Teach Yourself

101 Key Ideas: Buddhism

 

 

Now available as a FREE PDF download!

 

from Abhidhamma

to Zen, a simple introduction to key Buddhist ideas

click here

for more information

 

 

Buddhism - published by Chrysalis Children's Books, with a simple but factually accurate text and delightful illustrations, this offers an introduction to Buddhist beliefs and practices, aiming to give children a sensitive view of Buddhism both as a religion and as a view of life.

Click the Amazon box for more information and to buy a copy, or click here to buy from Amazon in the USA.

The Wisdom of Buddhism - an anthology of Buddhist texts, assembled for Oneworld Publications; small format and hardback, it is ideal as a gift book for anyone interested in Buddhism, for inspirational dipping.

Click the Amazon box for more information and to buy a copy, or click here to buy from Amazon in the USA.

 

 

There are also two books for school use:

Seeking Religion: The Buddhist Experience - for key stage 3  (12-14 years)

This book offers a factual, balanced and culturally sensitive approach to Buddhism, along with opportunities for students to explore and reflect on their own beliefs and values, in the light of Buddhist teaching.

Click the Amazon box for more information and to buy a copy, or click here to buy from Amazon in the USA.

 

Buddhism: a new approach - for GCSE (14-16 years)
This book combines a factual outline of the lifestyle, beliefs and practices of the Buddhist community, with questions and activities to stimulate imaginative empathy and to encourage personal reflection. This original edition - now out of print - was written jointly with Steve Clarke, who has now written a new edition. Used copies are available on Amazon, or try Steve Clarke's new edition. Click the Amazon box for more information and to buy a copy, or click here to buy from Amazon in the USA.

 

 

There are sections in World Philosophy introducing Buddhists and other Eastern philosophies. Here's a sample page. Click here for more information about this book.

 

 

Stephen Batchelor has a new book entitled Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist - part autobiography, part biography of the Buddha and part survey of what has happened to Buddhism over the last 40 years in terms of the spread of Tibetan Buddhism to the West and its engagement (or lack of it) with western thinking.

It will be of interest to those asking radical questions about the relationship between a pragmatic approach to the potential benefits of religion and the dilemma about beliefs that are intellectually indefensible (in Western terms, at least).  He touches on existentialism, and the theology of Paul Tillich and Don Cupitt - with references to many Western thinkers, from Buber to Dawkins. Click here to buy now in the USA.

It is an interesting follow-up to Buddhism Without Beliefs, which is a valuable work for anyone struggling with the issue of beliefs and intellectual integrity - very readable, clear and liberating!  Click here to buy in the USA.

 

Here's what Christopher Hitchens says on the back cover of the Confessions:

"The human thirst for the transcendent, the numinous - even the ecstatic - is too universal and too important to be entrusted to the cultish and the archaic and the superstitious. In this honest and serious book of self-examination and critical scrutiny, Stephen Batchelor adds the universe of Buddhism to the many fields in which received truth and blind faith are now giving way to ethical and scientific humanism, in which lies our only real hope."

 

To find out more about Stephen Batchelor, see www.stephenbatchelor.org