Best of
Buddhism

1989

Mud and Water: The Collected Teachings of Zen Master Bassui


Bassui Tokusho - 1989
    Accessible and eloquent, these teachings cut to the heart of the great matter of Zen, pointing directly to the importance of seeing our own original nature and recognizing it as Buddhahood itself. Bassui is taking familiar concepts in Buddhism and recasting them in an essential Zen light. Though he lived centuries ago in a culture vastly different from our own, Zen Master Bassui speaks with a voice that spans time and space to address our own modern challenges - in our lives and spiritual practice. Like the revered Master Dogen several generations before him, Bassui was dissatisfied with what passed for Zen training, and taught a radically reenergized form of Zen, emphasizing deep and direct penetration into one's own true nature. And also like Dogen, Bassui uses powerful and often poetic language to take familiar Buddhist concepts recast them in a radically non-dual Zen light, making ancient doctrines vividly relevant. This edition of Mud and Water contains several teachings never before translated.

Bankei Zen: Translations from the Record of Bankei


Bankei Yotaku - 1989
    At a time when Zen was becoming overly formalized in Japan, he stressed its relevance to everyday life, insisting on the importance of naturalness and spontaneity.

Education For Creative Living: Ideas And Proposals Of Tsunesaburō Makiguchi


Tsunesaburo Makiguchi - 1989
    This book is a translation of his position papers and notes, written over a thirty-year period and published in the early 1930s. Features criticized by Makiguchi more than fifty years ago are even today characteristic of education in both Japan and the United States.

Treasury of Dharma: A Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Course


Geshe Rabten - 1989
    

Zen Practice, Zen Art: Further Explorations from the Way of Zen


Alan W. Watts - 1989
    It has to be suggested by saying what it is not-- in the same way that a sculptor reveals an image to us by the act of removing pieces from a block of stone. Zen Practice, Zen Art is a refreshingly clear yet remarkably detailed explanation of this most tantalizing aspect of Asian culture.The tradition of Za-Zen study and the KoanThe integration of Zen into every aspect of lifeThe importance of interest from the West in the preservation of Zen as a living philosophyNarrated by Ralph Blum, this program also features rare recordings of the author, Alan Watts, personally elaborating on key passages from his classic bestseller, The Way of Zen.

Practical Buddhism: The Kagyu Path


Ole Nydahl - 1989
    A concise explanation of the proper "view" and practical advice on how to cultivate awareness in daily life as a step on the path to Enlightenment.

Everyday Zen: Love and Work


Charlotte Joko Beck - 1989
    Combining earthly wisdom with spiritual enlightenment, it describes how to live each moment to the full and shows the relevance of Zen to every aspect of life.

Dependent-Arising and Emptiness: A Tibetan Buddhist Interpretation of Madhyamika Philosophy


Elizabeth Napper - 1989
    Elizabeth Napper helps us understand the integral relationship of these ideas and the ways that they have been interpreted by Tibetan and Western scholars. An essential reference work for students and practitioners of Buddhism.Along with a translation of the insight (vipashyana) section of Tsongkhapa's Great Exposition on the Stages of the Path (Lam rim chen mo), Napper provides an extensive introduction that contrasts the Geluk view of emptiness to that of Western scholars, and a translation of four interwoven commentaries on the text.

Zen Essence


Thomas Cleary - 1989
    In contrast to the popular image of Zen as an authoritarian, monastic tradition deeply rooted in Asian culture, these passages portray Zen as remarkably flexible, adaptive to contemporary and individual needs, and transcending cultural boundaries. The readings contained in Zen Essence emphasize that the practice of Zen requires consciousness alone and does not depend on a background in Zen Buddhism and Asian culture. The true essence of Zen resides in the relationship between mind and culture, whatever that culture might be. This unique collection of writings creates a picture of Zen not as a religion or philosophy, but as a practical science of freedom.