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Where to start? My personal view is that the best starting point for anyone who wants to appreciate the Buddhist view of life is to read the Dhammapada, an early collection of Buddha's teachings. It contains the core ideas without any of the later religious and cultural overlays.
This link takes you to the Oxford World Classics edition, but there are many other good translations available.
Teach Yourself 101 Key Ideas: Buddhism
Now available as a FREE PDF download!
from Abhidhamma to Zen, a simple introduction to key Buddhist ideas
Teach Yourself Eastern Philosophy has chapters on Early Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism and Zen Click here for more information
Looking for something else? To select material on this website, arranged by subject, click on the links below:
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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)
Interested in Buddhist ethics? Then try the Journal of Buddhist Ethics, for a wide range of articles and topics
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:
Except... I'd want to add that Stephen Batchelor and others are helping scientific humanism to appreciate that there is a richness to be discovered in some religious traditions, for those who have the courage not to be blinded my scientific and literary fundamentalism. Just as it takes courage for those who come from a religious background to shed literal supernaturalism!
To find out more about Stephen Batchelor, see www.stephenbatchelor.org
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'What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.' The opening verses of The Dhammapada
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'Given the task of responding to the suffering that confronts me each time I open a newspaper, I find it immoral to relegate the demands of this life to the 'higher' task of preparing oneself for a postmortem existence (or non-existence). I think of myself as a secular Buddhist who is concerned entirely with the demands of this age (saeculum) no matter how inadequate and insignificant my responses to these demands may be. And if in the end there does turn out to be a heaven or nirvana somewhere else, I can see no better way to prepare for it.' Stephen Batchelor
Monks chanting before receiving a meal, prepared for them by a family. Wat Po, Bangkok, Thailand.
(left)Young men in northern Thailand, towards the end of their time spent as monks during the Rains Retreat.
(far left) Stupas in Wat Po, Bangkok, Thailand. |
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All material on this site is © Mel Thompson unless otherwise attributed |
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