianity and Buddhism they both may appear very different from one another, but in fact, in some ways they really are very similar. The religions they have certain beliefs, and traditions that they value. Christianity and Buddhism are both the world's most significant and influential religions. A Spiritual Master that was seeking a path to salvation founded them both. They have a strong resemblance between Jesus and Buddha, with their lives and teachings. In both Christianity […]

Buddhism Vs Christianity

Religion is one of the most valued things in human society. It is what constitutes a country, group or society of individuals together. Although, in other cases it brings up problems and destroys unity between people. Religion is the belief that humans have in a divine entity which controls the Universe. In multiple religions, there is more than one of these godlike entities. Every religion has differences between each other, but the most part of them look for right morals […]

About Siddhartha Gautama

Buddha is not a name but a title which is a Sanskrit word for "Enlightened one." Siddhartha Gautama was born in 567 B.C.E. in the Himalayan region of Kapilavastu, Shakya which is now a modern Lumbini, Nepal. He born to the King Sudhodhana, who rule Kapilavastu in ancient Bharata Khanda, And Queen Maya. When he was born a Brahmin guru prophesize that young Gautama would either become an Emperor of Bharata Khanda or a very holy man, which worried his […]

Religious Perspectives on Euthanasia

Death is one of the most important things that religions deal with. All faiths offer meaning and explanations for death and dying; all faiths try to find a place for death and dying within human experience. Most religions disapprove of euthanasia. Some of them absolutely forbid it. Virtually all religions state that those who become vulnerable through illness or disability deserve special care and protection and that proper end of life care is a much better thing than euthanasia. Religions […]

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Buddhism Essay Topic Ideas & Titles

🏆 good buddhism essay topic ideas, 🥇 interesting buddhism topic ideas for college, 📍 essay topics to write about buddhism.

• Comparing Hinduism and Buddhism Buddhism and Hinduism have both have a form of rebirth, but they have different opinions on the caste system and the idea of having a god or gods. In Hinduism the people cannot fulfill everything thing they need to in ...
• An Analysis of the Eight Fold Path of Buddhism The Eightfold Path is a way that leads to the stopping of suffering and the achievement of self awakening. The eight steps in the Eightfold Path are as follows: Right belief, Right purpose, Right speech, Right conduct, Right livelihood, Right ...
• Is Worship Buddhist This may be necessary for the survival of the religion and better for the entire community, but is not in of itself Buddhist. For one to attach oneself to even the attribute of being Buddhist is unbecoming of the purest ...
• Understanding Of Karma in Buddhism Contrary to Hinduism, Buddhists believe that the soul or rather the new form taken by an individual after rebirth is not the same, rather, the new form is determined by the actions of that particular individual in the previous and ...
• Differences between in India and China about Buddhism Siddharta Gautama is a prince in the kingdom of Magadha who abandoned his rank, privileges, and even his wife and child; in search for an answer of the true existence in life. Also, like in India, Buddhism introducedequalityin the treatment ...
• Spread of Buddhism in China Essay Sample The people of China responded in different ways to the spread of Buddhism. The people of China responded in different ways to the spread of Buddhism.
• Buddhism in Thailand It is actually the 4th biggest religion in the world and the total amount of Buddhists in the world is around 500 millions. In Thailand there is a special form of greeting which is the Wai.
• The Four Noble Truths in Buddhism These truths are that there is life that is "qualified by suffering, that suffering has a cause, that there is a state beyond suffering, and that there is a path to the state". The third of the four noble truths ...
• Critical Thinking Assignment: Buddhism The question of Origin- Those who follow Buddhism have faith that the universe and god are one and the same. The question of origin- Christians believe God is the creator of the universe and everything in it.
• Buddhism and the seven dimensions Essay Sample The Experiential Dimension of Buddhism is essentially the most important of all the dimensions as the core belief of Buddhism concerns obtaining the experience of Enlightenment." The Buddha's personal experience of gaining enlightenment is the bedrock of the entire Buddhist ...
• The Acidental Buddhist I then scribbled it out thinking that it may have not been important in the paper, but the book later pointed out that he realized his neglect of his daughter and wife in his pursuit to the answers of American ...
• Buddhist protestant It is the people, the Protestants and the Buddhists, that make the religions different, due to teachings that cannot necessarily be observed. He speaks only when a question is posed, and his responses are concise and to-the-point.
• Buddhist Teaching of Nirvana With Meditation we will learn to control our mind and consequently our heart, the seat of our emotions. Wellness through Meditation relaxes the body, calms the mind and soothes the soul to combat diseases and illness.
• Free Critical Thinking On Monotheistic And Buddhism Meditations Almost all religions of the world have some form of meditation which only reflects the importance of meditation in religions, particularly considering the diversity of religions, encompassing varied cultures and their inception. The Jewish tradition of meditation is much older ...
• Buddhism Essays Example It is for this reason that his question to the head priest, Huangbo, brought him the beating that is the norm in the Buddhist teachings. The idea is not for Linji to be instructed, but for him to realize and ...
• Example Of Essay On Socially Engaged Buddhism The roots of Socially Engaged Buddhism are based on the Buddha teachings, which focus on social issues in society. In fact, it bears tremendous historical significance that traces Buddhism to engagement on political, social, environmental, and political issues of the ...
• Asoka And The Expansion Of Buddhism Throughout The World Research Paper Examples He regretted his actions and felt the sorrow and grief of the families who were abandoned by the people whodied in the war. Seneviratna, Anuradha."Asoka and the Emergence of a Sinhala Buddhist State in Sri Lanka".
• Free Book Review On Buddhism This Path to Tranquility is introduced by the narrator's daily experiences of having to wake up early in the morning to exercise in preparation for meditation. It is easy to see oneself in the story as someone starts develops a ...
• Nietzsche Critical Essay – Plato, Augustine and Buddhist The good good is compared to the word truth because the good is the truth and the ruth is the good. Nietzsche blames the Jews for the views and how people defined "good" and "evil" because the Jews, who were ...
• Free Essay On How Would You Compare Christian And Buddhist Understandings Of Suffering In own words of Buddha, unity with what is disliked is suffering, breakup from what is liked is suffering and not to obtain what one needs is suffering. Wickedness and suffering were not God's creation and will but came in ...
• Jainism and Buddhism Essay Sample From the archaic to contemporary times, religion had been one of the issues and conceptions that had colored the lives of the people. This paper then would be devoted upon scrutinizing the aesthetic structures of two of the oldest religions ...
• Lotus Versus Zen Buddhism The sect with the largest number of temples in Japan is Zen Buddhism, the second largest number belong to the Lotus, or Nichiren Sect. The Nichiren sect of Buddhism is any denomination of Buddhism that derives its beliefs from the ...
• Turning Points: The Buddhist Riots of 1963 Despite the United States best attempts, Diem was unable to succeed because he was appointed by the US, did not know or care about the Vietnamese people and their culture, and did not listen to or trust anyone but his ...
• Christianity and Buddhism Also a "heavenly messenger' informed Mahamaya of the way she was to bear the "son of the highest kings." Many other events followed the birth of Buddha like the appearance of the "flower Star" in the East, and also a ...
• World Religions: Buddhism and Christianity On the one side of the spectrum, it attempts to make a successful presentation of the fundamental nature and key teachings of Buddhism as a particular religious movement. Buddhism and Christianity: a Juxtaposition It has to be firstly remembered that ...
• Buddhism Reflection Pape Essay In this reflection paper, I will be discussing how I became a Buddhist, my basic knowledge of Buddhism, the etiquette of being in a temple, what my parents have taught me from a young age. Out of respect for the ...
• Q. Were You Born Into This Religion Or Did You Choose To Become A Buddhist Essay Example In a place of worship I go to worship once or twice a week and once over the weekends and privately, I meditate everydayQ. I asked several questions in the endeavor to get a clear picture of the religion in ...
• Free Hinduism Or Buddhism Research Paper Sample The two religions are among the most popular religions in the world due to the high number of followers attributed to its worship practices. One important aspect with the two religions is that they both have a tendency of focus ...
• Good Concepts Of Buddhism Critical Thinking Example Firstly, the concept of Samsara is one of the most critical aspects and beliefs in the Buddhism and religion as it is concerned in this line of thought and aspect. It is crucial and important in the driving of the ...
• Research Paper On Buddhism The text is written in the Indian language the book and based off of Buddha teachings. In the modern world of Buddhism, it has become reasonable and scientific.
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75 Buddhism Research Paper Topics & Essay Examples

Buddhism is one of the most ancient yes still popular religions in the world. It was born in India more than 2500 years ago. The followers of Buddhism believe that that good behavior, ascetic lifestyle, and spiritual practices are the means to achieve nirvana.

If you need to write a persuasive or argumentative essay on Buddhism, you’re in the right place! On this page, we’ve collected top Buddhism research paper topics, thesis statement ideas, and essay samples that focus on the historical aspects and current issues of the religion. Go on reading to find the perfect Buddhism essay topic for your assignment!

📝 Buddhism Research Paper Topics & Examples

💡 buddhism essay topics, ❓ buddhism discussion questions.

• Religion Comparison: Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism This essay seeks to establish the similarities and differences between the religions in terms of origin, issue of salvation and creation, and their perception of God.
• Religion in India: Hinduism and Buddhism This paper will focus on rituals and divine worship associated with Hinduism and Buddhism as well as their importance in both religions.
• World Religions Studies and Key Concepts Religion can be defined as beliefs and practices that underscore the relationship between people and their God.
• Dharma, Karma, and Samsara – Essay on Religion in India What is the relationship between the ideas of Dharma, Karma, and Samsara? This essay on religion in India focuses on this concept. It explains what role they play in Hinduism and Buddhism.
• Afterlife in Different World Cultures Most modern religions including atheists do not believe in the existence of an afterlife. Atheists do not believe in a supernatural God.
• Buddhism: Teachings of Buddha The teachings of Buddha are found in the Dhammapada and clearly states that if these laws are followed people will have peace and happiness.
• Japanese and Chinese Culture: Comparison and Contrast The purpose of this paper is to contrast the mentalities, worldviews, religion, traditions, habits, and everyday routines of both Japan and China and prove that they are different.
• Buddhism: History, Origins and Rituals There is contemplation that Buddhism is a philosophy, way of life, and the code of ethics, but many declare untrue to it the characteristic of a religion.
• Death, Views of Asian and Western Culture on Death and Dying The Asians receive death with happiness, and in case a person was on medication and felt the time was ready to die, one would forfeit medication to embrace death wholeheartedly.
• Buddhism Religion and Philosophy Founded in India
• Buddhism’s Spread Throughout the East
• The Impact Buddhism Had on Human Rights in China
• Analyzing Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism
• Buddhism as an Extensive and Internally Diverse Tradition
• The Second Noble Truth of Buddhism
• Medical and Religious Ethics in Death and Dying The paper is devoted to the investigation of a particular ethical dilemma presented in a patient’s case study and religious perspectives on it.
• Buddhism as a Faith Founded by Siddhartha Gautama
• The Life and Influence of Shen-Hui on Chinese Buddhism
• Zen Buddhism Combined With Psychotherapy
• Tracing Back the Origins of Buddhism and Its Main Characteristics
• The Role and Status of Women in Buddhism
• Understanding the Mahayana Doctrine in Buddhism
• Healthcare and Faith Diversity: Christianity and Buddhism This paper presents a comparative analysis of two faith philosophies towards the delivery of quality healthcare. The targeted philosophies include Christianity and Buddhism.
• The Spread and Emergence of Buddhism
• History and Comparison of Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam
• The Teachings and Core Beliefs of Buddhism
• Linking Buddhism Based Charity and Philanthropy
• The Rising of Christianity and the Fall of Buddhism
• Integrating Democracy With Tibetan Buddhism
• Three Faiths: Buddhism, Shintoism and Bahai Religion This paper will investigate the religious beliefs concerning health care providers of three different religious faiths.
• Existence in the Buddhist Religion
• Repentance Between Bible and Buddhism
• The Middle Way According to Mahayana Buddhism
• How Buddhism Agrees with Science
• Buddhism and Shamanism Within Mongolian Culture
• The Link Between Mahayana Buddhism and Chinese Culture
• Euthanasia Debates, Death and Dying The issue of voluntary euthanasia elicits heated debates. The contention is usually based on religious views concerning whether individuals can decide the fate of life.
• The Rise and Development of Buddhism
• Buddhist Meditation Practice and Buddhism
• Holy Books of Buddhism
• Buddhist Teachings and Beliefs of Buddhism
• The Main Emotions Covered in Buddhism
• Incorporating Tibetan Buddhism Into Modern Psychotherapy
• China’s Global Business Cultural Analysis Global business culture aims to enhance understanding of Chinese culture and development of business strategies to improve the performance of multinationals in and out of China.
• Understanding the Two Forms of Happiness in Buddhism
• Lotus Versus Zen Buddhism
• Buddhism’s Life-Changing Experience
• Zen Buddhism From Chinese Buddhism
• The Rise and Enlightenment of Buddhism
• The First Mention of the Buddhism
• Supreme Being of Buddhism
• Twenty-First Century Challenges to Buddhism
• Ashoka as the Greatest Promoter of Buddhism
• Buddhism as a Question About Yourself
• How Does Buddhism Reflect the Human Understanding of God?
• Who Were the Founders of Buddhism in Japan?
• How Does Buddhism Teach Us to Experience Anger and Forgiveness?
• How Does Buddhism Affect Chinese Culture History?
• How Does Buddhism Treat Its Women?
• How Has Buddhism Changed Over Years?
• How Applied Buddhism Affected Peoples’ Daily Activities?
• How Buddhism Transformed and Transformed Chinese Culture?
• How Did Buddhism Spread Through China?
• How Has Buddhism Interacted With Nature and Environment?
• How Buddhism and Hinduism Share a Belief That Life Suffering Is Caused by Desire?
• What Does Buddhism Teach?
• How Did Chinese Culture Shape a New Form of Buddhism?
• What Are the Similarities Between Buddhism and Other Eastern Religions?
• What Are the Core Beliefs of Buddhism?
• When Diving Into the Depths of Buddhism?
• Where Buddhism Meets Science?
• When Buddhism Was the Dominant Tradition in India?
• What Role Does Karma Play in Buddhism?
• What Are the Main Differences Between Sikhism and Buddhism?
• How Was Buddhism Expressed Differently Across Cultures, Geographies, and Languages?

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Philosophy of The Self: Western Science and Eastern Karma

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Siddhartha Gautama: The Path of Becoming Buddha

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Buddha: The Story of Creating 5 Main Morals

Analysis of religious beliefs of buddhism, a brief history of the creation of the religion of buddhism, misogyny in buddhism and shinto religious practices, japanese religions: shinto and buddhism, to comprehend zen through willpower and faith, a comparative analysis of buddhism and islam, the comparison between chinese religions: taoism and buddhism, differences and similarities between judaism, buddhism and hinduism, topics in this category.

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Buddhism: Themes & Issues

• General & Introductory
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• Theravada: Main
• Theravada: Primary Texts
• Theravada: Early & Indian Buddhism
• Theravada: Southeast Asia & Sri Lanka
• Theravada: Teachers & Teachings
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• Mahayana: Primary Texts
• Mahayana: China, Mongolia, Taiwan
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• Mahayana: Major Thinkers
• Tibet: Main
• Tibet: Topics
• Tibet: Practices
• Tibet: Early Masters & Teachings
• Tibet: Contemporary Masters & Teachings
• Zen: Regions
• Zen: Early Masters & Teachings
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• Zen: The Kyoto School
• Western: Main
• Western: Thinkers & Topics
• Visual & Material Culture: Main
• Visual & Material Culture: Central Asia
• Visual & Material Culture: East Asia
• Visual & Material Culture: South Asia
• Visual & Material Culture: Southeast Asia & Sri Lanka

Buddhism as Philosophy: Fundamental Themes

Haidy Geismar et al (eds.), Impermanence: Exploring Continuous Change Across Cultures (2022)

Roger R. Jackson, Rebirth: A Guide to Mind, Karma, and Cosmos in the Buddhist World (2022)

Harrison J. Pemberton, The Buddha Meets Socrates: A Philosopher's Journal (2022)

Rick Repetti (ed.), Routledge Handbook on the Philosophy of Meditation (2022)

Avram Alpert, A Partial Enlightenment: What Modern Literature and Buddhism Can Teach Us about Living Well without Perfection (2021)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Superiority Conceit in Buddhist Traditions: A Historical Perspective (2021)

Zane M. Diamond, Gautama Buddha: Education for Wisdom (2021)

C.W. Huntington, What I Don't Know about Death: Reflections on Buddhism and Mortality (2021)

Jianxun Shi, Mapping the Buddhist Path to Liberation: Diversity and Consistency Based on the Pali Nikayas and the Chinese Agamas (2021)

Mark Siderits, How Things Are: An Introduction to Buddhist Metaphysics (2021)

Peter D. Hershock & Roger T. Ames (eds.), Human Beings or Human Becomings? A Conversation with Confucianism on the Concept of Person (2021)

Y. Karunadasa, The Buddhist Analysis of Matter (2020)

Mark Siderits et al (ed.), Buddhist Philosophy of Consciousness: Tradition and Dialogue (2020)

Jan Westerhoff, The Non-Existence of the Real World (2020)

Graham Priest, The Fifth Corner of Four: An Essay on Buddhist Metaphysics and the Catuskoti (2019)

Vajragupta Staunton, Free Time! From Clock-Watching to Free-Flowing: A Buddhist Guide (2019)

David Burton, Buddhism: A Contemporary Philosophical Investigation (2017)

Steven M. Emmanuel (ed.), Buddhist Philosophy: A Comparative Approach (2017)

Bryan W. Van Norden, Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto (2017)

Mark Siderits, Studies in Buddhist Philosophy, ed. Jan Westerhoff (2016)

Marcus Boon, Eric M. Cazdyn, & Timothy Morton, Nothing: Three Inquiries in Buddhism (2015)

Jay L. Garfield, Engaging Buddhism: Why It Matters to Philosophy (2015)

JeeLoo Liu & Douglas Berger (eds.), Nothingness in Asian Philosophy (2014)

Steven M. Emmanuel (ed.), A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy (2013)

Cyrus Panjvani, Buddhism: A Philosophical Approach (2013)

Mark Siderits, Evan Thompson, & Dan Zahavi (eds.), Self, No Self? Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions (2013)

Robin Cooper (Ratnaprabha), Finding the Mind: A Buddhist View (2012)

John Danvers, Agents of Uncertainty: Mysticism, Scepticism, Buddhism, Art and Poetry (2012)

Louis de La Vallée Poussin, The Way to Nirvana: Six Lectures on Ancient Buddhism as a Discipline of Salvation (2012)

Musashi Tachikawa, Essays in Buddhist Theology (2012)

Johannes Bronkhorst, Karma (2011)

Alf Hiltebeitel, Dharma: Its Early History in Law, Religion, and Narrative (2011)

Dhivan Thomas Jones, This Being, That Becomes: The Buddha's Teaching on Conditionality (2011)

Erich Frauwallner, The Philosophy of Buddhism [Die Philosophie des Buddhismus], trans. Gelong Lodro Sangpo & Jigme Sheldron (2010)

William Edelglass & Jay Garfield (eds.), Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings (2009)

Dan Arnold, Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief: Epistemology in South Asian Philosophy of Religion (2008)

George Grimm, Buddhist Wisdom: The Mystery of the Self (2008)

Stephen J. Laumakis, An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy (2008)

Sangharakshita, The Meaning of Conversion in Buddhism (2008)

Dharmachari Subhuti, Buddhism and Friendship (2008)

Sangharakshita, The Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path (2007)

Mark Siderits, Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction (2007)

Lama Shenpen Hookham, There's More to Dying Than Death: A Buddhist Perspective (2006)

Bruce Matthews, Craving and Salvation: A Study in Buddhist Soteriology (2006)

Sangharakshita, The Three Jewels: The Central Ideals of Buddhism (2006)

Jennifer Crawford, Spiritually-Engaged Knowledge: The Attentive Heart (2005)

John Taber (ed. & trans.), A Hindu Critique of Buddhist Epistemology: Kumarila on Perception (2005)

Fernando Tola & Carmen Dragonetti, On Voidness: A Study of Buddhist Nihilism (2005)

David Burton, Buddhism, Knowledge and Liberation: A Philosophical Study (2004)

Richard H. Jones, Mysticism and Morality: A New Look at Old Questions (2004)

Maitreyabandhu, Thicker Than Blood: Friendship on the Buddhist Path (2004)

Nagapriya, Exploring Karma and Rebirth (2004)

Sangharakshita, Buddha Mind (2004)

Sangharakshita, Living with Kindness: The Buddha's Teaching on Metta (2004)

John W. Schroeder, Skillful Means: The Heart of Buddhist Compassion (2004)

Brook Ziporyn, Being and Ambiguity: Philosophical Experiments with Tiantai Buddhism (2004)

Vincent L. Wimbush & Richard Valantasis (eds.), Asceticism (2002)

Rupert Gethin, The Buddhist Path to Awakening: A Study of the Bodhi-Pakkhiya Dhamma (2001)

David J. Kalupahana, Buddhist Thought and Ritual (2001)

Michael C. Brannigan, The Pulse of Wisdom: The Philosophies of India, China, and Japan (1999)

Duncan Forbes, The Buddhist Pilgrimage, ed. Alex Wayman (1999)

Roger R. Jackson & John J. Makransky (eds.), Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars (1999)

Jamie Hubbard & Paul L. Swanson (eds.), Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm over Critical Buddhism (1997)

Alex Wayman, Untying the Knots in Buddhism: Selected Essays (1997)

Newman Robert Glass, Working Emptiness: Toward a Third Reading of Emptiness in Buddhism and Postmodern Thought (1995)

Kaisa Puhakka, Knowledge and Reality: A Comparative Study of Divine and Some Buddhist Logicians (1994)

Robert E. Buswell & Robert M. Gimello (eds.), Paths to Liberation: The Marga and Its Transformations in Buddhist Thought (1992)

Jan Nattier, Once upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline (1992)

John M. Koller & Patricia Koller (eds.), Sourcebook in Asian Philosophy (1991)

Gail Hinich Sutherland, The Disguises of the Demon: The Development of the Yaksa in Hinduism and Buddhism (1991)

Gregory Darling, An Evaluation of the Vedantic Critique of Buddhism (1987)

Martin Willson, Rebirth and the Western Buddhist (1987)

Alphonse Verdu, The Philosophy of Buddhism: A "Totalistic" Synthesis (1981)

John r. carter, dhamma: western academic and sinhalese buddhist interpretations: a study of a religious concept (1978).

W.H. Weeraratne, Individual and Society in Buddhism (1977)

David J. Kalupahana, Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis (1976)

William M. McGovern, A Manual of Buddhist Philosophy (1976)

David J. Kalupahana, Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism (1975)

Francis Story, Rebirth as Doctrine and Experience: Essays and Case Studies (1975)

Junjiro Takakusu, Wing-Tsit Chan & Charles A. Moore (eds.), The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy (1975)

John E. Blofeld, Beyond the Gods: Taoist and Buddhist Mysticism (1974)

Herbert V. Guenther, Buddhist Philosophy in Theory and Practice (1972)

Daigan L. Matsunaga & Alicia Matsunaga, The Buddhist Concept of Hell (1971)

Ven. nyanaponika & maurice walshe (eds.), pathways of buddhist thought: essays from the wheel (1971).

T. Stcherbatsky, The Central Conception of Buddhism and the Meaning of the Word "Dharma" (1961)

This book is a collection of essays by Mark Siderits on topics in Indian Buddhist philosophy. The essays are divided into six main systematic sections, dealing with realism and anti-realism, further problems in metaphysics and logic, philosophy of language, epistemology, ethics, and specific discussions of the interaction between Buddhist and classical Indian philosophy. Each of the essays is followed by a postscript Siderits has written specifically for this volume, which make it possible to connect essays of the volume with each other, showing thematic interrelations, or locating them relative to the development of Siderits’s thought. New works have been published, new translations have come out, and additional connections have been discovered. The postscripts make it possible to acquaint the reader with the most important of these developments.

This book is the most comprehensive single volume on the subject available. It offers the very latest scholarship to create a wide-ranging survey of the most important ideas, problems, and debates in the history of Buddhist philosophy. Encompasses the broadest treatment of Buddhist philosophy available, covering social and political thought, meditation, ecology and contemporary issues and applications Each section contains overviews and cutting-edge scholarship that expands readers understanding of the breadth and diversity of Buddhist thought. Broad coverage of topics allows flexibility to instructors in creating a syllabus. Essays provide valuable alternative philosophical perspectives on topics to those available in Western traditions.

This book examines how the Brahmanical tradition of Purva Mimamsa and the writings of the seventh-century Buddhist Madhyamika philosopher Candrakirti challenged dominant Indian Buddhist views of epistemology. Arnold retrieves these two very different but equally important voices of philosophical dissent, showing them to have developed highly sophisticated and cogent critiques of influential Buddhist epistemologists such as Dignaga and Dharmakirti. His analysis—developed in conversation with modern Western philosophers like William Alston and J.L. Austin—offers an innovative reinterpretation of the Indian philosophical tradition, while suggesting that pre-modern Indian thinkers have much to contribute to contemporary philosophical debates.

Buddhism is essentially a teaching about liberation - from suffering, ignorance, selfishness and continued rebirth. Knowledge of 'the way things really are' is thought by many Buddhists to be vital in bringing about this emancipation. This book is a philosophical study of the notion of liberating knowledge as it occurs in a range of Buddhist sources. Burton assesses the common Buddhist idea that knowledge of the three characteristics of existence (impermanence, not-self and suffering) is the key to liberation. It argues that this claim must be seen in the context of the Buddhist path and training as a whole. Detailed attention is also given to anti-realist, sceptical and mystical strands within the Buddhist tradition, all of which make distinctive claims about liberating knowledge.

Ecology, Economics, Globalization, and the Environment

Trine Brox & Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg (eds.), Buddhism and Waste: The Excess, Discard and Afterlife of Buddhist Consumption (2022)

Jeanine M. Canty, Returning the Self to Nature: Undoing Our Collective Narcissism and Healing Our Planet (2022)

Daniel Capper, Buddhist Ecological Protection of Space: A Guide for Sustainable Off-Earth Travel (2022)

Daniel Capper, Roaming Free Like a Deer: Buddhism and the Natural World (2022)

David Hinton, Wild Mind, Wild Earth: Our Place in the Sixth Extinction (2022)

Joel Magnuson, The Dharma and Socially Engaged Buddhist Economics (2022)

Christoph Brumann et al (eds.), Monks, Money, and Morality: The Balancing Act of Contemporary Buddhism (2021)

Josep M. Coll, Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking: The Natural Path to Sustainable Transformation (2021)

Sallie B. King, Buddhist Visions of the Good Life for All (2021)

Gábor Kovács, The Value Orientations of Buddhist and Christian Entrepreneurs: A Comparative Perspective on Spirituality and Business Ethics (2021)

Shantigarbha, The Burning House: A Buddhist Response to the Climate and Ecological Emergency (2021)

Trine Brox & Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg, Buddhism and Business: Merit, Material Wealth, and Morality in the Global Market Economy (2020)

Alex John Catanese, Buddha in the Marketplace: The Commodification of Buddhist Objects in Tibet (2020)

Ernest C.H. Ng, Introduction to Buddhist Economics: The Relevance of Buddhist Values in Contemporary Economy and Society (2020)

Geoffrey Barstow (ed.), The Faults of Meat: Tibetan Buddhist Writings on Vegetarianism (2019)

Geoffrey Barstow, Food of Sinful Demons: Meat, Vegetarianism, and the Limits of Buddhism in Tibet (2019)

Candi K. Cann (ed.), Dying to Eat: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Food, Death, and the Afterlife (2019)

Gergely Hidas, A Buddhist Ritual Manual on Agriculture: A Critical Edition (2019)

Stephanie Kaza, Green Buddhism: Practice and Compassionate Action in Uncertain Times (2019)

Belden C. Lane, The Great Conversation: Nature and the Care of the Soul (2019)

Clair Brown, Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science (2018)

Shravasti Dhammika, Nature and the Environment in Early Buddhism (2018)

Karine Gagné, Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas (2018)

Willis J. Jenkins, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and John Grim (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology (2018)

Vajragupta, Wild Awake: Alone, Offline and Aware in Nature (2018)

Whitney Bauman, Richard Bohannon, and Kevin O'Brien (eds.), Grounding Religion: A Field Guide to the Study of Religion and Ecology, 2nd ed. (2017)

Caroline Brazier, Ecotherapy in Practice: A Buddhist Model (2017)

J. Baird Callicott & James McRae (eds.), Japanese Environmental Philosophy (2017)

David E. Cooper & Simon P. James, Buddhism, Virtue and Environment (2017)

Simon P. James, Zen Buddhism and Environmental Ethics (2017)

Bodhipaksa, Vegetarianism: A Buddhist View (2016)

Padmasiri De Silva, Environmental Philosophy and Ethics in Buddhism (2016)

Todd LeVasseur et al (eds.), Religion and Sustainable Agriculture: World Spiritual Traditions and Food Ethics (2016)

Daniel P. Scheid, The Cosmic Common Good: Religious Grounds for Ecological Ethics (2016)

J. Baird Callicott & James McRae (eds.), Environmental Philosophy in Asian Traditions of Thought (2015)

Ugo Dessì, Japanese Religions and Globalization (2015)

Vaddhaka Linn, The Buddha on Wall Street: What's Wrong with Capitalism and What We Can Do About It (2015)

Joan Marques, Business and Buddhism (2015)

James Stewart, Vegetarianism and Animal Ethics in Contemporary Buddhism (2015)

Whitney A. Bauman, Religion and Ecology: Developing a Planetary Ethic (2014)

James Mark Shields (ed.), Buddhist Responses to Globalization (2014)

Susan M. Darlington, The Ordination of a Tree: The Thai Buddhist Environmental Movement (2013)

Tariq Jazeel, Sacred Modernity: Nature, Environment and the Postcolonial Geographies of Sri Lankan Nationhood (2013)

Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano, Landscapes of Wonder: Discovering Buddhist Dhamma in the World Around Us (2013)

Leslie E. Sponsel, Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution (2012)

Pragati Sahni, Environmental Ethics in Buddhism: A Virtues Approach (2011)

David M. Engel & Jaruwan S. Engel, Tort, Custom, and Karma: Globalization and Legal Consciousness in Thailand (2010)

Roger S. Gottlieb (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology (2010)

Lin Jensen, Deep Down Things: The Earth in Celebration and Dismay (2010)

Richard Payne, How Much is Enough? Buddhism, Consumerism, and the Human Environment (2010)

Thomas Berry, The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion, ed. Mary Evelyn Tucker (2009)

Peter D. Hershock, Buddhism in the Public Sphere: Reorienting Global Interdependence (2009)

John Stanley et al (eds.), A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency (2009)

Ananda W. P. Guruge, Buddhism, Economics and Science: Further Studies in Socially Engaged Humanistic Buddhism (2008)

Stephanie Kaza, Mindfully Green: A Personal and Spiritual Guide to Whole Earth Thinking (2008)

Bhikkhu Basnagoda Rahula, The Buddha's Teachings on Prosperity: At Home, At Work, in the World (2008)

Lloyd Field, Business and the Buddha: Doing Well by Doing Good (2007)

Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano, Available Truth: Excursions into Buddhist Wisdom and the Natural World (2007)

Lisa Kemmerer, In Search of Consistency: Ethics and Animals (2006)

Kirkpatrick Sale, After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination (2006)

Paul Waldau & Kimberley Christine Patton (eds.), A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics (2006)

Sulak Sivaraksa, Conflict, Culture, Change: Engaged Buddhism in a Globalizing World (2005)

Stuart Chandler, Establishing a Pure Land on Earth: The Foguang Buddhist Perspective on Modernization and Globalization (2004)

Linda Learman, Buddhist Missionaries in the Era of Globalization (2004)

Roger S. Gottlieb, This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment, 2nd ed. (2003)

Joanna Macy, World As Lover, World As Self: Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal (2003)

Paul Waldau, The Specter of Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views of Animals (2001)

Stephanie Kaza & Kenneth Kraft (eds.), Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism (2000)

Tony Page, Buddhism and Animals: A Buddhist Vision of Humanity's Rightful Relationship with the Animal Kingdom (1999)

Laurel Kearns & Catherine Keller (eds.), Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth (2007)

Mary E. Tucker & Duncan R. Williams (eds.), Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds (1997)

Christopher Key Chapple, Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions (1993)

Martine Batchelor & Kerry Brown (eds.), Buddhism and Ecology (1992)

Allan Hunt Badiner (ed.), Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology (1990)

Arne Naess, Ecology, Community, and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy, trans. David Rothenberg (1989)

In this study of the place of vegetarianism within Tibetan religiosity, Geoffrey 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. Barstow offers a detailed analysis of the debates over meat eating and vegetarianism, from the first references to such a diet in the tenth century through the Chinese invasion in the 1950s. He discusses elements of Tibetan Buddhist thought, but also looks beyond religious attitudes to examine the cultural, economic, and environmental factors that oppose the Buddhist critique of meat, including Tibetan concepts of medicine and health, food scarcity, the display of wealth, and idealized male gender roles. Barstow argues that the issue of meat eating was influenced by a complex interplay of factors, with religious perspectives largely supporting vegetarianism while practical concerns and secular ideals pulled in the other direction.

Clair Brown, professor of economics at UC Berkeley and a practicing Buddhist, has developed a holistic model, one based on the notion that quality of life should be measured by more than national income. Brown advocates an approach to organizing the economy that embraces rather than skirts questions of values, sustainability, and equity, and incorporates the Buddhist emphasis on interdependence, shared prosperity, and happiness into her vision for a sustainable and compassionate world. Buddhist economics leads us to think mindfully as we go about our daily activities, and offers a way to appreciate how our actions affect the well-being of those around us. By replacing the endless cycle of desire with more positive collective activities, we can make our lives more meaningful as well as happier. This book represents an enlightened approach to our modern world infused with ancient wisdom, with benefits both personal and global, for generations to come.

This book reflects the growing interest and research in this field. Drawing on a diversity of experience from the counselling and psychotherapy professions, but also from practitioners in community work, mental health and education, this book explores the exciting and innovative possibilities involved in practising outdoors. Brazier brings to bear her experience and knowledge as a psychotherapist, group worker and trainer over several decades to think about therapeutic work outdoors in all its forms. The book presents a model of ecotherapy based on principles drawn from Buddhist psychology and Western psychotherapy which focuses particularly on the relationship between person and environment at three levels, moving from the personal level of individual history to cultural influences, then finally to global circumstances, all of which condition mind-states and psychological well-being. This work will provide refreshing and valuable reading for psychotherapists and counsellors in the field, those interested in Buddhism, and other mental health and health professionals working outdoors.

This work explores alternative ways of leading in the aftermath of the Great Recession and the many stories of fraud and greed that emerged. The book explores shifts in business perspectives as more value is placed on soft skills like emotional intelligence and listening, and introduces the reader to the principles in Buddhist philosophy that can be applied in the workplace. Marques explores the value of applying the positive psychology of Buddhism to work settings. She outlines the ways in which it offers highly effective solutions to addressing important management and organizational behavior related issues, but also flags up critical areas for caution. For example, Buddhism is non-confrontational, and promotes detachment. How can business leaders negotiate these principles in light of the demands of modern day pressures? The book includes end of chapter questions to promote reflection and critical thinking, and examples of Buddhist leaders in action. It will prove a captivating read for students of organizational behavior, management, leadership, diversity and ethics.

Andy Rotman, Hungry Ghosts (2021)

Eric Huntington, Creating the Universe: Depictions of the Cosmos in Himalayan Buddhism (2019)

Rebecca Redwood French, The Golden Yoke: The Legal Cosmology of Buddhist Tibet (2002)

Akira Sadakata, Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins (1997)

Jamgon K.L. Taye, Myriad Worlds: Buddhist Cosmology in Abhidharma, Kalacakra, and Dzog-chen (1995)

Randy Kloetzli, Buddhist Cosmology: From Single World System to Pure Land: Science and Theology in the Images of Motion and Light (1983)

Frank E. Reynolds & Mani B. Reynolds (trans.), Three Worlds According to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology (1982)

Jay L. Garfield, Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (2021)

Daniel Cozort & James Mark Shields (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics (2018)

Jake H. Davis (ed.), A Mirror Is for Reflection: Understanding Buddhist Ethics (2017)

The Cowherds, Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness (2015)

Dharmachari Subhuti, Mind in Harmony: A Guide to the Psychology of Buddhist Ethics (2015)

Charles Goodman, Consequences of Compassion: An Interpretation and Defense of Buddhist Ethics (2014)

Christopher W. Gowans, Buddhist Moral Philosophy: An Introduction (2014)

Alexus McLeod, Understanding Asian Philosophy: Ethics in the Analects, Zhuangzi, Dhammapada, and the Bhagavad Gita (2014)

Subhadramati, Not About Being Good: A Practical Guide to Buddhist Ethics (2013)

Dale Wright, The Six Perfections: Buddhism and the Cultivation of Character (2011)

Charles S. Prebish (ed.), Destroying Mara Forever: Buddhist Ethics Essays in Honor of Damien Keown (2010)

Susanne Mrozik, Virtuous Bodies: The Physical Dimensions of Morality in Buddhist Ethics (2007)

Hari Shankar Prasad, The Centrality of Ethics in Buddhism: Exploratory Essays (2007)

Pamela Bloom, The Healing Power of Compassion: The Essence of Buddhist Acts (2006)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Into the Jaws of Yama, Lord of Death: Buddhism, Bioethics, and Death (2006)

Damien Keown, Buddhist Ethics: A Very Short Introduction (2005)

Sangharakshita, Know Your Mind: The Psychological Dimension of Ethics in Buddhism (2004)

Jeffrey Hopkins, Cultivating Compassion: A Buddhist Perspective (2002)

Gananath Obeyesekere, Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth (2002)

Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values, and Issues (2000)

Damien Keown (ed.), Contemporary Buddhist Ethics (2000)

Damien Keown (ed.), Buddhism and Abortion (1998)

Hammalawa Saddhatissa, Buddhist Ethics (1997)

Peggy Morgan & Clive Lawton (eds.), Ethical Issues in Six Religious Traditions (1996)

Damien Keown, Buddhism and Bioethics (1995)

Phillip Olson, The Discipline of Freedom: A Kantian View of the Role of Moral Precepts in Zen Practice (1993)

Damien Keown, The Nature of Buddhist Ethics (1992)

William R. LaFleur, Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan (1992)

Charles W. Fu & Sandra A. Wawrytko (eds.), Buddhist Ethics and Modern Society (1991)

Bruce Reichenbach, The Law of Karma: A Philosophical Study (1990)

Russell F. Sizemore & Donald K. Swearer (eds.), Ethics, Wealth and Salvation: A Study in Buddhist Social Ethics (1989)

Toshiichi Endo, Dana: The Development of Its Concept and Practice (1987)

G.S. Misra, The Development of Buddhist Ethics (1984)

Robert Aitken, The Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics (1982)

Roderick Hindery, Comparative Ethics in Hindu and Buddhist Traditions (1978)

Michael Pye, Skilful Means: A Concept in Mahayana Buddhism (1978)

Unto Tahtinen, Ahimsa: Non-Violence in Indian Tradition (1976)

Shundo Tachibana, The Ethics of Buddhism (1975)

Winston King, In the Hope of Nibbana: An Essay on Theravada Buddhist Ethics (1964)

All the varied forms of Buddhism embody an ethical core that is remarkably consistent. Articulated by the historical Buddha in his first sermon, this moral core is founded on the concept of karma--that intentions and actions have future consequences for an individual--and is summarized as Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood, three of the elements of the Eightfold Path. Although they were later elaborated and interpreted in a multitude of ways, none of these core principles were ever abandoned. This work provides a comprehensive overview of the field of Buddhist ethics in the twenty-first century. It discusses the foundations of Buddhist ethics, focusing on karma and the precepts for abstinence from harming others, stealing, and intoxication. It considers ethics in the different Buddhist traditions and the similarities they share, and compares Buddhist ethics to Western ethics and the psychology of moral judgments. The volume also investigates Buddhism and society, analysing economics, environmental ethics, and Just War ethics. The final section focuses on contemporary issues surrounding Buddhist ethics, including gender, sexuality, animal rights, and euthanasia.

Here is a lucid, accessible, and inspiring guide to the six perfections--Buddhist teachings about six dimensions of human character that require "perfecting": generosity, morality, tolerance, energy, meditation, and wisdom. Drawing on the Diamond Sutra, the Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom, and other essential Mahayana texts, Dale Wright shows how these teachings were understood and practiced in classical Mahayana Buddhism and how they can be adapted to contemporary life in a global society. What would the perfection of generosity look like today, for example? What would it mean to give with neither ulterior motives nor naiveté? Devoting a separate chapter to each of the six perfections, Wright combines sophisticated analysis with real-life applications. Buddhists have always stressed self-cultivation and the freedom of human beings to shape their own lives. For those interested in ideals of human character and practices of self-cultivation, this work offers invaluable guidance.

This book explores the Buddhist view of death and its implications for contemporary bioethics. Writing primarily from within the Tibetan tradition, Tsomo discusses Buddhist notions of human consciousness and personal identity and how these figure in the Buddhist view of death. Beliefs about death and enlightenment and states between life and death are also discussed. Tsomo goes on to examine such hot-button topics as cloning, abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, organ donation, genetic engineering, and stem-cell research within a Buddhist context, introducing new ways of thinking about these highly controversial issues.

With this work, Obeyesekere embarks on the very first comparison of rebirth concepts across a wide range of cultures. Exploring in rich detail the beliefs of small-scale societies of West Africa, Melanesia, traditional Siberia, Canada, and the northwest coast of North America, Obeyesekere compares their ideas with those of the ancient and modern Indic civilizations and with the Greek rebirth theories of Pythagoras, Empedocles, Pindar, and Plato. His groundbreaking and authoritative discussion decenters the popular notion that India was the origin and locus of ideas of rebirth. As he compares responses to the most fundamental questions of human existence, the author challenges readers to reexamine accepted ideas about death, cosmology, morality, and eschatology. Obeyesekere's comprehensive inquiry shows that diverse societies have come through independent invention or borrowing to believe in reincarnation as an integral part of their larger cosmological systems. The author brings together into a coherent methodological framework the thought of such diverse thinkers as Weber, Wittgenstein, and Nietzsche. In a contemporary intellectual context that celebrates difference and cultural relativism, this book makes a case for disciplined comparison, a humane view of human nature, and a theoretical understanding of "family resemblances" and differences across great cultural divides.

Gender, Sexuality, Reproduction, and Children

Jacoby Ballard, A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation (2022)

Ute Hüsken, Laughter, Creativity, and Perseverance: Female Agency in Buddhism and Hinduism (2022)

Elisabeth A. Benard, The Sakya Jetsunmas: The Hidden World of Tibetan Female Lamas (2022)

Darcy Flynn (ed.), Buddhism and Women: In the Middle Way (2022)

Kodo Nishimura, This Monk Wears Heels: Be Who You Are (2022)

Rachael Stevens, Red Tara: The Female Buddha of Power and Magnetism (2022)

Stephanie Guyer-Stevens & Françoise Pommaret, Divine Messengers: The Untold Story of Bhutan's Female Shamans (2021)

Alice Collett, I Hear Her Words: An Introduction to Women in Buddhism (2021)

Wendy Garling, The Woman Who Raised the Buddha: The Extraordinary Life of Mahaprajapati (2021)

Carola Roloff, The Buddhist Nun´s Ordination in the Tibetan Canon: Possibilities of the Revival of the Mulasarvastivada Bhiksuni Lineage (2021)

Vanessa R. Sasson, Yasodhara and the Buddha (2021)

Mayumi Oda, Sarasvati's Gift: The Autobiography of Mayumi Oda - Artist, Activist, and Modern Buddhist Revolutionary (2020)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Women in Buddhist Traditions (2020)

Matty Weingast, The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns (2020)

Jan Willis, Dharma Matters: Women, Race, and Tantra (2020)

Sokthan Yeng, Buddhist Feminism: Transforming Anger Against Patriarchy (2020)

Anne Cushman, The Mama Sutra: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Pain of Motherhood (2019)

Martin Seeger, Gender and the Path to Awakening: Hidden Histories of Nuns in Modern Thai Buddhism (2018)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo (ed.), Buddhist Feminisms and Femininities (2019)

Gendun Chopel, The Passion Book: A Tibetan Guide to Love & Sex, trans. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (2018)

Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Object Relations, Buddhism, and Relationality in Womanist Practical Theology (2018)

Amy Paris Langenberg, Birth in Buddhism: The Suffering Fetus and Female Freedom (2017)

Karen Muldoon-Hules, Brides of the Buddha: Nuns' Stories from the Avadanasataka (2017)

Bhikkhu Analayo, The Foundation History of the Nuns' Order (2016)

Anna Andreeva & Dominic Steavu (eds.), Transforming the Void: Embryological Discourse and Reproductive Imagery in East Asian Religions (2016)

Wendy Garling, Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha's Life (2016)

Kamalamani, Other Than Mother: Choosing Childlessness with Life in Mind (2016)

Ashley Thompson, Engendering the Buddhist State: Territory, Sovereignty and Sexual Difference in the Inventions of Angkor (2016)

Pascale Engelmajer, Women in Pali Buddhism: Walking the Spiritual Paths in Mutual Dependence (2015)

Rosemarie Freeney Harding & Rachel Elizabeth Harding, Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism, and Mothering (2015)

Jennifer McWeeny & Ashby Butnor (eds.), Asian and Feminist Philosophies in Dialogue: Liberating Traditions (2014)

Andrea Miller (ed.), Buddha's Daughters: Teachings from Women Who Are Shaping Buddhism in the West (2014)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo (ed.), Eminent Buddhist Women (2014)

Kathryn R. Blackstone, Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therigatha (2013)

Florence Caplow & Susan Moon (eds.), The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women (2013)

Nirmala S. Salgado, Buddhist Nuns and Gendered Practice: In Search of the Female Renunciant (2013)

Bardwell L. Smith, Narratives of Sorrow and Dignity: Japanese Women, Pregnancy Loss, and Modern Rituals of Grieving (2013)

Reiko Ohnuma, Ties That Bind: Maternal Imagery and Discourse in Indian Buddhism (2012)

Vanessa R. Sasson (ed.), Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions (2012)

Paula Arai, Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Heart of Japanese Women's Rituals (2011)

Hsiao-Lan Hu, This-Worldly Nibbana: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community (2011)

Lori Rachelle Meeks, Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan (2010)

Thea Mohr & Jampa Tsedroen (eds.), Dignity and Discipline: Reviewing Full Ordination for Buddhist Nuns (2010)

Mohan Wijayaratna, Buddhist Nuns: The Birth and Development of a Women's Monastic Order (2010)

Christina Feldman, Woman Awake: Women Practicing Buddhism (2009)

Rita M. Gross, A Garland of Feminist Reflections: Forty Years of Religious Exploration (2009)

Grace Schireson, Zen Women: Beyond Tea Ladies, Iron Maidens, and Macho Masters (2009)

Andrea Whittaker, Abortion, Sin and the State in Thailand (2009)

Frances Mary Garrett, Religion, Medicine and the Human Embryo in Tibet (2008)

Sara Burns, A Path for Parents: What Buddhism Can Offer (2007)

Peter N. Gregory & Susanne Mrozik (eds.), Women Practicing Buddhism: American Experiences (2007)

Maura O'Halloran, Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind: The Life and Letters of an Irish Zen Saint (2007)

Sallie Tisdale, Women of the Way: Discovering 2,500 Years of Buddhist Wisdom (2007)

Martine Batchelor & Son'gyong Sunim, Women in Korean Zen: Lives and Practices (2006)

Sandy Boucher, Dancing in the Dharma: The Life and Teachings of Ruth Denison (2006)

Wei-Yi Cheng, Buddhist Nuns in Taiwan and Sri Lanka: A Critique of the Feminist Perspective (2006)

Alexandra David-Néel, My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City (2005)

Kim Gutschow, Being a Buddhist Nun: The Struggle for Enlightenment in the Himalayas (2004)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Buddhist Women and Social Justice: Ideals, Challenges, and Achievements (2004)

Bernard Faure, The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity and Gender (2003)

Beata Grant, Daughters of Emptiness: Poems of Chinese Buddhist Nuns (2003)

Hugh B. Urban, Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion (2003)

Martine Batchelor, Women on the Buddhist Path (2002)

Susan Murcott, First Buddhist Women: Poems and Stories of Awakening (2002)

Sid Brown, The Journey of One Buddhist Nun: Even Against the Wind (2001)

Rita M. Gross & Rosemary Radford Ruether, Religious Feminism and the Future of the Planet: A Christian-Buddhist Conversation (2001)

Ranjini Obeyesekere (trans.), Portraits of Buddhist Women: Stories from the Saddharmaratnaavaliya (2001)

Tsültrim Allione, Women of Wisdom (2000)

Sandy Boucher, Discovering Kwan Yin, Buddhist Goddess of Compassion: A Path Towards Clarity and Peace (2000)

Mandakranta Bose (ed.), Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India (2000)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Innovative Buddhist Women: Swimming Against the Stream (2000)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Buddhist Women Across Cultures: Realizations (1999)

Sandy Boucher, Opening the Lotus: A Woman's Guide to Buddhism (1998)

Alan Cole, Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism (1998)

Bernard Faure, The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality (1998)

Chamindaji gamage, buddhism and sensuality: as recorded in the theravada canon (1998).

Rita M. Gross, Soaring and Settling: Buddhist Perspectives on Contemporary Social and Religious Issues (1998)

Lenore Friedman & Susan Moon (eds.), Being Bodies: Buddhist Women on the Paradox of Embodiment (1997)

Helen Hardacre, Marketing the Menacing Fetus in Japan (1997)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Sisters in Solitude: Two Traditions of Buddhist Monastic Ethics for Women (1997)

Martine Batchelor, Walking on Lotus Flowers: Buddhist Women Living, Loving and Meditating (1996)

Marianne Dresser (ed.), Buddhist Women on the Edge: Contemporary Perspectives from the Western Frontier (1996)

Liz Wilson, Charming Cadavers: Horrific Figurations of the Feminine in Indian Buddhist Hagiographic Literature (1996)

Anne C. Klein, Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self (1995)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo (ed.), Buddhism Through American Women's Eyes (1995)

L.p.n. perera, sexuality in ancient india: a study based on the pali vinayapitaka (1993).

Rita M. Gross, Buddhism after Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism (1992)

Susan Murcott, The First Buddhist Women (1992)

José Ignacio Cabezón (ed.), Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender (1991)

I. B. Horner, Women under Primitive Buddhism: Laywomen and Almswomen (1990)

John Stevens, Lust for Enlightenment: Buddhism and Sex (1990)

Janice Willis (ed.), Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet (1989)

Sandy Boucher, Turning the Wheel: American Women Creating the New Buddhism (1988)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo (ed.), Sakyadhita: Daughters of the Buddha (1988)

Lenore Friedman, Meetings with Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America (1987)

Deborah Hopkinson, Not Mixing Up Buddhism: Essays on Women and Buddhism (1987)

Diana m. paul, women in buddhism: images of the feminine in the mahayana tradition (1985), diana m. paul, the buddhist feminine ideal (1980).

Recent decades have seen a transnational agitation for better opportunities for Buddhist women. Many of the main players in this movement self-identify as feminists, but other participants in this movement may not know or use the language of feminism. In fact, many ordained Buddhist women say they seek higher ordination so that they might be better Buddhist practitioners, not for the sake of gender equality. Eschewing the backward projection of secular liberal feminist categories, this book describes the basic features of the Buddhist discourse of the female body, held more or less in common across sectarian lines, and still pertinent to ordained Buddhist women today. The textual focus of the study is an early-first-millennium Sanskrit Buddhist work, the "Descent into the Womb Scripture" or Garbhāvakrānti-sūtra. Drawing out the implications of this text, the author offers innovative arguments about the significance of childbirth and fertility in Buddhism, namely that birth is a master metaphor in Indian Buddhism; that Buddhist gender constructions are centrally shaped by Buddhist birth discourse; and that, by undermining the religious importance of female fertility, the Buddhist construction of an inauspicious, chronically impure, and disgusting femininity constituted a portal to a new, liberated, feminine life for Buddhist monastic women.

Based on extensive research in Sri Lanka and interviews with Theravada and Tibetan nuns from around the world, Salgado's groundbreaking study urges a rethinking of female renunciation. How are scholarly accounts complicit in reinscribing imperialist stories about the subjectivity of Buddhist women? How do key Buddhist "concepts" such as dukkha, samsara, and sila ground female renunciant practice? Salgado's provocative analysis questions the secular notion of the higher ordination of nuns as a political movement for freedom against patriarchal norms. Arguing that the lives of nuns defy translation into a politics of global sisterhood equal before law, she calls for more-nuanced readings of nuns' everyday renunciant practices.

Consideration of children in the academic field of Religious Studies is taking root, but Buddhist Studies has yet to take notice. This book brings together a wide range of scholarship and expertise to address the question of what role children have played in Buddhist literature, in particular historical contexts, and what role they continue to play in specific Buddhist contexts today. The volume is divided into two parts, one addressing the representation of children in Buddhist texts, the other children and childhoods in Buddhist cultures around the world. The ground-breaking contributions in this volume challenge the perception of irreconcilable differences between Buddhist idealism and family ties. This work will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars of Buddhism and Childhood Studies, and a catalyst for further research on the topic.

Rita M. Gross has long been acknowledged as a founder in the field of feminist theology. One of the earliest scholars in religious studies to discover how feminism affects that discipline, she is recognized as preeminent in Buddhist feminist theology. The essays in this book represent the major aspects of her work and provide an overview of her methodology in women's studies in religion and feminism. The introductory article, written specifically for this volume, summarizes the conclusions Gross has reached about gender and feminism after forty years of searching and exploring, and the autobiography, also written for this volume, narrates how those conclusions were reached. These articles reveal the range of scholarship and reflection found in Gross's work and demonstrate how feminist scholars in the 1970s shifted the paradigm away from an androcentric model of humanity and forever changed the way we study religion.

Enlightenment & Enlightened Beings

Dale S. Wright, What Is Buddhist Enlightenment? (2016)

Soon-il Hwang, Metaphor and Literalism in Buddhism: The Doctrinal History of Nirvana (2012)

Alan Sponberg & Helen Hardacre (eds.), Maitreya: The Future Buddha (2011)

Bhikkhu Analayo, The Genesis of the Bodhisattva Ideal (2010)

Steven Collins, Nirvana: Concept, Imagery, Narrative (2010)

Guang Xing, The Concept of the Buddha: Its Evolution from Early Buddhism to the Trikaya Theory (2010)

Jan Nattier, A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path According to the Inquiry of Ugra (2005)

Sangharakshita, Wisdom Beyond Words: The Buddhist Vision of Ultimate Reality (2004)

Steven Collins, Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities: Utopias of the Pali Imaginaire (1998)

Ulrich Pagel, The Bodhisattvapitaka: Its Doctrines, Practices and Their Position in Mahayana Literature (1995)

Cheng Chien, Manifestation of the Tathagata: Buddhahood According to the Avatamsaka Sutra (1993)

Sallie B. King, Buddha Nature (1991)

David Seyfort Ruegg, Buddha-Nature, Mind and the Problem of Gradualism in a Comparative Perspective (1989)

Sung Bae Park, Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment (1983)

Nathan Katz, Buddhist Images of Human Perfection: The Arahant of the Sutta Pitaka compared with the Bodhisattva and the Mahasiddha (1982)

Leslie Kawamura (ed.), The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism (1981)

Theodor Stcherbatsky, The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana. With Sanskrit Text of the Madhyamaka-karika, 2nd rev. ed. (1977)

Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature (1970)

Rune E. A. Johansson, The Psychology of Nirvana: A Comparative Study (1970)

G.R. Welbon, The Buddhist Nirvana and Its Western Interpreters (1968)

Robert L. Slater, Paradox and Nirvana: A Study of Religious Ultimates with Special Reference to Burmese Buddhism (1951)

Julius Evola, The Doctrine of Awakening: The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to the Earliest Buddhist Texts (1943)

Law, Politics, War, and Violence

Stephanie Balkwill & James A. Benn (eds.), Buddhist Statecraft in East Asia (2022)

Tom Ginsburg & Benjamin Schonthal (eds.), Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law (2022)

William J. Long, A Buddhist Approach to International Relations: Radical Interdependence (2021)

George Yancy & Emily McRae (eds.), Buddhism and Whiteness: Critical Reflections (2019)

Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Essays on Buddhism, Politics, and Violence (2018)

D. Christian Lammerts, Buddhist Law in Burma: A History of Dhammasattha Texts and Jurisprudence (2018)

Padmasiri de Silva, The Psychology of Buddhism in Conflict Studies (2017)

Hiroko Kawanami (ed.), Buddhism and the Political Process (2016)

Matthew J. Moore, Buddhism and Political Theory (2016)

Wayne R. Husted & Damien Keown (eds.), Buddhism and Human Rights (2015)

Rebecca Redwood French & Mark A. Nathan (eds.), Buddhism and Law: An Introduction (2014)

Hiroko Kawanami & Geoffrey Samuel (eds.), Buddhism, International Relief Work, and Civil Society (2013)

Vincent Eltschinger, Caste and Buddhist Philosophy: Continuity of Some Buddhist Arguments against the Realist Interpretation of Social Denominations (2012)

Melvin McLeod (ed.), Mindful Politics: A Buddhist Guide to Making the World a Better Place (2012)

Vladimir Tikhonov & Torkel Brekke (eds.), Buddhism and Violence: Militarism and Buddhism in Modern Asia (2012)

Michael K. Jerryson & Mark Juergensmeyer (eds.), Buddhist Warfare (2010)

Carmen Meinert, Hans-Bernd Zöllner (eds.), Buddhist Approaches to Human Rights: Dissonances and Resonances (2010)

Brian D. Victoria, Zen at War (2006)

Susan Moon, Not Turning Away: The Practice of Engaged Buddhism (2004)

Brian D. Victoria, Zen War Stories (2003)

Tessa J. Bartholomeusz, In Defense of Dharma: Just-War Ideology in Buddhist Sri Lanka (2002)

Andrew Huxley, Religion, Law and Tradition: Comparative Studies in Religious Law (2002)

Daisaku Ikeda, For the Sake of Peace: Seven Paths to Global Harmony: A Buddhist Perspective (2002)

Ian Harris (ed.), Buddhism and Politics in Twentieth Century Asia (2001)

Jan E.M. Houben & Karel R. Van Kooj (eds.), Violence Denied: Violence, Non-Violence and the Rationalization of Violence in South Asian Cultural History (1999)

David R. Loy, The Great Awakening: A Buddhist Social Theory (1997)

Kenneth Kraft (ed.), Inner Peace, World Peace: Essays on Buddhism and Nonviolence (1992)

Glenn D. Paige & Sarah Gilliatt, Buddhism and Non-Violent Global Problem-Solving: Ulan Bator Explorations (1991)

Unto tahtinen, non-violent theories of punishment: indian and western (1983).

Burma and neighboring areas of Southeast Asia comprise the only region of the world to have developed a written corpus of Buddhist law claiming jurisdiction over all members of society. Yet in contrast with the extensive scholarship on Islamic and Hindu law, this tradition of Buddhist law has been largely overlooked. In fact, it is commonplace to read that Buddhism gave rise to no law aside from the vinaya, or monastic law. In this book, Lammerts upends this misperception and provides an intellectual and literary history of the dynamic jurisprudence of the dhammasattha legal genre between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries. Based on a critical study of hundreds of little-known surviving dhammasattha and related manuscripts, the work demonstrates the centrality of law as a crucial discipline of Buddhist knowledge in precolonial Southeast Asia. Lammerts argues that there were multiple, sometimes contentious, modes of reckoning Buddhist jurisprudence and legal authority in the region and assesses these in the context of local cultural, textual, and ritual practices. Over time, the foundational jurisprudence of the genre underwent considerable reformulation in light of arguments raised by its critics, bibliographers, and historians, resulting in a reorientation from a cosmological to a more positivist conception of Buddhist law and legislation that had far-reaching implications for innovative forms of dhammasattha -related discourse on the eve of British colonialism. Lammerts' book shows how, despite such textual and theoretical transformations, late precolonial Burmese jurists continued to promote and justify the dhammasattha genre, and the role of law generally in Buddhism, as a vital aspect of the ongoing effort to protect and preserve the sāsana of Gotama Buddha.

As the first comprehensive study of Buddhism and law in Asia, this interdisciplinary volume challenges the concept of Buddhism as an apolitical religion without implications for law. This collection draws on the expertise of the foremost scholars in Buddhist studies and in law to trace the legal aspects of the religion from the time of the Buddha to the present. In some cases, Buddhism provided the crucial architecture for legal ideologies and secular law codes, while in other cases it had to contend with a preexisting legal system, to which it added a new layer of complexity. The wide-ranging studies in this book reveal a diversity of relationships between Buddhist monastic codes and secular legal systems in terms of substantive rules, factoring, and ritual practices. This volume will be an essential resource for all students and teachers in Buddhist studies, law and religion, and comparative law.

Though traditionally regarded as a peaceful religion, Buddhism has a dark side. On multiple occasions over the past fifteen centuries, Buddhist leaders have sanctioned violence, and even war. The eight essays in this book focus on a variety of Buddhist traditions, from antiquity to the present, and show that Buddhist organizations have used religious images and rhetoric to support military conquest throughout history. Buddhist soldiers in sixth century China were given the illustrious status of Bodhisattva after killing their adversaries. In seventeenth century Tibet, the Fifth Dalai Lama endorsed a Mongol ruler's killing of his rivals. And in modern-day Thailand, Buddhist soldiers carry out their duties undercover, as fully ordained monks armed with guns. This work demonstrates that the discourse on religion and violence, usually applied to Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, can no longer exclude Buddhist traditions. The book examines Buddhist military action in Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and shows that even the most unlikely and allegedly pacifist religious traditions are susceptible to the violent tendencies of man.

The "golden yoke" of Buddhist Tibet was the last medieval legal system still in existence in the middle of the twentieth century. This book reconstructs that system as a series of layered narratives from the memories of people who participated in the daily operation of law in the houses and courtyards the offices and courts of Tibet prior to 1959. The practice of law in this unique legal world, which lacked most of our familiar sign posts, ranged from the fantastic use of oracles in the search for evidence to the more mundane presentation of cases in court. Buddhism and law, two topics rarely intertwined in Western consciousness, are at the center of this work. The Tibetan legal system was based on Buddhist philosophy and reflected Buddhist thought in legal practice and decision making. For Tibetans, law is a cosmology, a kaleidoscopic patterning of relations which is constantly changing, recycling, and re-forming even as it integrates the universe and the individual into a timeless mandalic whole. This work causes us to rethink American legal culture. It argues that in the United States, legal matters are segregated into a separate space with rigidly defined categories. The legal cosmology of Buddhist Tibet brings into question both this autonomous framework and most of the presumptions we have about the very nature of law from precedent and res judicata to rule formation and closure.

The Literature of Buddhism

Michihiro Ama, The Awakening of Modern Japanese Fiction: Path Literature and the Interpretation of Buddhism (2021)

John Brehm, The Dharma of Poetry: How Poems Can Deepen Your Spiritual Practice and Open You to Joy (2021)

Karen Derris, Storied Companions: Cancer, Trauma, and Discovering Guides for Living in Buddhist Narratives (2021)

Ven. K.L. Dhammajoti, Reading Buddhist Sanskrit Texts: An Elementary Grammatical Guide, 4th ed. (2021)

Natalie Gummer (ed.), The Language of the Sutras: Essays in Honor of Luis Gómez (2021)

Stefan Larsson & Kristoffer af Edholm, Songs on the Road: Wandering Religious Poets in India, Tibet, and Japan (2021)

Eviatar Shulman, Visions of the Buddha: Creative Dimensions of Early Buddhist Scripture (2021)

Chunwen Hao, Dunhuang Manuscripts: An Introduction to Texts from the Silk Road (2020)

Rafal K. Stepien (ed.), Buddhist Literature as Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy as Literature (2020)

Dominique Julien, Borges, Buddhism, and World Literature: A Morphology of Renunciation Tales (2019)

Naomi Appleton, Shared Characters in Jain, Buddhist and Hindu Narrative: Gods, Kings and Other Heroes (2016)

Hildegard Diemberger et al (eds.), Tibetan Printing: Comparison, Continuities, and Change (2016)

Naomi Appleton, Narrating Karma and Rebirth: Buddhist and Jain Multi-Life Stories (2015)

Jae-Seong Lee, Postmodern Ethics, Emptiness, and Literature (2015)

Lawrence Normand & Alison Winch (eds.), Encountering Buddhism in Twentieth-Century British and American Literature (2015)

Agnieszka Helman-Wazny, The Archaeology of Tibetan Books (2014)

Kurtis R. Schaeffer, The Culture of the Book in Tibet (2014)

Jinah Kim, Receptacle of the Sacred: Illustrated Manuscripts and the Buddhist Book Cult in South Asia (2013)

Richard S. Cohen, The Splendid Vision: Reading a Buddhist Sutra (2012)

Stephen C. Berkwitz et al (eds.), Buddhist Manuscript Cultures: Knowledge, Ritual, and Art (2011)

John Whalen-Bridge & Gary Storhoff (eds.), Writing as Enlightenment: Buddhist American Literature into the Twenty-First Century (2011)

John Whalen-Bridge & Gary Storhoff (eds.), The Emergence of Buddhist American Literature (2009)

Ralph Flores, Buddhist Scriptures as Literature: Sacred Rhetoric and the Uses of Theory (2008)

Richard F. Gombrich & Cristina Scherrer-Schaub (eds.), Buddhist Studies: Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference, Vol. 8 (2008)

Deborah Klimburg-Salter et al (eds.), Text, Image and Song in Transdisciplinary Dialogue (2007)

Jeff Humphries, Reading Emptiness: Buddhism and Literature (1999)

Milton C. Winternitz, History of Indian Literature, Volume II: Buddhist and Jaina Literature (1999)

Kogen Mizuno, Buddhist Sutras: Origin, Development, Transmission (1989)

Donald S. Lopez (ed.), Buddhist Hermeneutics (1988)

Roy C. Amore & Larry D. Shinn (ed. & trans.), Lustful Maidens and Ascetic Kings: Buddhist and Hindu Stories of Life (1981)

Shinsho Hanayama, Bibliography on Buddhism (1961)

Buddhism and Jainism share the concepts of karma, rebirth, and the desirability of escaping from rebirth. The literature of both traditions contains many stories about past, and sometimes future, lives which reveal much about these foundational doctrines. Naomi Appleton carefully explores how multi-life stories served to construct, communicate, and challenge ideas about karma and rebirth within early South Asia, examining portrayals of the different realms of rebirth, the potential paths and goals of human beings, and the biographies of ideal religious figures. Appleton also deftly surveys the ability of karma to bind individuals together over multiple lives, and the nature of the supernormal memory that makes multi-life stories available in the first place. This original study not only sheds light on the individual preoccupations of Buddhist and Jain tradition, but contributes to a more complete history of religious thought in South Asia.

In considering medieval illustrated Buddhist manuscripts as sacred objects of cultic innovation, this book explores how and why the South Asian Buddhist book-cult has survived for almost two millennia to the present. A book "manuscript" should be understood as a form of sacred space: a temple in microcosm, not only imbued with divine presence but also layered with the memories of many generations of users. Kim argues that illustrating a manuscript with Buddhist imagery not only empowered it as a three-dimensional sacred object, but also made it a suitable tool for the spiritual transformation of medieval Indian practitioners. Through a detailed historical analysis, she suggests that while Buddhism’s disappearance in eastern India was a slow and gradual process, the Buddhist book-cult played an important role in sustaining its identity. In addition, by examining the physical traces left by later Nepalese users and the contemporary ritual use of the book in Nepal, Kim shows how human agency was critical in perpetuating and intensifying the potency of a manuscript as a sacred object throughout time.

This work explores how religious and cultural practices in premodern Asia were shaped by literary and artistic traditions as well as by Buddhist material culture. This study of Buddhist texts focuses on the significance of their material forms rather than their doctrinal contents, and examines how and why they were made. Collectively, the book offers cross-cultural and comparative insights into the transmission of Buddhist knowledge and the use of texts and images as ritual objects in the artistic and aesthetic traditions of Buddhist cultures. Drawing on case studies from India, Gandhara, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Mongolia, China and Nepal, the chapters included investigate the range of interests and values associated with producing and using written texts, and the roles manuscripts and images play in the transmission of Buddhist texts and in fostering devotion among Buddhist communities. Contributions are by reputed scholars in Buddhist Studies and represent diverse disciplinary approaches from religious studies, art history, anthropology, and history.

This work connects ancient Buddhist attitudes and ideas with postmodern theory and aesthetics, concluding that the closest thing in Western culture to the Middle Way of Buddhism is not any sort of theory or philosophy, but the practice of literature. The book draws on scholarship and criticism in literary theory, philosophy, and science to speculate about the possible common ground between literary and Buddhist practices, aiming not so much to elucidate the ancient traditions of Buddhism as to seek ways in which literature might be integrated into a truly Western practice of Buddhism that would remain philosophically true to its Eastern roots.

Language, Logic, and Semiotics

Eun-Su Cho, Language and Meaning: Buddhist Interpretations of the "Buddha's Word" in Indian and East Asian Perspectives (2020)

Manel Herat (ed.), Buddhism and Linguistics: Theory and Philosophy (2017)

Sangharakshita, Metaphors, Magic, and Mystery: An Anthology of Writings and Teachings on Words and Their Relation to the Truth (2015)

Koji Tanaka et al (eds.), The Moon Points Back (2015)

Youxuan Wang, Buddhism and Deconstruction: Towards a Comparative Semiotics (2015)

Jayant Burde, Buddhist Logic and Quantum Dilemma (2012)

The Cowherds, Moonshadows: Conventional Truth in Buddhist Philosophy (2010)

Jay L. Garfield et al (eds.), Pointing at the Moon: Buddhism, Logic, Analytic Philosophy (2009)

Jin Y. Park (ed.), Buddhisms and Deconstructions (2006)

Alex Wayman, A Millennium of Buddhist Logic (1999)

Asanga tilakaratne, nirvana and ineffability: a study of the buddhist theory of reality and language (1993).

R.S.Y. Chi, Buddhist Formal Logic: A Study of Dignaga's Hetucakra and K'uei-chi's Great Commentary on the Nyayapravesa (1990)

Joan Stambaugh, The Real Is Not the Rational (1986)

G.M. Sprung (ed.), The Problem of Two Truths in Buddhism and Vedanta (1973)

T. Stcherbatsky, Buddhist Logic, 2 vols. (1962)

Meditation, Mindfulness, and Insight

Bhikkhu Analayo, Developments in Buddhist Meditation Traditions: The Interplay Between Theory and Practice (2022)

L.S. Cousins, Meditations of the Pali Tradition: Illuminating Buddhist Doctrine, History, and Practice, ed. Sarah Shaw (2022)

Paul Dennison, Jhana Consciousness: Buddhist Meditation in the Age of Neuroscience (2022)

Geshe YongDong Losar, Calm Breath, Calm Mind: A Guide to the Healing Power of Breath, ed. Bernadette Wyton (2022)

B. Alan Wallace, The Art of Transforming the Mind: A Meditator’s Guide to the Tibetan Practice of Lojong (2022)

Karen O'Brien-Kop, Rethinking 'Classical Yoga' and Buddhism: Meditation, Metaphors and Materiality (2021)

Vajradevi, Uncontrived Mindfulness: Ending Suffering Through Attention, Curiosity, and Wisdom (2021)

B. Alan Wallace, Minding Closely: The Four Applications of Mindfulness (2021)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Introducing Mindfulness: The Buddhist Background and Practical Exercises (2020)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Mindfulness in Early Buddhism: Characteristics and Functions (2020)

Will Johnson, The Posture of Meditation: A Practical Manual for Meditators of All Traditions (2020)

Sarah Shaw, Mindfulness: Where It Comes From and What It Means (2020)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Mindfulness of Breathing: A Practice Guide and Translations (2019)

Tullio Giraldi, Psychotherapy, Mindfulness and Buddhist Meditation (2019)

Michal Pagis, Inward: Vipassana Meditation and the Embodiment of the Self (2019)

Paramananda, The Myth of Meditation: Restoring Imaginal Ground through Embodied Buddhist Practice (2019)

Ronald Purser, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality (2019)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Satipatthana Meditation: A Practice Guide (2018)

John Blofeld, Gateway to Wisdom: Taoist and Buddhist Contemplative and Healing Yogas (2018)

Ratnaguna Hennessey, The Art of Reflection: A Guide to Thinking, Contemplation and Insight on the Buddhist Path (2018)

Hyun-soo Jeon, Samatha, Jhana, and Vipassana. Practice at the Pa-Auk Monastery: A Meditator's Experience, trans. HaNul Jun (2018)

Jack Kornfield & Joseph Goldstein, The Path of Insight Meditation (2018)

Jaime Kucinskas, The Mindful Elite: Mobilizing from the Inside Out (2018)

Lenart Skof & Petri Berndtson (eds.), Atmospheres of Breathing (2018)

Henry Vyner, The Healthy Mind: Mindfulness, True Self, and the Stream of Consciousness (2018)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Mindfully Facing Disease and Death: Compassionate Advice from Early Buddhist Texts (2017)

Keren Arbel, Early Buddhist Meditation: The Four Jhanas as the Actualization of Insight (2017)

Guy Armstrong, Emptiness: A Practical Introduction for Meditators (2017)

Peter Doran, A Political Economy of Attention, Mindfulness and Consumption: Reclaiming the Mindful Commons (2017)

Halvor Eifring (ed.), Meditation and Culture: The Interplay of Practice and Context (2017)

Paramabandhu Groves & Jed Shamel, Mindful Emotion: A Short Course in Kindness (2017)

Bhikkhu Phra Khantipalo, Calm and Insight: A Buddhist Manual for Meditators (2017)

Erik Braun, The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw (2016)

Bob Chisholm & Jeff Harrison (eds.), The Wisdom of Not-Knowing: Essays on Psychotherapy, Buddhism, and Life Experience (2016)

Mahasi Sayadaw, Manual of Insight, trans. Steve Armstrong (2016)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation (2015)

Richard P. Boyle, Realizing Awakened Consciousness: Interviews with Buddhist Teachers and a New Perspective on the Mind (2015)

Leigh Brasington, Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas (2015)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Perspectives on Satipatthana (2014)

Manu Bazzano (ed.), After Mindfulness: New Perspectives on Psychology and Meditation (2014)

Amanda Ie et al (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Mindfulness, 2 vols. (2014)

Sarah Shaw, The Spirit of Buddhist Meditation (2014)

Lama Dudjom Dorjee, Stillness, Insight, and Emptiness: Buddhist Meditation from the Ground Up (2013)

J. Mark G. Williams & Jon Kabat-Zinn (eds.), Mindfulness: Diverse Perspectives on Its Meaning, Origins and Applications (2013)

Jinananda, Meditating: A Buddhist View (2012)

Kamalashila, Buddhist Meditation: Tranquillity, Imagination and Insight (2012)

Joe Loizzo, Sustainable Happiness: The Mind Science of Well-Being, Altruism, and Inspiration (2012)

Sangharakshita, The Purpose and Practice of Buddhist Meditation: A Sourcebook of Teachings (2012)

Shaila Catherine, Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana (2011)

Judith Simmer-Brown & Fran Grace (eds.), Meditation and the Classroom: Contemplative Pedagogy for Religious Studies (2011)

Cynthia Thatcher, Just Seeing: Insight Meditation and Sense-Perception (2011)

Bodhipaksa, Wildmind: A Step-by-Step Guide to Meditation (2010)

Arinna Weisman & Jean Smith, The Beginner's Guide to Insight Meditation (2010)

Thomas Cleary, Minding Mind: A Course in Basic Meditation (2009)

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English: An Introductory Guide to the Jhanas, ed. John Peddicord (2009)

Maitreyabandhu, Life with Full Attention: A Practical Course in Mindfulness (2009)

Stephen Snyder & Tina Rasmussen, Practicing the Jhanas: Traditional Concentration Meditation As Presented by the Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw (2009)

Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation (2009)

Richard Shankman, The Experience of Samadhi: An In-Depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation (2008)

Sarah Shaw, Introduction to Buddhist Meditation (2008)

Ajahn Brahmavamso, Ajahn Nyanadhammo, & Dharma Dorje, Walking Meditation: Three Expositions (2007)

Gregory Kramer, Insight Dialogue: The Interpersonal Path to Freedom (2007)

Toni Packer, The Silent Question: Meditating in the Stillness of Not-Knowing (2007)

Paramananda, The Body: The Art of Meditation (2007)

Ajahn Brahm, Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond: A Meditator's Handbook (2006)

Paramananda, Change Your Mind: A Practical Guide to Buddhist Meditation (2006)

Sarah Shaw, Buddhist Meditation: An Anthology of Texts from the Pali Canon (2006)

Vessantara, The Heart: The Art of Meditation (2006)

Kathleen McDonald, How to Meditate: A Practical Guide (2005)

Vessantara, The Breath: The Art of Meditation (2005)

Bhikkhu Analayo, Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization (2004)

Frits Koster, Liberating Insight: Introduction to Buddhist Psychology and Insight Meditation (2004)

Nagabodhi, Metta: The Practice of Loving Kindness (2004)

Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation (2004)

Sangharakshita, Living with Awareness: A Guide to the Satipatthana Sutta (2004)

Daniel Odier, Meditation Techniques of the Buddhist and Taoist Masters (2003)

John Daishin Buksbazen, Zen Meditation in Plain English (2002)

Bhante Gunaratana, Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Path of the Buddha (2001)

Lewis Richmond, Work as a Spiritual Practice: A Practical Buddhist Approach to Inner Growth and Satisfaction on the Job (2000)

Mitchell Ginsberg, The Far Shore: Vipassana, the Practice of Insight (1999)

A. Charles Muller (trans.), The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment: Korean Buddhism's Guide to Meditation (1999)

Chih-i, Stopping and Seeing: A Comprehensive Course in Buddhist Meditation trans. Thomas Cleary (1997)

Donald K. Swearer, Secrets of the Lotus: Studies in Buddhist Meditation (1997)

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English (1996)

Sayadaw U. Silananda, The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, ed. Ruth-Inge Heinze (1995)

Claude F. Whitmyer (ed.), Mindfulness and Meaningful Work: Explorations in Right Livelihood (1994)

Johannes Bronkhorst, The Two Traditions of Meditation in Ancient India (1993)

Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom (1993)

Amadeo Sole-Leris, Tranquillity and Insight: An Introduction to the Oldest Form of Buddhist Meditation (1992)

Charles Luk, Secrets of Chinese Meditation: Self-Cultivation by Mind Control As Taught in the Ch'an, Mahayana and Taoist Schools in China (1991)

Chögyam Trungpa, Meditation in Action (1991)

Geshe G. Lodro, Walking Through Walls: A Presentation of Tibetan Meditation (1990)

Joseph Goldstein, The Experience of Insight: A Simple and Direct Guide to Buddhist Meditation (1987)

Peter N. Gregory (ed.), Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism (1986)

Paul Griffiths, On Being Mindless: Buddhist Meditation and the Mind-Body Problem (1986)

Bhikkhu Nanamoli, Mindfulness of Breathing: Buddhist Texts from the Pāli Canon and Extracts from the Pali Commentaries (1982)

Nyanaponika Thera (ed. & trans.), The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (1973)

Bhikkhu Soma (ed. & trans.), The Way of Mindfulness: English Translation of the Satipatthana Sutta and Its Commentary (1967)

Edward Conze, Buddhist Meditation (1956)

Western society has never been more interested in interiority. Indeed, it seems more and more people are deliberately looking inward—toward the mind, the body, or both. Pagis’s book focuses on one increasingly popular channel for the introverted gaze: vipassana meditation, which has spread from Burma to more than forty countries and counting. Lacing her account with vivid anecdotes and personal stories, Pagis turns our attention not only to the practice of vipassana but to the communities that have sprung up around it. This work is also a social history of the westward diffusion of Eastern religious practices spurred on by the lingering effects of the British colonial presence in India. At the same time Pagis asks knotty questions about what happens when we continually turn inward, as she investigates the complex relations between physical selves, emotional selves, and our larger social worlds. Her book sheds new light on evergreen topics such as globalization, social psychology, and the place of the human body in the enduring process of self-awareness.

Mindful meditation is now embraced in virtually all corners of society today, from K-12 schools to Fortune 100 companies, and its virtues extolled by national and international media almost daily. It is thought to benefit our health and overall well-being, to counter stress, to help children pay attention, and to foster creativity, productivity and emotional intelligence. Yet in the 1960s and 1970s meditation was viewed as a marginal, counter-cultural practice, or a religious ritual for Asian immigrants. How did mindfulness become mainstream? Kucinskas reveals who is behind the mindfulness movement, and the engine they built to propel mindfulness into public consciousness. Drawing on over a hundred first-hand accounts with top scientists, religious leaders, educators, business people and investors, Kucinskas shows how this highly accomplished, affluent group in America transformed meditation into an appealing set of contemplative practices. Rather than relying on confrontation and protest to make their mark and improve society, the contemplatives sought a cultural revolution by building elite networks and advocating the benefits of meditation across professions. But this idealistic myopia came to reinforce some of the problems it originally aspired to solve. A critical look at this Buddhist-inspired movement, this book explores how elite movements can spread and draws larger lessons for other social, cultural, and religious movements across institutions and organizations.

This book offers a new interpretation of the relationship between 'insight practice' (satipatthana) and the attainment of the four jhanas (i.e., right samadhi ), a key problem in the study of Buddhist meditation. The author challenges the traditional Buddhist understanding of the four jhanas as states of absorption, and shows how these states are the actualization and embodiment of insight (vipassana). It proposes that the four jhanas and what we call 'vipassana' are integral dimensions of a single process that leads to awakening. This book demonstrates that the distinction between the 'practice of serenity' (samatha-bhavana) and the 'practice of insight' (vipassana-bhavana) – a fundamental distinction in Buddhist meditation theory – is not applicable to early Buddhist understanding of the meditative path. It seeks to show that the common interpretation of the jhanas as 'altered states of consciousness', absorptions that do not reveal anything about the nature of phenomena, is incompatible with the teachings of the Pali Nikayas. By carefully analyzing the descriptions of the four jhanas in the early Buddhist texts in Pali, their contexts, associations and meanings within the conceptual framework of early Buddhism, the relationship between this central element in the Buddhist path and 'insight meditation' becomes revealed in all its power. This book will be of interest to scholars of Buddhist studies, Asian philosophies and religions, as well as serious practitioners of insight meditation.

Dharma practice comprises a wide range of wise instructions and skillful means. As a result, meditators may be exposed to a diversity of approaches to the core teachings and the meditative path--and that can be confusing at times. In this clear and accessible exploration, Dharma teacher and longtime meditator Richard Shankman unravels the mix of differing, sometimes conflicting, views and traditional teachings on how samadhi (concentration) is understood and taught. In part one, Richard Shankman explores the range of teachings and views about samadhi in the Theravada Pali tradition, examines different approaches, and considers how they can inform and enrich our meditation practice. Part two consists of a series of interviews with prominent contemporary Theravada and vipassana (insight) Buddhist teachers. These discussions focus on the practical experience of samadhi, bringing the theoretical to life and offering a range of applications.

Monasticism

Stephen J. Davis, Monasticism: A Very Short Introduction (2018)

Susan Andrews et al (eds.), Rules of Engagement: Medieval Traditions of Buddhist Monastic Regulation (2017)

Bhikkhu Khantipalo, Banner of the Arahants: Buddhist Monks and Nuns from the Buddha's Time Till Now (2016)

Jeffrey Samuels, Attracting the Heart: Social Relations and the Aesthetics of Emotion in Sri Lankan Monastic Culture (2016)

Malcolm Voyce, Foucault, Buddhism and Disciplinary Rules (2016)

Bhikkhu Nyanatusita, Analysis of the Bhikkhu Patimokkha (2014)

Bhikkhu Nyanatusita (ed. & trans.), The Bhikkhu Patimokkha: A Word by Word Translation (2014)

Tim Ward, What the Buddha Never Taught (2013)

Jonathan A. Silk, Managing Monks: Administrators and Administrative Roles in Indian Buddhist Monasticism (2008)

Jotiya Dhirasekera, Buddhist Monastic Discipline: A Study of Its Origin and Development in Relation to the Sutta and Vinaya Pitakas (2007)

Li Rongxi & Albert A. Dalia (trans.), Lives of Great Monks and Nuns (2006)

Koichi Shinohara & Phyllis Granoff, Speaking of Monks: From Benares to Beijing (2006)

William Bodiford (ed.), Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya (2005)

Pierre Pichard & Francois Lagirarde, The Buddhist Monastery: A Cross-Cultural Survey (2003)

Ann Heirman, Rules for Nuns According to the Dharmaguptakavinaya: "The Discipline in Four Parts" (2002)

Venerable Bhikshuni Wu Yin, Choosing Simplicity: A Commentary on the Bhikshuni Pratimoksha, ed. Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, trans. Bhikshuni Jendy Shih (2001)

W. Pachow, A Comparative Study of the Pratimoksa: On the Basis of its Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Pali Versions (2000)

Charles S. Prebish, Buddhist Monastic Discipline: The Sanskrit Pratimoksa Sutras of the Mahasamghikas and Mulasarvastivadins (1996)

Charles S. Prebish, A Survey of Vinaya Literature, Volume One (1996)

Thanissaro Bhikkhu, The Buddhist Monastic Code, 2 vols. (1994)

Charles Wei-hsun Fu & Sandra A. Wawrytko (eds.), Buddhist Behavioral Codes and the Modern World (1994)

Gunaratne Panabokke, History of the Buddhist Sangha in India and Sri Lanka (1993)

Sunanda Putuwar, The Buddhist Sangha: Paradigm of the Ideal Human Society (1991)

Mohan Wijayaratna, Buddhist Monastic Life, according to the Texts of the Theravada Tradition (1990)

Walpola Rahula, The Heritage of the Bhikkhu (1987)

Heinz Bechert & Richard Gombrich (eds.), The World of Buddhism: Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Society and Culture (1984)

John C. Holt, Discipline: The Canonical Buddhism of the Vinayapitaka (1983)

Nandasena ratnapala (ed. & trans.), the katikavatas: laws of the buddhist order of ceylon from the 12th century to the 18th century (1971).

Nalinaksha Dutt, Early Monastic Buddhism, 2 vols. (1960)

Sukumar Dutt, Early Buddhist Monachism (1960)

Erich Frauwallner, The Earliest Vinaya and the Beginnings of Buddhist Literature (1956)

Recent years have seen heightened interest in the ritual, juridical, and generally practical aspects of the Buddhist tradition. The contributions to this edited volume build on this trend while venturing beyond the established boundaries of discourse in specialized academic disciplines, presenting state-of-the-art research on the vinaya in all of its breadth and depth. They do so not only by tracing Buddhist textual traditions but also by showcasing the vast variety of practices that are the object of such regulations and throw a new light on the social implications such protocols have had in South, Central, and East Asia.

Vinaya, one of the three main categories of Buddhist scripture, functions not only as a type of canon law, but also as a founding charter for Buddhist institutional practice in East Asia. In its role as a scriptural charter, vinaya has justified widely dissimilar approaches to religious life as Buddhist orders in different times and places have interpreted it in contradictory ways. In the resulting tension between scripture and practice, certain kinds of ceremonial issues acquire profound social, psychological, doctrinal, and soteriological significance in Buddhism. This collection focuses on these issues over a wide sweep of history--from early fifth-century China to modern Japan--to provide readers with a rich overview of the intersection of doctrinal, ritual, and institutional concerns in the development of East Asian Buddhist practices. Despite the crucial importance of vinaya, especially for understanding Buddhism in East Asia, very little scholarship in Western languages exists on this fascinating topic. The essays presented here, written by senior scholars in the field, address how actual people responded to local social and cultural imperatives by reading scripture in innovative ways to give new life to tradition. They place real people, practices, and institutions at the center of each account, revealing both diversity and unity in Buddhist customs.

This work discusses the precepts and lifestyle of fully ordained nuns within the Buddhist tradition. The ordination vows act as guidelines to promote harmony both within the individual and within the community by regulating and thereby simplifying one's relationships to other sangha members and laypeople, as well as to the needs of daily life. Observing these precepts and practicing the Buddhadharma brings incredible benefit to oneself and others. Since the nuns' precepts include those for monks and have additional rules for nuns, this book is useful for anyone interested in monastic life. As a record of women's struggle not only to achieve a life of self-discipline, but also to create harmonious independent religious communities of women, this volume is a pioneering work.

This book provides a vivid and detailed picture of the daily life and religious practices of Buddhist monks and nuns in the classic period of Theravada Buddhism. The author describes the way in which the Buddha's disciples institutionalized and ritualized his teachings about food, dress, money, chastity, solitude, and discipleship. This tradition represents an ideal of religious life that has been followed in India and South Asia for more than two thousand years. The introduction by Steven Collins describes Theravada Buddhist literature, discusses the issue of the historical reliability of the texts, and offers extensive suggestions for further reading. The book will be of interest to scholars and students in Asian studies, religious studies, anthropology, and history.

Medicine & Health

C. Pierce Salguero, A Global History of Buddhism and Medicine (2022)

C. Pierce Salguero & Andrew Macomber (eds.), Buddhist Healing in Medieval China and Japan (2020)

C. Pierce Salguero (ed.), Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Sources (2019)

Katja Triplett, Buddhism and Medicine in Japan: A Topical Survey (500-1600 CE) of a Complex Relationship (2019)

Thomas N. Patton, The Buddha's Wizards: Magic, Protection, and Healing in Burmese Buddhism (2018)

C. Pierce Salguero, Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern Sources (2017)

C. Pierce Salguero, Traditional Thai Medicine: Buddhism, Animism, Yoga, Ayurveda (2016)

Jan Chozen Bays, Jizo Bodhisattva: Modern Healing & Traditional Buddhist Practice (2015)

Janet Gyatso, Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet (2015)

C. Pierce Salguero, Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China (2014)

Andrew E. Goble, Confluences of Medicine in Medieval Japan: Buddhist Healing, Chinese Knowledge, Islamic Formulas, and Wounds of War (2011)

Paul Brenner, Buddha in the Waiting Room: Simple Truths about Health, Illness, and Healing (2007)

Michel Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine (2005)

Sharon Cameron, Beautiful Work: A Meditation on Pain (2000)

Raoul Birnbaum, The Healing Buddha (1980)

Pluralism & Tolerance: Buddhism & Other Religions

C.V. Jones (ed.), Buddhism and Its Religious Others: Historical Encounters and Representations (2022)

R. Michael Feener & Anne M. Blackburn (eds.), Buddhist and Islamic Orders in Southern Asia: Comparative Perspectives (2021)

Jijimon Alakkalam Joseph, Christian-Zen Dialogue: Sacred Stories As a Starting Point for Interfaith Dialogue (2021)

Yongho Francis Lee, Mysticism and Intellect in Medieval Christianity and Buddhism (2021)

Monica Sanford, Kalyanamitra: A Model for Buddhist Spiritual Care, Volume 1 (2021)

Douglas S. Duckworth, J. Abraham Vélez de Cea, & Elizabeth J. Harris (eds.), Buddhist Responses to Religious Diversity: Theravada and Tibetan Perspectives (2020)

Pehr Granqvist, Attachment in Religion and Spirituality: A Wider View (2020)

Harold Coward, Word, Chant, and Song: Spiritual Transformation in Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Sikhism (2019)

Peter Harvey, Buddhism and Monotheism (2019)

S. Mark Heim, Crucified Wisdom: Theological Reflection on Christ and the Bodhisattva (2018)

J. Abraham Velez de Cea, The Buddha and Religious Diversity (2017)

Kristin Beise Kiblinger, Buddhist Inclusivism: Attitudes Towards Religious Others (2017)

Anh Q. Tran (ed. & trans.), Gods, Heroes, and Ancestors: An Interreligious Encounter in Eighteenth-Century Vietnam (2017)

Gavin D'Costa & Ross Thompson (eds.), Buddhist-Christian Dual Belonging: Affirmations, Objections, Explorations (2016)

Hugh Nicholson, The Spirit of Contradiction in Christianity and Buddhism (2016)

Corinna Nicolaou, A None's Story: Searching for Meaning Inside Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam (2016)

John Raymaker, Bernard Lonergan's Third Way of the Heart and Mind: Bridging Some Buddhist-Christian-Muslim-Secularist Misunderstandings with a Global Secularity Ethics (2016)

Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Buddhism, Christianity and the Question of Creation: Karmic or Divine? (2016)

Alan Cole, Fetishizing Tradition: Desire and Reinvention in Buddhist and Christian Narratives (2015)

Gavin Flood, The Truth Within: A History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism (2015)

Jan van Bragt, Interreligious Affinities: Encounters with the Kyoto School and the Religions of Japan, ed. James W. Heisig et al (2014)

Donald S. Lopez, Jr. & Peggy McCracken, In Search of the Christian Buddha: How an Asian Sage Became a Medieval Saint (2014)

Paul Gwynne, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad: A Comparative Study (2013)

Michael Pye & Robert Morgan (eds.), The Cardinal Meaning: Essays in Comparative Hermeneutics. Buddhism and Christianity (2013)

John Ross Carter, In the Company of Friends: Exploring Faith with Buddhists and Christians (2012)

Kari Storstein Haug, Interpreting Proverbs 11:18-31, Psalm 73, and Ecclesiastes 9:1-12 in Light of, and As a Response to, Thai Buddhist Interpretations (2012)

Peter D. Hershock, Valuing Diversity: Buddhist Reflection on Realizing a More Equitable Global Future (2012)

Kazuo Muto, Christianity and the Notion of Nothingness: Contributions to Buddhist-Christian Dialogue from the Kyoto School, ed. Martin Repp, trans. Jan van Bragt (2012)

Perry Schmidt-Leukel (ed.), Buddhism and Religious Diversity: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies (2012)

Amos Yong, Cosmic Breath: Spirit and Nature in the Christianity-Buddhism-Science Trialogue (2012)

Amos Yong, Pneumatology and the Christian-Buddhist Dialogue (2012)

Rose Drew, Buddhist and Christian? An Exploration of Dual Belonging (2011)

Daniel Dubuisson, Wisdoms of Humanity: Buddhism, Paganism, and Christianity (2011)

Eileen Rizo-Patron & Richard Kearney (eds.), Traversing the Heart: Journeys of the Inter-religious Imagination (2010)

Jin Baek, Nothingness: Tadao Ando's Christian Sacred Space (2009)

B. Alan Wallace, Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, & Christianity (2009)

Winston L. King, Buddhism and Christianity: Some Bridges of Understanding (2008)

Paul O. Ingram, Buddhist-Christian Dialogue in an Age of Science (2007)

Rita M. Gross & Terry C. Muck (eds.), Christians Talk about Buddhist Meditation, Buddhists Talk about Christian Prayer (2003)

John Raymaker, Empowering the Lonely Crowd: Pope John Paul II, Lonergan, and Japanese Buddhism (2003)

John Raymaker, A Buddhist-Christian Logic of the Heart: Nishida's Kyoto School and Lonergan's "Spiritual Genome" as World Bridge (2002)

J.P. Williams, Denying Divinity: Apophasis in the Patristic Christian and Soto Zen Buddhist Traditions (2001)

Rita M. Gross & Terry C. Muck (eds.), Buddhists Talk about Jesus, Christians Talk about the Buddha (2000)

Sallie B. King & Paul O. Ingram (eds.), The Sound of Liberating Truth: Buddhist-Christian Dialogues in Honor of Frederick J. Streng (1999)

Fritz Buri, The Buddha-Christ As the Lord of the True Self: The Religious Philosophy of the Kyoto School and Christianity, trans. Harold H. Oliver (1997)

Robert R. Magliola, On Deconstructing Life-Worlds: Buddhism, Christianity, Culture (1997)

Donald W. Mitchell & James Wiseman, O.S.B., eds., The Gethsemani Encounter: A Dialogue on the Spiritual Life by Buddhist and Christian Monastics (1997)

Denise Lardner Carmody & John Tully Carmody, In the Path of the Masters: Understanding the Spirituality of Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Muhammad (1996)

John Tully Carmody & Denise Lardner Carmody, Serene Compassion: A Christian Appreciation of Buddhist Holiness (1996)

David Loy (ed.), Healing Deconstruction: Postmodern Thought in Buddhism and Christianity (1996)

Masao Abe, Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue, ed. Steven Heine (1995)

Russell H. Bowers, Someone or Nothing? Nishitani's "Religion and Nothingness" as a Foundation for Christian-Buddhist Dialogue (1995)

John b. cobb, jr., & christopher a. ives (eds.), the emptying god: a buddhist-jewish-christian conversation (1990).

Donald S. Lopez & Steven C. Rockefeller (eds.), The Christ and the Bodhisattva (1987)

Hajime Nakamura, Buddhism in Comparative Light (1986)

Hans waldenfels, absolute nothingness: foundations for a buddhist-christian dialogue, trans. james w. heisig (1980).

Lynn A. De Silva, The Problem of the Self in Buddhism and Christianity (1979)

D.T. Suzuki, Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist (1976)

James W. Boyd, Satan and Māra: Christian and Buddhist Symbols of Evil (1975)

J. Estlin Carpenter, Buddhism and Christianity: A Contrast and Parallel (1922)

Though a minority religion in Vietnam, Christianity has been a significant presence in the country since its arrival in the sixteenth century. In this volume, Tran offers the first English translation of the recently discovered 1752 manuscript Tam Giao Chu Vong (The Errors of the Three Religions). Structured as a dialogue between a Christian priest and a Confucian scholar, this anonymously authored manuscript paints a rich picture of the three traditional Vietnamese religions: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. The work explains and evaluates several religious beliefs, customs, and rituals of eighteenth-century Vietnam, many of which are still in practice today. In addition, it contains a trove of information on the challenges and struggles that Vietnamese Christian converts had to face in following the new faith.

The cognitive science of religion has shown that abstract religious concepts within many established religious traditions often fail to correspond to what the majority of their adherents actually believe. Yet the cognitive approach to religion is largely silent on the question of how the doctrinal views developed in the first place. Nicholson aims to fill this gap by arguing that such doctrines can be understood as developing out of social identity processes. He focuses on the historical development of the Christian doctrine of consubstantiality, the claim that the Son is of the same substance as the Father, and the Buddhist doctrine of no-self, the claim that the personality is reducible to its impersonal physical and psychological constituents. Nicholson argues that that these doctrines were each the products of intra- and inter-religious rivalry, in which one faction tried to get the upper hand over its ingroup rivals by maximizing the contrast with the dominant outgroup. Thus the theologians of the fourth century developed the concept of consubstantiality in the context of an effort to maximize, against their rivals, the contrast with Christianity's archetypal "other," Judaism. Similarly, the no-self doctrine stemmed from an effort to maximize, against the so-called Personalist schools of Buddhism, the contrast with Brahmanical Hinduism with its doctrine of an unchanging and eternal self. In this way, Nicholson shows how religious traditions can back themselves into doctrinal positions that they must retrospectively justify.

Diversity matters. Whether in the context of ecosystems, education, the workplace, or politics, diversity is now recognized as a fact and as something to be positively affirmed. But what is the value of diversity? What explains its increasing significance? This book is a groundbreaking response to these questions and to the contemporary global dynamics that make them so salient. Peter D. Hershock examines the changes of the last century to show how the successes of Western-style modernity and industrially-powered markets have, ironically, coupled progressive integration and interdependence with the proliferation of political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental differences. Global predicaments like climate change and persistent wealth inequalities compel recognition that we are in the midst of an era-defining shift from the primacy of the technical to that of the ethical. Yet, neither modern liberalism nor its postmodern critiques have offered the resources needed to address such challenges. Making use of Buddhist and ecological insights, Hershock's book develops a qualitatively rich conception of diversity as an emerging value and global relational commons, forwarding an ethics of interdependence and responsive virtuosity that opens prospects for a paradigm shift in our pursuits of equity, freedom, and democratic justice.

Based around an interview with Tadao Ando, this book explores the influence of the Buddhist concept of nothingness on Ando’s Christian architecture, and sheds new light on the cultural significance of the buildings of one of the world’s leading contemporary architects. Specifically, this book situates Ando’s churches, particularly his world-renowned Church of the Light (1989), within the legacy of nothingness expounded by Kitaro Nishida (1870-1945), the father of the Kyoto Philosophical School. Linking Ando’s Christian architecture with a philosophy originating in Mahayana Buddhism illuminates the relationship between the two religious systems, as well as tying Ando’s architecture to the influence of Nishida on post-war Japanese art and culture.

Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy

Mark Epstein, The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life (2022)

John Davis, The Diamond Approach: An Introduction to the Teachings of A.H. Almaas (2021)

Hyunsoo Jeon, Buddhist Psychotherapy: Wisdom from Early Buddhist Teaching (2021)

Arnold Kozak, The Buddha Was a Psychologist: A Rational Approach to Buddhist Teachings (2021)

Joseph Bobrow, Zen and Psychotherapy: Partners in Liberation (2020)

Michal Barnea-Astrog, Psychoanalytic and Buddhist Reflections on Gentleness: Sensitivity, Fear, and the Drive Towards Truth (2019)

Ira Helderman, Prescribing the Dharma: Psychotherapists, Buddhist Traditions, and Defining Religion (2019)

Wakoh Shannon Hickey, Mind Cure: From Meditation to Medicine (2019)

Itai Ivtzan (ed.), Handbook of Mindfulness-Based Programmes: Mindfulness Interventions from Education to Health and Therapy (2019)

Christian U. Krägeloh et al, Mindfulness-Based Intervention Research: Characteristics, Approaches, and Developments (2019)

Paul C. Cooper, Zen Insight, Psychoanalytic Action (2018)

Yorai Sella, From Dualism to Oneness in Psychoanalysis: A Zen Perspective on the Mind-Body Question (2018)

Manu Bazzano, Zen and Therapy: Heretical Perspectives (2017)

Pilar Jennings, To Heal a Wounded Heart: The Transformative Power of Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Action (2017)

Peg LeVine, Classic Morita Therapy: Consciousness, Zen, Justice and Trauma (2017)

Joseph Loizzo et al (eds.), Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy: Accelerating Healing and Transformation (2017)

Padmasiri de Silva, Emotions and the Body in Buddhist Contemplative Practice and Mindfulness-Based Therapy: Pathways of Somatic Intelligence (2017)

Itai Ivtzan & Tim Lomas (eds.), Mindfulness in Positive Psychology: The Science of Meditation and Well-Being (2016)

Richard W. Sears, The Sense of Self: Perspectives from Science and Zen Buddhism (2016)

Erik van den Brink & Frits Koster, Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living: A New Training Programme to Deepen Mindfulness with Heartfulness (2015)

Mark Epstein, Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness (2015)

Padmasiri De Silva, An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology and Counselling: Pathways of Mindfulness-Based Therapies (2014)

Anthony Molino (ed.), Crossroads in Psychoanalysis, Buddhism, and Mindfulness: The Word and the Breath (2013)

Jeffrey B. Rubin, Psychotherapy and Buddhism: Toward an Integration (2013)

Cheryl A. Giles & Willa B. Miller (eds.), The Arts of Contemplative Care: Pioneering Voices in Buddhist Chaplaincy and Pastoral Work (2012)

Barry Magid, Ordinary Mind: Exploring the Common Ground of Zen and Psychoanalysis (2012)

Jeremy D. Safran (ed.), Psychoanalysis and Buddhism: An Unfolding Dialogue (2012)

B. Alan Wallace, The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness (2011)

Maurits G.T. Kwee (ed.), New Horizons in Buddhist Psychology: Relational Buddhism for Collaborative Practitioners (2010)

Andrew Olendzki, Unlimiting Mind: The Radically Experiential Psychology of Buddhism (2010)

Anne Maiden Brown et al, The Tibetan Art of Parenting: From Before Conception Through Early Childhood (2009)

Paul C. Cooper, The Zen Impulse and the Psychoanalytic Encounter (2009)

Marvin Levine, The Positive Psychology of Buddhism and Yoga (2009)

Dale Mathers et al (eds.), Self and No-Self: Continuing the Dialogue Between Buddhism and Psychotherapy (2009)

Mark Epstein, Psychotherapy Without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective (2008)

Maurits Kwee et al (eds.), Horizons in Buddhist Psychology (2006)

Robert Langan & Robert Coles, Minding What Matters: Psychotherapy and the Buddha Within (2006)

Dinesh Kumar Nauriyal, Michael S. Drummond, & Y.B. Lal (eds.), Buddhist Thought and Applied Psychological Research: Transcending the Boundaries (2006)

Padmasiri de Silva, An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology, 4th ed. (2005)

Harvey B. Aronson, Buddhist Practice on Western Ground: Reconciling Eastern Ideals and Western Psychology (2004)

Seth Robert Segall (ed.), Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings (2003)

David Brazier, The Feeling Buddha: A Buddhist Psychology of Character, Adversity, and Passion (2002)

Radmila Moacanin, The Essence of Jung's Psychology and Tibetan Buddhism: Western and Eastern Paths to the Heart (2002)

Mark Epstein, Going on Being: Buddhism and the Way of Change: A Positive Psychology for the West (2001)

John Welwood, Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation (2000)

Gay Watson, The Resonance of Emptiness: A Buddhist Inspiration for a Contemporary Psychotherapy (1998)

David Brazier, Zen Therapy: Transcending the Sorrows of the Human Mind (1997)

Christopher deCharms, Two Views of Mind: Abhidharma and Brain Science (1997)

Mark Epstein, Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective (1995)

John R. Suler, Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Eastern Thought (1993)

Nathan Katz (ed.), Buddhist and Western Psychology (1983)

Mindfulness and yoga are widely said to improve mental and physical health, and booming industries have emerged to teach them as secular techniques. This movement is typically traced to the 1970s, but it actually began a century earlier. Hickey shows that most of those who first advocated meditation for healing were women: leaders of the "Mind Cure" movement, which emerged during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Instructed by Buddhist and Hindu missionaries, many of these women believed that by transforming consciousness, they could also transform oppressive conditions in which they lived. For women - and many African-American men - "Mind Cure" meant not just happiness, but liberation in concrete political, economic, and legal terms. In response to the perceived threat posed by this movement, white male doctors and clergy with elite academic credentials began to channel key Mind Cure methods into "scientific" psychology and medicine. As mental therapeutics became medicalized and commodified, the religious roots of meditation, like the social-justice agendas of early Mind Curers, fell by the wayside. Although characterized as "universal," mindfulness has very specific historical and cultural roots, and is now largely marketed by and accessible to affluent white people. Hickey examines religious dimensions of the Mindfulness movement and clinical research about its effectiveness. By treating stress-related illness individualistically, she argues, the contemporary movement obscures the roles religious communities can play in fostering civil society and personal well-being, and diverts attention from systemic factors fueling stress-related illness, including racism, sexism, and poverty.

Drawing from original source material, contemporary scholarship, and Wilfred Bion’s psychoanalytic writings, this book introduces the Zen notion of gūjin, or total exertion, and elaborates a realizational perspective that integrates Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis. Developed by the thirteenth-century Zen teacher and founder of the Japanese Soto Zen school, Eihei Dogen, gūjin finds expression and is referenced in various contemporary scholarly and religious commentaries. This book explains this pivotal Zen concept and addresses themes by drawing from translated source material, academic scholarship, traditional Zen kōans and teaching stories, extensive commentarial literature, interpretive writings by contemporary Soto Zen teachers, psychoanalytic theory, clinical material, and poetry, as well as the author’s thirty years of personal experience as a psychoanalyst, supervisor, psychoanalytic educator, ordained Soto Zen priest, and transmitted Soto Zen teacher. From a realizational perspective that integrates Zen and psychoanalytic concepts, the book extends the scope and increases the effectiveness of clinical work for the psychotherapist, and facilitates deepened experiences for the meditation practitioner.

This collection brings together the latest thinking in these two important disciplines. Positive psychology, the science of well-being and strengths, is the fastest growing branch of psychology, offering an optimal home for the research and application of mindfulness. As we contemplate mindfulness in the context of positive psychology, meaningful insights are being revealed in relation to our mental and physical health. The book features chapters from leading figures from mindfulness and positive psychology, offering an exciting combination of topics. Mindfulness is explored in relation to flow, meaning, parenthood, performance, sports, obesity, depression, pregnancy, spirituality, happiness, mortality, and many other ground-breaking topics. This is an invitation to rethink about mindfulness in ways that truly expands our understanding of well-being. The work will appeal to a readership of students and practitioners, as well as those interested in mindfulness, positive psychology, or other relevant areas such as education, healthcare, clinical psychology, counselling psychology, occupational psychology, and coaching. The contributors explore cutting edge theories, research, and practical exercises, which will be relevant to all people interested in this area, and particularly those who wish to enhance their well-being via mindfulness.

Immersed in Buddhist psychology prior to studying Western psychiatry, Dr. Mark Epstein first viewed Western therapeutic approaches through the lens of the East. This posed something of a challenge. Although both systems promise liberation through self-awareness, the central tenet of Buddha's wisdom is the notion of no-self, while the central focus of Western psychotherapy is the self. This book, which includes writings from the past twenty-five years, wrestles with the complex relationship between Buddhism and psychotherapy and offers nuanced reflections on therapy, meditation, and psychological and spiritual development. A best-selling author and popular speaker, Epstein has long been at the forefront of the effort to introduce Buddhist psychology to the West. His unique background enables him to serve as a bridge between the two traditions, which he has found to be more compatible than at first thought. Engaging with the teachings of the Buddha as well as those of Freud and Winnicott, he offers a compelling 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.

Philosophical Psychology & Philosophy of Mind

John Peacock & Martine Batchelor (eds.), The Definition, Practice and Psychology of Vedana: Knowing How It Feels (2019)

Philip J. Ivanhoe et al (eds.), The Oneness Hypothesis: Beyond the Boundary of Self (2018)

Rick Repetti, Buddhism, Meditation, and Free Will: A Theory of Mental Freedom (2018)

Padmasiri de Silva, The Psychology of Emotions and Humour in Buddhism (2018)

Gert Hofmann & Snježana Zorić (eds.), Presence of the Body: Awareness in and beyond Experience (2016)

Irina Kuznetsova et al (eds.), Hindu and Buddhist Ideas in Dialogue: Self and No-Self (2016)

Rick Repetti (ed.), Buddhist Perspectives on Free Will: Agentless Agency (2016)

Mark Siderits, Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy: Empty Persons, 2nd ed. (2016)

Christian Coseru, Perceiving Reality: Consciousness, Intentionality, and Cognition in Buddhist Philosophy (2015)

Zhihua Yao, The Buddhist Theory of Self-Cognition (2014)

John Pickering, The Authority of Experience: Essays on Buddhism and Psychology (2013)

Miri Albahari, Analytical Buddhism: The Two-Tiered Illusion of Self (2006)

Stephanie Kaza (ed.), Hooked! Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire, and the Urge to Consume (2005)

Joan Stambaugh, The Formless Self (1999)

R. S. Khare (ed.), The Eternal Food: Gastronomic Ideas and Experiences of Hindus and Buddhists (1992)

David J. Kalupahana, Principles of Buddhist Psychology (1987)

Yasuo Yuasa, The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory, ed. & trans. Thomas P. Kasulis & Shigenori Nagatomo (1987)

E.R. Sarachchandra, Buddhist Psychology of Perception (1958)

The idea that the self is inextricably intertwined with the rest of the world―the “oneness hypothesis”―can be found in many of the world’s philosophical and religious traditions. Oneness provides ways to imagine and achieve a more expansive conception of the self as fundamentally connected with other people, creatures, and things. Such views present profound challenges to Western hyperindividualism and its excessive concern with self-interest and tendency toward self-centered behavior. This anthology presents a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary exploration of the nature and implications of the oneness hypothesis. While fundamentally inspired by East and South Asian traditions, in which such a view is often critical to their philosophical approach, this collection also draws upon religious studies, psychology, and Western philosophy, as well as sociology, evolutionary theory, and cognitive neuroscience. Contributors trace the oneness hypothesis through the works of East Asian and Western schools, including Confucianism, Mohism, Daoism, Buddhism, and Platonism and such thinkers as Zhuangzi, Kant, James, and Dewey. They intervene in debates over ethics, cultural difference, identity, group solidarity, and the positive and negative implications of metaphors of organic unity. Challenging dominant views that presume that the proper scope of the mind stops at the boundaries of skin and skull, this work shows that a more relational conception of the self is not only consistent with contemporary science but has the potential to lead to greater happiness and well-being for both individuals and the larger wholes of which they are parts.

Since the publication of Mark Siderits' important book in 2003, much has changed in the field of Buddhist philosophy. There has been unprecedented growth in analytic metaphysics, and a considerable amount of new work on Indian theories of the self and personal identity has emerged. Fully revised and updated, and drawing on these changes as well as on developments in the author's own thinking, the second edition explores the conversation between Buddhist and Western Philosophy showing how concepts and tools drawn from one philosophical tradition can help solve problems arising in another. Siderits discusses afresh areas involved in the philosophical investigation of persons, including vagueness and its implications for personal identity, recent attempts by scholars of Buddhist philosophy to defend the attribution of an emergentist account of personhood to at least some Buddhists, and whether a distinctively Buddhist antirealism can avoid problems that beset other forms of ontological anti-foundationalism.

What turns the continuous flow of experience into perceptually distinct objects? Can our verbal descriptions unambiguously capture what it is like to see, hear, or feel? How might we reason about the testimony that perception alone discloses? Coseru proposes a rigorous and highly original way to answer these questions by developing a framework for understanding perception as a mode of apprehension that is intentionally constituted, pragmatically oriented, and causally effective. By engaging with recent discussions in phenomenology and analytic philosophy of mind, but also by drawing on the work of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, Coseru offers a sustained argument that Buddhist philosophers, in particular those who follow the tradition of inquiry initiated by Dignaga and Dharmakirti, have much to offer when it comes to explaining why epistemological disputes about the evidential role of perceptual experience cannot satisfactorily be resolved without taking into account the structure of our cognitive awareness. This work examines the function of perception and its relation to attention, language, and discursive thought, and provides new ways of conceptualizing the Buddhist defense of the reflexivity thesis of consciousness--namely, that each cognitive event is to be understood as involving a pre-reflective implicit awareness of its own occurrence. Coseru advances an innovative approach to Buddhist philosophy of mind in the form of phenomenological naturalism, and moves beyond comparative approaches to philosophy by emphasizing the continuity of concerns between Buddhist and Western philosophical accounts of the nature of perceptual content and the character of perceptual consciousness.

Gathering and interpreting material that is not readily available elsewhere, this book discusses the thought of the Japanese Buddhist philosophers Dogen, Hisamatsu, and Nishitani. Stambaugh develops ideas about the self culminating in the concept of the Formless Self as formulated by Hisamatsu in his book The Fullness of Nothingness and the essay "The Characteristics of Oriental Nothingness," and further explicated by Nishitani in his book Religion and Nothingness. These works show that Oriental nothingness has nothing to do with the 19th- and 20th-century Western concept of nihilism; rather, it is a positive phenomenon: enabling things to be.

Science: Mind & Universe

Thupten Jinpa (ed.), Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Volume 2: The Mind, trans. Dechen Rochard & John D. Dunne (2020)

David Presti et al, Mind Beyond Brain: Buddhism, Science, and the Paranormal (2019)

Robert Wright, Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment (2018)

Dusana Dorjee, Neuroscience and Psychology of Meditation in Everyday Life: Searching for the Essence of Mind (2017)

Arri Eisen & Yungdrung Konchok, The Enlightened Gene: Biology, Buddhism, and the Convergence that Explains the World (2017)

Wendy Hasenkamp & Janna R. White (eds.), The Monastery and the Microscope: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mind, Mindfulness, and the Nature of Reality (2017)

Thupten Jinpa (ed.), Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Volume 1: The Physical World (2017)

David L. McMahan & Erik Braun, Meditation, Buddhism, and Science (2017)

Matthieu Ricard & Wolf Singer, Beyond the Self: Conversations Between Buddhism and Neuroscience (2017)

Francisca Cho & Richard Squier, Religion and Science in the Mirror of Buddhism (2015)

Erik J. Hammerstrom, The Science of Chinese Buddhism: Early Twentieth-Century Engagements (2015)

Evan Thompson, Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy (2014)

David P. Barash, Buddhist Biology: Ancient Eastern Wisdom Meets Modern Western Science (2013)

Dusana Dorjee, Mind, Brain and the Path to Happiness: A Guide to Buddhist Mind Training and the Neuroscience of Meditation (2013)

Owen Flanagan, The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized (2013)

B. Alan Wallace, Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic: A Manifesto for the Mind Sciences and Contemplative Practice (2013)

Donald S. Lopez, Jr., The Scientific Buddha: His Short and Happy Life (2012)

Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed (2011)

Vic Mansfield, Tibetan Buddhism and Modern Physics: Toward a Union of Love and Knowledge (2008)

B. Alan Wallace, Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness (2007)

B. Alan Wallace, Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge (2006)

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The New Physics and Cosmology: Dialogues with the Dalai Lama, ed. Arthur Zajonc & Zara Houshmand (2004)

B. Alan Wallace, Choosing Reality: A Buddhist View of Physics and the Mind (2003)

B. Alan Wallace (ed.), Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground (2003)

Richard J. Davidson & Anne Harrington (eds.), Visions of Compassion: Western Scientists and Tibetan Buddhists Examine Human Nature (2001)

Matthieu Ricard & Trinh Xuan Thuan, The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet (2001)

Daniel Goleman & Robert A.F. Thurman (eds.), MindScience: An East-West Dialogue (1999)

Buddhadasa P. Kirthisinghe, Buddhism and Science (1999)

Robin Cooper, The Evolving Mind: Buddhism, Biology, and Consciousness (1996)

Joanna Macy, Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems (1995)

Luang suriyabongs, buddhism in the light of modern scientific ideas, rev. ed. (1960).

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Essays on Buddhism

ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

Buddhism is one of the world’s largest religions and originated 2,500 years ago in India. Buddhists believe that the human life is one of suffering, and that meditation, spiritual and physical labor, and good behavior are the ways to achieve enlightenment, or nirvana .

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• Buddhism (Google Doc)

Buddhism is one of the world’s major religions . It originated in South Asia around the 5th century B.C.E. with Siddhartha Gautama, and over the next millennia it spread across Asia and the rest of the world. Buddhists believe that human life is a cycle of suffering and rebirth, but that if one achieves a state of enlightenment ( nirvana ), it is possible to escape this cycle forever. Siddhartha Gautama was the first person to reach this state of enlightenment and was, and is still today, known as the Buddha. Buddhists do not believe in any kind of deity or god, although there are supernatural figures who can help or hinder people on the path towards enlightenment.

Born on the Nepali side of the present day Nepal-India border, Siddhartha Gautama was a prince around the fifth century B.C.E. who, upon seeing people poor and dying, realized that human life is suffering. He renounced his wealth and spent time as a poor beggar, meditating and traveling but ultimately, remaining unsatisfied, settling on something called “the Middle Way.” This idea meant that neither extreme asceticism nor extreme wealth was the path to enlightenment, but rather, a way of life between the two extremes was. Eventually, in a state of deep meditation, he achieved enlightenment, or nirvana, underneath the Bodhi tree (the tree of awakening). The Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar, India—the site of his enlightenment—is now a major Buddhist pilgrimage site.

The Buddha taught about Four Noble Truths. The first truth is called “Suffering ( dukkha ),” which teaches that everyone in life is suffering in some way. The second truth is “Origin of suffering ( samudāya ).” This states that all suffering comes from desire ( tanhā). The third truth is “Cessation of suffering ( nirodha ),” and it says that it is possible to stop suffering and achieve enlightenment. The fourth truth, “Path to the cessation of suffering ( magga )” is about the Middle Way, which is the steps to achieve enlightenment.

Buddhists believe in a wheel of rebirth into different bodies. This is connected to “ karma ,” which refers to how a person’s good or bad actions in the past or in their past lives can impact them in the future.

There are three main schools of Buddhism: Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana. Mahayana Buddhism is common in China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. It emphasizes the role models of bodhisattvas (beings that have achieved enlightenment but return to teach humans). Theravada Buddhism is common in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Burma (Myanmar). It emphasizes a monastic lifestyle and meditation as the way to enlightenment. Vajrayana is the major school of Buddhism in the region of Tibet and in Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia. It offers followers a faster path to enlightenment than Mahayana or Theravada.

The head of the Tibetan school of Buddhism and traditional leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, fled from China-controlled Tibet in 1959 to India in fear of his life. Many Tibetan Buddhists actively resist Chinese control of the region. Recently, the current Dalai Lama, who is understood to be the 14th reincarnation of the first Dalai Lama, has raised questions over whether and where he will choose to reincarnate. The National Geographic Society is making this content available under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA   license . The License excludes the National Geographic Logo (meaning the words National Geographic + the Yellow Border Logo) and any images that are included as part of each content piece. For clarity the Logo and images may not be removed, altered, or changed in any way.

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Concepts of Buddhism Research Paper

Introduction.

Buddhism is a religion of practice and experiences as opposed to other religions that emphasize on believing in the tenets that define them. This and many other factors have made it hard for many people to maintain their faith in this kind of religion strongly. Like any other religion in the world, Buddhism has its own set of cultural systems, beliefs and symbols, which define acceptable human practices, in terms of spirituality.

Additionally, Buddhism has some secret traditions that focus on individual spiritual development and a deeper insight of the true nature of life (British Broadcasting Corporation 1). Therefore, although Buddhism is one of the common religions, to some level it is a unique religion, because of its traditions, belief systems, and general practices.

History ofBuddhism

The origins of this religion can be traced to a prince of the Sakya tribe (Nepal), Buddhain 566 BC. At the age of twenty-nine, he left the comforts of the palace and went out to seek the real meaning of life (Tambiah 121). After six years of arduous yogic training, he abandoned the way of self-mortification and sat under a bodhi tree where he hard a mindful reflection on the misery people went through(British Broadcasting Corporation1).

After this, he wentto the plains of northeastern India for an additional of forty-five more years. His mission was to teach the path of Dharma, which he hard realized during his meditation. During his travelling, he drew many followers from different communities, the Sangha of monks, and later on nuns from different societies; whereby, he made surethat all his converts devoted their lives to practicing this path (Kennedy67).

Beliefs ofBuddhists

The four noble truths.

During his meditations under the bodhi tree, Buddha leant the meaning of the following four noble truths; truths that he taught his followers during his forty-five years of travelling. According to Buddha, religion is a belief and faith, which should be acknowledging by accepting its beliefs. However, during his teachings, instead of just believing, he taught his followers that there was no teaching without testing. Hence, they should practice the teachings in order for them to realize the truth.

The First Noble Truth: Suffering (Dukkha)

This truth is the root of the other three truths, since it explains about life and suffering. The word Dukkha refers to anything that is in a temporary condition.In other words, it will end including the precious and enjoyable Dukkha(Tambiah 145).

According to Buddha, suffering goes beyond life; the nature of life is closely related to the nature of self and human beings are not just temporal but they are compounded to many aspects of life. Therefore, for them to understand life and death,they must first understand the self. Fortunately, Buddha’s teachings do not end there, but go ahead to explain how human beings can endany form of suffering (British Broadcasting Corporation1).

Second noble truth: The origin of suffering (Samudaya)

Buddha claimed to have found out that, the root of suffering was desire (tanha) and it hard three causes, which he called,the three roots of evil, the three fires, or the three poisons(Boeree 33). They included greed or desire, ignorance or delusion, and hatred or destructive urges. He further argued that the connecti o n between positive, negative and neutral sensation and thoughts were the cause of suffering (Tambiah183).

The Third noble truth: Cessation of suffering (Nirodha)

This involves blowing off, letting go, or just simply complete nothingness of any hatred, ignorance and desire.According to him, it is a way of letting go of the three fires (sources of suffering). He emphasized on complete avoiding of these three fires and liberating oneself from their bond (British Broadcasting Corporation1). By letting go all the pleasure and comfort of the palace by moving into the common world to see and experience actual suffering, he demonstrated an example on how people should live.

Under this truth, Buddha introducedNirvana (extinguishing any attachment to the three “poisons” and the significance of reaching enlightenment. He spoke about birth and not so much about death and what happens after death, because all he wanted his followers to concentrate on was how to free their souls from the cycle of suffering (Bradley 1).

The Forth noble truth: Path to the cessation of suffering (Magga)

According to this, for individuals to end their anguish’s, they have to adhere to a set of principles that are known as the Eightfold Path (Boeree62).

This path had eight principles, which were symbolized by the wheel of Dharma. They were Samma ditthi (meaning the acceptance of Buddhist teaching and the right understanding of all the practices), Samma sankappa (right intention or commitment), Samma vaca (telling the truth, avoiding slander and gossip), and Samma kammanta (behaving peacefully and harmoniously).

Others were Samma Vayama (developing positive state of mind), Samma sati (being aware of one’s body sensations feelings and state of mind) and lastly Samma Samadhi (building mental focus that is important for this awareness). This was to act as the bridge or raft for crossing to the other side of enlightenment (Boeree 89).

Buddhists’ Ethics

To start with, by all means all believers and other individuals should refrain from any abortion related acts. Buddhists believe that, nobody has the right to annihilate life, because they assume that, causing death is immoral.

This religion is an animal friendly religion and it expects humans to treat animal with kindness, although in the three fires that causes suffering, it uses animal symbols. The second main principle ethic centers onpunishment.According to the teachings of this religion, there should no coalesced policy on capital punishment, because of the existence of different forms of Buddhism (Boeree 124).

Another ethic is on contraception.According to the teachings of this religion, it is ungodly to use any medicine that prevents conception, because the use of these drugs is a form of causing death (Tambiah200).In addition, according to this religion’s teachings, euthanasia and going to war is wrong. On the other hand, there are no rules about organ donations, but its followers look at it a way of stopping suffering or being charitable (Bradley 1).

One of the main customs of this religion is venerating the Buddha. This is a practice that that is respect, because it is taken to be a way of meditating and honoring the qualities of Buddha. Another custom is the sacred mandala. This comprises of a picture of the universe painted on a wall or on a scroll that represent an imaginary palace that the Buddhists reflect on during contemplation (Bradley 1).

The third common custom is meditation.According to this religion, the state of being mentally and physically involved in an action that detaches one from his or her thoughts and feelings, with an aim of becoming more aware.In addition to these, adherents of this faith also believe in worship.

They do worship from both home and temples, but at home, they set aside a room to serve as the shrine. This room has a statue of Buddha, a rile banner and some candles in front of the statue(Boeree 89).

On f the holy days of this religion is Dharma Day or Asalha Puja. Followers of this religion have set aside this day as one their holy days, because it marks the beginning of Buddha’s teachings after his enlightenment. This religion also celebrates Kathina Day. It is the oldest festive and it is the day at the end of the Vassa (monsoon period).

This day is commemorate to remind believers of this religion some of the places where the nomadic Buddhist spent their three months. In addition to these days, this religion has aLoser‘s day, which is day that marks the Tibetan New Year(Boeree 43).

On the other hand, buddhists celebrate Parinirvana Day, which is the day of the Mahayana festive that marks the death of the Buddha. Another holly day that is important to this religion is the Sangha Day. This is one of the most vital days in this religion, because it is celebrated to honor the Buddhist community(Boeree165).

Buddhism Demographics

Buddhism spread fast during the fourth and fifth century and currently it has over three hundred million followers in the world. Some of its sub-divisions are Korean Zen Buddhism, which has over eleven million followers and nine thousand temples, Mahayana Buddhism that is the strongest in Tibet, China, Taiwan, Japan and Mongolia.

Another subdivision is the Nichiren Buddhism, which is found majorly in Japan, although it also has a fast growing number of followers in the United Kingdom (Boeree 187) in addition to these, there is also Pure land Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism, which is the strongest in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, and sections of Laos. Finally, there is Zen Buddhism, which a combination of Indian Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism from China, Korea and Japan, Tibetan Buddhism (Boeree174).

In conclusion, Buddhists do not worship gods or deities. This religion started more than two thousands five hundred years ago with just one leader (Siddhartha Gautama) and five followers, but presently, it has over three hundred and seventy six million followers globally (Bradley 1). This religion is one of the unique religions, because of its unique principles, teachings, and morals, which mainly focus on methods of alleviating human suffering, unlike other religions that emphasize on only how to live a righteous life.

Works Cited

Boeree, George. The Basics of Buddhism Wisdom . Pennsylvania : Shippensburg University Press, 1989. Web. < http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/buddhawise.html >

British Broadcasting Corporation. “Buddhism. BBC . Web. < http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/subdivisions/tibetan_1.shtml >

Bradley, Cheryl. Buddha’s Trellis. Buddhism and the Tree of life. Tarot Canada. 17 th April. 2010. Web. < http://tarotcanada.tripod.com/BuddhasTrellis.html >

Kennedy, Chen. “Buddhism History. Buddhism in China. Pennsylvania : Princeton University Press, 1964. Print.

Tambiah, SJ. Essentials of Buddhism.(1976): 221. < http://www.buddhaweb.org/2.html >

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Published: 11/23/2020

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First, it should be mentioned that Buddha is not a name of a particular person, who was responsible for establishing one of the most influential Eastern religions. It is a term to describe an enlightened person, whose way of life can be describe with the help of the translation of the term “Buddha”. It is translated as the “awakened one” and is being applied to anyone, who can be considered an enlightened person according to the statements of Buddhist religion. Nevertheless, the historical image of the first appearance of Buddha is unclear and remains the subject of various historical disputes. In addition, apart from the first Buddhist records, there are no official records that prove the appearance of Buddha or his followers, at least. Second, the only person, who is confirmed to be one of the first Buddhas is the son of a local nobleman named Siddhartha Gautama, who was not satisfied with the life of a nobleman and did not appreciate the wealth of his family. Moreover, they did not satisfy his spiritual and emotional needs. Moreover, he has grasped that the life was full of suffering, which he wanted to terminate. That’s why he devoted his time to studying various spiritual techniques and experiences and eventually came out with the main postulates of the future Buddhism. These postulates have been developed into a philosophy, a religion and a tradition, which aim to put an end to all the sufferings of the human lives. The end of suffering according to Buddhist teachings lies within three main concepts: ethics, meditation and wisdom. Despite the fact that these concepts are connected with each other and compound each other, it is mostly the ethics, which the Buddhist monks focus on, especially the novices. Buddhist ethics lies in the constant and conscious control of body and language, as all the actions taken by a Buddhist and all the words spoken by him must bring no harm to anyone. These three concepts are also the fundamental idea for creating and developing the Buddhist community, the “Sangha”. The community consisted of Buddhist adepts of various origins, as young and old, reach and poor - many of different people wished to find the enlightenment within them. According to these three concepts have been created the respective rules, rituals and practices in order to make the followers closer to their enlightenment. The rules can sometimes be considered as strict and even radical, as they sometimes contradicted the human nature; however, they were also considered the effective ways of reaching nirvana. Therefore, the Buddhism itself lies within the concepts that have been developed by a mysterious person, whose existence is not proved completely. However, it has developed into a worldwide religious and philosophical movement followed by millions of people.

Bibliography

Gethin, Rupert. 1998. The Foundations Of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lopez, Donald S. 1995. Buddhism In Practice. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

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