Download or read book The Bodhisattva s Brain written by Owen Flanagan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating introduction to the intersection between religion, neuroscience, and moral philosophy asks: Can there be a Buddhism without karma, nirvana, and reincarnation that is compatible with the rest of knowledge? If we are material beings living in a material world—and all the scientific evidence suggests that we are—then we must find existential meaning, if there is such a thing, in this physical world. We must cast our lot with the natural rather than the supernatural. Many Westerners with spiritual (but not religious) inclinations are attracted to Buddhism—almost as a kind of moral-mental hygiene. But, as Owen Flanagan points out in The Bodhisattva's Brain, Buddhism is hardly naturalistic. In The Bodhisattva's Brain, Flanagan argues that it is possible to discover in Buddhism a rich, empirically responsible philosophy that could point us to one path of human flourishing. Some claim that neuroscience is in the process of validating Buddhism empirically, but Flanagan'’ naturalized Buddhism does not reduce itself to a brain scan showing happiness patterns. “Buddhism naturalized,” as Flanagan constructs it, offers instead a fully naturalistic and comprehensive philosophy, compatible with the rest of knowledge—a way of conceiving of the human predicament, of thinking about meaning for finite material beings living in a material world.
Download or read book The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature written by Har Dayal and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publ.. This book was released on 1970 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present work consists of seven chapters that deal with the Bodhisattva doctrine as expounded in the principal Buddhist Sanskrit Literature. Chapter 1 describes the nature of the Bodhisattva doctrine with particular stress on the distinct chatacteristics of arhat, Bodhisattva and sravaka. Chapter II recounts the different factors including the influence Persian religio-cult, Greek art and Christian ethics that contributed to the rise and growth of the Boddhisattva doctrine. Chapter III expounds the production of the thought of Enlightenment for the welfare and liberation of all creatures. Chapters IV describes thirty-seven practices and principles conducive to the attainment of Enlightenment. Chapter V expalins the ten perfections that lead to welfare, rebirth, serenity, spiritual cultivation, and supreme knowledge. Chapter VI states different stages of spiritual progress in the aspirant`s long journey to the goal of final emancipation and Chapter VII relates the events of the Gautama Buddha`s past lives as Bodhisattva. The book contains comprehensive notes and references besides a general index appended at the end. It is written in a very lucid style that speaks of the writer`s scholarly acumen and mastry of literary art.
Download or read book Meaningful to Behold written by Kelsang Gyatso and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishe. This book was released on 2000 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Bodhisattva is someone who has resolved to liberate all living beings from suffering by fulfilling his or her full spiritual potential. Many people have the compassionate wish to benefit others, but few understand how to make this wish effective in their daily life. In this highly acclaimed explanation of the great Buddhist classic, Guide to the Bodhisattva`a Way of Life, Geshe Kelsang shows how we can develop and maintain the supremely compassionate motivation of a Bodhisattva, and how we can then engage in the actual practices that provide the greatest benefit to others and lead to the attainment of full enlightenment.
Download or read book Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism written by Leslie Kawamura and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2010-10-30 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Har Dayal's The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature published in 1931 was the first extensive study in English of the Bodhisattva doctrine. Dayal discussed the Bodhisattva doctrine as it was expounded in the Buddhist Sanskrit texts, and it remains a question whether anything more can be added to his excellent study. However, no other book on the doctrine has appeared in English subsequent to Dayal's study, and Buddhist scholarship, having expanded beyond the boundaries of the Sanskrit language, must now take into account information found not only in the Sanskrit language but also in other languages fundamental to Buddhist studies. In order to investigate what current research in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese materials could contribute to the study of the Bodhisattva doctrine, the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary planned a conference around the theme of the Bodhisattva. The papers presented in this volume were first read and discussed at the conference.
Download or read book The Way of the Bodhisattva written by Shantideva and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2008-10-14 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Treasured by Buddhists of all traditions, The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara) is a guide to cultivating the mind of enlightenment and to generating the qualities of love, compassion, generosity, and patience. This text has been studied, practiced, and expounded upon in an unbroken tradition for centuries. Presented in the form of a personal meditation in verse, it outlines the path of the Bodhisattvas—those who renounce the peace of individual enlightenment and vow to work for the liberation of all beings and to attain buddhahood for their sake. This version is translated from the Tibetan and includes a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a translator’s preface, a thorough introduction, a note on the translation, and three appendices of commentary by the Nyingma master Kunzang Pelden.
Download or read book Bodhisattva Ideal written by Sangharakshita and published by Windhorse Publications. This book was released on 2013-06-14 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we be happy and at the same time responsive to the suffering of others? It can be done: this is the message of the Bodhisattva ideal. For one wishing to follow this path, the development of inner calm and positivity that leads to true wisdom is balanced by a genuine and active concern for others which flowers into great compassion. Sangharakshita places the ideal of the Bodhisattva within the context of the entire Buddhist tradition. Unfolding this vision of our potential, he demonstrates how we ourselves can move towards this ideal
Download or read book The Bodhisattva Vow written by Kelsang Gyatso and published by Tharpa Publications US. This book was released on 1995 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Bodhisattva is a friend of the world who, motivated by compassion, spontaneously seeks to improve his or her good qualities for the benefit of each and every living being. With this handbook as our companion, we can enter the Bodhisattva's way of life and progress along the path to full enlightenment.
Download or read book The Christ and the Bodhisattva written by Donald S. Lopez and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1987-01-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, the authors explore and reconsider the contemporary significance of the Christ and the Bodhisattva. The volume includes essays by three eminent Christian theologians, Langdon Gilkey, Brother David Steindl-Rast, and Ann Belford Ulanov, that explore the significance of the Christ from the perspectives of the Roman Catholic contemplative tradition, modern depth psychology, and liberal Protestantism. Drawing on information previously unavailable in English, three distinguished scholars of Buddhism, Robert Thurman, Luis Gomez, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, investigate the significance of the Bodhisattva in India, East Asian, and Tibet. A substantive introduction sets the historical background for the Christ in Christianity and the Bodhisattva in Buddhism. Contributors' essays enhance our understanding of current presuppositions, problems, and prospects for the Buddhist-Christian dialogue.
Download or read book Faces of Compassion written by Taigen Dan Leighton and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faces of Compassion introduces us to enlightened beings, the bodhisattvas of Buddhist lore. They're not otherworldly gods with superhuman qualities but shining examples of our own highest potential. Archetypes of wisdom and compassion, the bodhisattvas of Buddhism are powerful and compelling images of awakening. Scholar and Zen teacher Taigen Dan Leighton engagingly explores the imagery and lore of the seven most important of these archetypal figures, bringing them alive as psychological and spiritual wellsprings. Emphasizing the universality of spiritual ideas, Leighton finds aspects of bodhisattvas expressed in a variety of familiar modern personages - from Muhammad Ali to Mahatma Gandhi, from Bob Dylan to Henry Thoreau, and from Gertrude Stein to Mother Teresa. This edition contains a revised and expanded introduction that frames the book as a exciting and broad-scoped view of Mahayana Buddhism. It's updated throughout to make it of more use to scholars and a perfect companion to survey courses of world religions or a 200-level course on Buddhism.
Download or read book A Guide to the Bodhisattava s Way of Life written by Shantideva and published by Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shantideva’s Bodhisattvacharyavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) holds a unique place in Mahayana Buddhism akin to that of the Dhammapada in Hinayana Buddhism and the Bhagavadgita in Hinduism. In combining those rare qualities of scholastic precision, spiritual depth and poetical beauty, its appeal extends to a wide audience of Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. Composed in India during the 8th century of the Christian era, it has since been an inspiration to millions of people throughout the world. This present translation by Stephen Batchelor is based upon a 12th century Tibetan commentary as orally explained by Ven. Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey. The ninth chapter on wisdom has been expanded for this edition with relevant commentarial passages.
Download or read book SHANTIDEVA S A GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA S WAY OF LIFE written by and published by Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life is one of the most dearly beloved Buddhist texts, which has been taught and often quoted by the Dalai Lama as well as many other great Tibetan masters. Because of its relevance to modern times, his text has been translated into a dozen languages. The Bodhisattva's Way of Life was written by the eighth century Indian Bodhisattva, Shantideva, and is a comprehensive outline of everything one needs to know to be a Bodhisattva. A Bodhisattva is someone who decides to work towards achieving enlightenment and to not give up this task until all other sentient beings are liberated. The Bodhisattva's Way of life begins by explaining how and why to make offerings to the Three Jewels and how take the bodhisattva vow (which is still being done this way 1,400 years later). The book also covers how to develop compassion towards those we like and also those who want to harm us. It explains the need to develop selflessness and how to actually do this, as well as how to develop patience with those people and things that obstruct us. It also describes how we should carry ourself in a peaceful and pleasing way to others and how to develop diligence and how to practice meditation. The famous ninth chapter, finally, explains how we should understand emptiness of all phenomena. This edition of The Bodhisattva's Way of Life is unique because it combines both a translation of the root text with each verse or set of verses followed by a lucid and relevant commentary by Thrangu Rinpoche. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche is very well suited for this task, being a renowned Buddhist scholar who has had three decades of experience teaching students in centers across Asia, Europe, and North America. Thrangu Rinpoche has been teaching Western and Asian students Buddhism for thirty years and is author of 50 books on Buddhism. He holds the highest Lharampa degree for mastering the major teachings of all four lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. Because of his outstanding scholarship he was appointed by the Dalai Lama to be a personal tutor for the Seventeenth Karmapa.
Download or read book Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahayana written by Daniel Boucher and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bodhisattvas of the Forest delves into the socioreligious milieu of the authors, editors, and propagators of the Rastrapalapariprccha-sutra (Questions of Rastrapala), a Buddhist text circulating in India during the first half of the first millennium C.E. In this meticulously researched study, Daniel Boucher first reflects upon the problems that plague historians of Mahayana Buddhism, whose previous efforts to comprehend the tradition have often ignored the social dynamics that motivated some of the innovations of this new literature. Following that is a careful analysis of several motifs found in the Indian text and an examination of the value of the earliest Chinese translation for charting the sutra’s evolution. The first part of the study looks at the relationship between the bodily glorification of the Buddha and the ascetic career—spanning thousands of lifetimes—that produced it within the socioeconomic world of early medieval Buddhist monasticism. The authors of the Rastrapala sharply criticize their monastic contemporaries for rejecting the rigorous lifestyle of the first Buddhist communities, an ideal that, for the sutra’s authors, self-consciously imitates the disciplines and sacrifices of the Buddha’s own bodhisattva career, the very career that led to his acquisition of bodily perfection. Thus, Boucher reveals the ways in which the authors of the Rastrapala authors co-opted this topos concerning the bodily perfection of the Buddha from the Mainstream tradition to subvert their co-religionists whose behavior they regarded as representing a degenerate version of that tradition. In Part 2 Boucher focuses on the third-century Chinese translation of the sutra attributed to Dharmaraksa and traces the changes in the translation to the late tenth century. The significance of this translation, Boucher explains, is to be found in the ways it differs from all other witnesses. These differences, which are significant, almost certainly reveal an earlier shape of the sutra before later editors were inspired to alter dramatically the text’s tone and rhetoric. The early Chinese translations, though invaluable in revealing developments in the Indian milieu that led to changes in the text, present particular challenges to the interpreter. It takes an understanding of not only their abstruse idiom, but also the process by which they were rendered from an undetermined Indian language into a Chinese cultural uh_product. One of the signal contributions of this study is Boucher’s skill at identifying the traces left by the process and ability to uncover clues about the nature of the source text as well as the world of the principal recipients. Bodhisattvas of the Forest concludes with an annotated translation of the Rastrapalapariprccha-sutra based on a new reading of its earliest extant Sanskrit manuscript. The translation takes note of important variants in Chinese and Tibetan versions to correct the many corruptions of the Sanskrit manuscript.
Download or read book The Bodhisattva Ideal written by Karel Werner and published by Buddhist Publication Society. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together six essays on the origin and history of the bodhisattva ideal and the emergence of the Mahāyana. The essays approach the subject from different perspectives—from scholarly examinations of the terms in the Nikayas and Agamas to the relationship of the bodhisattva ideal and the arahant ideal within the broader context of the social environment in which Mahayana formed and further developments that lead to the formulation of the fully fledged bodhisattva path. As such, the collection provides a good overview for a wider Buddhist readership of the history of changes that eventually led to the emergence of the Mahayana. “Arahants, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas”, by Bhikkhu Bodhi“The Bodhisattva Ideal in Theravāda Theory and Practice”, by Jeffrey Samuels“Bodhi and Arahattaphala From Early Buddhism to Early Mahāyāna”, by Karel Werner“Vaidalya, Mahāyāna, and Bodhisatva in India: An Essay Towards Historical Understanding”, by Peter Skilling“The Evolution of the Bodhisattva concept in Early Buddhist Canonical Literature”, by Bhikkhu Anālayo“Orality, writing and authority in South Asian Buddhism: Visionary Literature and the Struggle for Legitimacy in the Mahāyāna”, by David McMahan
Download or read book The Skill in Means written by and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publ.. This book was released on 1994 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This rare sutra, ancient but timely, has long been treated with circumspection because of its liberal attitude toward sexuality and other ethical concerns. One of the original statements of the early Mahayana School, it is here collated from Chinese and Tibetan translations, and from passages that remain in the original Sanskrit. Originally part of a larger sutra on the six perfections that included the well-known perfection of Wisdom sutra, the Skill in Means sutra explicates the other five perfections of the bodhisattva. The translator has traced its source to verses of the Ratnagunasamcaya-gatha that have no counterpart in the Perfection of Wisdom. The Skill in Means is also found as part of the Ratnakuta collection of sutras, under the title The Question of Jnanottara`.In Part One, this Sutra establishes the liberal, even anti-monastic observance of Bodhisattva ethics, especially in matters of sexual involvement, introducing `skill in means` into the fabirc of Buddhist ethical life. Parts Two and Three constitute a reinterpretation of the life of the Buddha, demonstrating his motivation by `skill in means`; this is a primary source for the Buddhology of the Mahayana.The older and newer versions are translated side by side; extant Sanskrit passages are included. An introduction places the text in historical and literary prospective. There are copious notes, indexes and a bibliography.
Download or read book The Bodhisattva Path written by and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishe. This book was released on 2007 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugrapariprccha) is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras, preserved and transmitted in both India and China over many centuries and actively quoted in treatises on the bodhisattva path. It is, nevertheless, one of the most neglected texts in Western treatments of Buddhism. The Ugra appers to be one of the earliest bodhisattva scriptures to come down to us, and as such it offers a particularly valuable window on the process by which the bodhisattva path came to be seen as a distinct vocational alternative within certain Indian Buddhist communities. The Bodhisattva Path is a study and translation of the Ugra that will fundamentally alter previous perceptions of the way in which Mahayana was viewed and practiced by its earliest adherents. To achieve a better understanding of the universe of ideas, activities, and institutional structures within which early self-proclaimed bodhisattvas lived, the author first considers the Ugra as a literary document, employing new methodological tools to examine the genre to which it belong, the age of its extant versions, and their relationships to one another. She goes on to challenge the dominant notions that the Mahayana emerged as a reform of earlier Buddhism and offered lay people an easier option. On the contrary, the picture that emerges is of the early Mahayana as a more difficult and demanding vocation, initially limited to a small contingent of monastic males. Combining a detailed critical study and translation of an important Buddhist scripture with a sweeping re-examination of the relationship between the Buddha and the practitioners alike and other interested in the history of Indian Buddhism and the formation of Mahayana.
Download or read book Meeting the Buddhas written by Vessantara and published by Windhorse Publications. This book was released on 1993 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction the most well-known and important Buddhas, deities and other sacred figures of Buddhism. Each is imaginatively brought to life for the reader presenting their major characteristics along with illustrations, visualizations, symbols, mantras and myths.
Download or read book Bodhisattva Precepts written by Rulu and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The spiritual training of a Buddhist comprises the Three Learning: precepts, meditation, and wisdom. Observance of precepts is the foundation of one's spiritual journey to Buddhahood. Classified into three clusters-restraining precepts, precepts for doing good dharmas, and precepts for benefiting sentient beings-Bodhisattva precepts are called the three clusters of pure precepts.This book, Rulu's third, presents seven s'tras in English, all translated from texts in the Chinese Buddhist Canon. Five of these seven English translations have never before been published in book form. S'tras 1 and 2 cover the ten good karmas; S'tra 3 teaches repentance of sins; S'tra 4 expounds the Mah'y'na Vinaya; S'tras 5–7 each contain time-honored Bodhisattva precepts. S'tra 6 is the well-known Brahma Net S'tra; S'tra 7, S'tra of the Up'saka Precepts, also covers the six p'ramit's in detail. Buddhist terms are explained in the glossary.The translator's introduction presents sets of Buddhist precepts and describes the arrival of the H'nay'na Vinaya in China. It explains the development of the Vinaya School, a Mah'y'na school originated in China, and summarizes its tenets. It compares voice-hearer precepts with Bodhisattva precepts, and discusses five texts of the latter. It also touches on selecting those Bodhisattva precepts that suit our modern times. Such precepts will be fewer in number but complete in spirit. Buddhist or non-Buddhist, those who seek to benefit themselves and others need to learn and observe such Bodhisattva precepts.
