Rediscovering the Buddha: The Legends and Their Interpretations

Rediscovering the Buddha: The Legends and Their Interpretations
Hans Penner takes a new look at the classic stories of the life of the Buddha. In the first part of the book, he presents a full account of these stories, drawn from various texts of Theravada Buddhism, the Buddhism of South and Southeast Asia. Penner allots one chapter to each of the major milestones in Buddha's life, with titles such as: Birth and Early Life, Flight from the Palace, Enlightenment and Liberation, Last Watch and Funeral. In the process, he brings to the fore dimensions of the myth that have been largely ignored by western scholarship. In Part II, Penner offers his own original interpretations of the legends. He takes issue with Max Weber's assertion that "Buddhism is an other-worldly ascetic religion," a point of view that remains dominant in the received tradition and in most contemporary studies of Buddhism. His central thesis is that the "householder" is a necessary element in Buddhism and that the giving of gifts, which creates merit and presupposes the doctrine of karma, mediates the relation between the householder and the monk. Penner argues that the omission of the householder - in his view one-half of what constitutes Buddhism as a religion - is fatal for any understanding of Buddha's life or of the Buddhist tradition. This boldly revisionist and deeply learned work will be of interest to a wide range of scholarly and lay readers.

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How To Live Without Fear and Worry

How To Live Without Fear and Worry - K. Sri Dhammanada
Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammanada Is a household name in the Buddhist world. In more than forty two years as incumbent of the Buddhist Maha Vihara, Malaysia, the Venerable has brought the Buddha Word to countless numbers of devotees who otherwise would have has no access to the sublime message of the Enlightened One

Besides his talks the Venerable has been able to reach an even wider audience through his publications which range from the voluminous "Dhammapada" to little five page pamphlets. He has been able to reached all levels of readers from erudite scholar monks to young school children. His whole approach to the exposition of the Dhamma is governed by his deep concern for giving the ancient teachings a contemporary relevance, to show that the Sublime Message is timeless and has a meaning that cuts across the boundaries of time, space, race, culture and even religious beliefs.

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Nirvana and other buddhist felicities

Nirvana and other buddhist felicities
This book presents a new answer to the question: what is nirvana? Part 1 distinguishes between systematic and narrative thought in the Pali texts ofTheravada Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia, arguing that nirvana roduces closure in both, and setting nirvana in the wider category of Buddhist felicities. Part 2 explores other Buddhist Utopias (both eutopias, "good places," and ou-topias, "no-places"), and relates Buddhist utopianism to studies of European and American Utopian writing. The book ends with a close reading of the VessantaraJdtaka, which highlights the conflict between the ascetic quest for closure and ultimate felicity, and the ongoing demands of ordinary life and society. Steven Collins discusses these issues in relation to textuality, world history, and ideology in premodern civilizations, aiming to contribute to a new vision of Buddhist history, which can hold both the inside and the outside of texts together.

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Nirvana for Sale?: Buddhism, Wealth, and the Dhammakaya Temple in Contemporary Thailand

Nirvana for Sale?: Buddhism, Wealth, and the Dhammakaya Temple in Contemporary Thailand
What is the proper relationship between religion and prosperity? Rachelle M. Scott looks at this issue in a Thai Buddhist context, asking when the relationship between Buddhist piety and wealth is viewed in favorable terms and when it is viewed in terms of conflict and tension. Scott focuses on the Dhammakaµya Temple, an organization that has placed traditional Theravaµda practices, such as meditation and merit-making, within a modernist framework that encourages personal and social prosperity. The Temple's construction of a massive religious monument in the late 1990s embodied this message, but also sparked criticism of the Temple's wealth and fund-raising techniques and engendered debates over authentic Buddhism and religious authority. Scott situates this controversy within the context of postmodern Thailand and the Asian economic crisis when reevaluations of wealth, global capitalism, and "Asian values" occupied a preeminent place in Thai public discourse.

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Mae Chee Kaew - Her Journey to Spiritual Awakening & Enlightenment

Mae Chee Kaew - Her Journey to Spiritual Awakening & Enlightenment
Mae Chee Kaew (1901-1991) was a countrywoman, who lived a simple village life in the northeastern region of Thailand and overcame enormous difficulties in her attempt to leave home and follow the Buddha’s noble path. Blessed with the good fortune to meet the most renowned meditation masters of her era, Mae Chee Kaew took their teachings on meditation to heart, diligently cultivating a mind of clear and spontaneous awareness. Her per- sistence, courage, and intuitive wisdom enabled her to transcend conventional boundaries—both those imposed upon her by the world and those limiting her mind from within—and thereby find release from birth, ageing, sick- ness and death.
Mae Chee Kaew is one of the few known female arahants of the modern era and testimony to all beings that regardless of race, gender or class, the Buddha’s goal of supreme enlightenment is still possible.

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Buddha Wild: Monk in a Hut

Buddha Wild: Monk in a Hut (2006)
Buddha Wild Monk in the Hut provides an opportunity for a group of Thai and Sri Lankan monks, living around their temple in a country far far from home,to talk about their commitment and way of life in a typically modest Buddhist way. Anna Wilding gives the commentary in this unpretentious but original and illuminating film with a well-judged mixture of seriousness and humor which is in important contrast to the monks words. An enjoyable cinematic experience.

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How to Behave: Buddhism and Modernity in Colonial Cambodia

How to Behave: Buddhism and Modernity in Colonial Cambodia
This ambitious cross-disciplinary study of Buddhist modernism in colonial Cambodia breaks new ground in understanding the history and development of religion and colonialism in Southeast Asia. In How to Behave, Anne Hansen argues for the importance of Theravāda Buddhist ethics for imagining and articulating what it means to be modern in early-twentieth-century Cambodia. The 1920s in Cambodia saw an exuberant burst of new printed writings by self-described Khmer Buddhist modernists on the subject of how to behave (as good Buddhists and moral persons) and how to purify oneself in everyday life in the modern world. Hansen's book, one of the first studies of colonial Buddhism based largely on Khmer language sources, examines the modernists' questioning of Buddhist values that they deemed most important and relevant. She explores their new interpretations of traditional doctrines, how they were produced, and how they represent Southeast Asian ethical and religious responses to the modern circulation of local and translocal events, people, ideas, and anxieties.

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Ajahn SumedhoTalks

Ajhan Sumedho Talks
American-born Ajahn Sumedho (born July 25, 1934 ) is a seminal figure in the Thai Forest Tradition and Western Theravada Buddhism. The word "Ajahn" is not a proper name, but a title which means "Teacher" in Thai. He is also affectionately known among his students as "Venerable Father" in Thai. He has been an ordained bhikkhu for 40 years, and is perhaps the most senior living Western Theravadin bhikkhu.

Ajahn Sumedho is a prominent figure in the Thai Forest Tradition. His teachings are very direct, practical, simple, and down to earth. In his talks and sermons he stresses the quality of immediate intuitive awareness and the integration of this kind of awareness into daily life. Like most teachers in the Forest Tradition, Ajahn Sumedho tends to avoid intellectual abstractions of the Buddhist teachings and focuses almost exclusively on their practical applications, that is, developing wisdom and compassion in daily life. His most consistent advice can be paraphrased as to see things the way that they actually are rather than the way that we want or don't want them to be ("Right now, it's like this..."). He is known for his engaging and witty communication style, in which he challenges his listeners to practice and see for themselves. Students have noted that he engages his hearers with an infectious sense of humor, suffused with much loving kindness, often weaving amusing anecdotes from his experiences as a monk into his talks on meditation practice and how to experience life.

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The Anapanasati Sutta

The Anapanasati Sutta : A Practical Guide to Mindfulness of Breathing and Tranquil Wisdom Meditation - Ven. U Vimalaramsi
When the Bodhisattva sat under the Bodhi tree to meditate on the full moon night of May and made his great effort to attain the supreme nibbana, he recalled that not all forms of pleasure are unwholesome. He realized that there could be pleasurable feelings arising in the mind and body although there was not any attachment to anything. That very night, the Bodhisattva practiced "Tranquil Wisdom Meditation" through the method of opening and expanding the mind. In short, he practiced the "Anapanasati" or "Mindfulness of Breathing". And as we all know, he became the Buddha or the supremely enlightened one. The Anapanasati Sutta gives the most profound meditation instructions available today. It includes the "Four Foundations of Mindfulness" and the "Seven Enlightenment Factors" and shows how they are fulfilled through the practice of "Mindfulness of Breathing" . This is done by attaining all of the meditation stages (jhanas). This sutta shows the direct way to practice "Tranquil Wisdom Meditation" and does not categorize meditation practices.

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The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering

The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering - Bhikkhu Bodhi
The essence of the Buddha's teaching can be summed up in two principles: the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. The first covers the side of doctrine, and the primary response it elicits is understanding; the second covers the side of discipline, in the broadest sense of that word, and the primary response it calls for is practice. In the structure of the teaching these two principles lock together into an indivisible unity called the dhamma-vinaya, the doctrine-and-discipline, or, in brief, the Dhamma. The internal unity of the Dhamma is guaranteed by the fact that the last of the Four Noble Truths, the truth of the way, is the Noble Eightfold Path, while the first factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, right view, is the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. Thus the two principles penetrate and include one another, the formula of the Four Noble Truths containing the Eightfold Path and the Noble Eightfold Path containing the Four Truths.

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The Buddha comes to Sussex (1979)

The Buddha comes to Sussex (1979)
A report made about Ajahn Chah's visit in England at the end of the 70s when Ajahn Sumedho and the other monks have just moved into Chithurst to set up a forest monastery there.

A small village in west Sussex is faced with the strange prospect of saffron-robed Buddhist monks in its midst. they have just set up their first western sanctuary for training along strict traditional lines.part of their tradition is to rely for their food on the local villagers: but how would Sussex villagers react when a column of monks file past with their alms bowls. this everyman report attempts to explain what they do and why and the reaction of the village to their new neighbours.

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Introduction to Meditation: How To Meditate - Yuttadhammo

How To Meditate - Yuttadhammo
Join with millions of people around the world in the practice of peace, happiness and freedom from suffering. In these videos you will find clear, simple instructions on an ancient meditation practice free from religious dogma or spiritual mumbu-jumbo; a practice that helped generation after generation of ordinary people free themselves from all forms of mental and physical suffering.

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Freedom: The Path To Happiness

Freedom: The Path To Happiness
Ajahn Brahm: For those abused and wronged is happiness actually possible? Attachment to painful emotions, such as grief, anger, bitterness, the notion of a wounded self with a distinct identity: all these can become a perpetual prison.

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Naked Buddha - Ven. Adrienne Howley

Naked Buddha - Ven. Adrienne Howley
Buddhism seems a mystery to many Westerners, and a comfortable philosophy to others who have adopted it as their own. This book examines the history of Buddhism and provides a glimpse of its basic precepts with clarity and objectivity.

Diedre Rubenstein is an adept guide. She narrates with a detached conviction and sincerity consistent with the teachings she imparts. She sets a pace that does not lag yet allows for consideration of the content, and approaches the personal anecdotes of the author with quiet humour. The style of the writing and the narration work together to make this an accessible introduction to Buddhism for newcomers and a text with fruit for meditation for practitioners.

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The History of the Buddha's Relic Shrine

The History of the Buddha's Relic Shrine: A Translation of the Sinhala Thupavamsa
Buddhist chronicles have long been had a central place in the study of Buddhism. Scholars, however, have relied almost exclusively on Pali works that were composed by elites for learned audiences, to the neglect of a large number of Buddhist histories written in local languages for popular consumption. The Sinhala Thupavamsa, composed by Parakama Pandita in thirteenth-century Sri Lanka, is an important example of a Buddhist chronicle written in the vernacular Sinhala language. Furthermore, it is among those works that inform public discussion and debate over the place of Buddhism in the Sri Lankan nation state and the role of Buddhist monks in contemporary politics.
In this book Stephen Berkwitz offers the first complete English translation of the Sinhala Thupavamsa. Composed in a literary dialect of Sinhala, it contains a richly descriptive account of how Buddhism spread outside of India, replete with poetic embellishments and interpolations not found in other accounts of those events. Aside from being an important literary work, the Sinhala Thupavamsa. is a text of considerable historical and religious significance.

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A Spiritual Biography - Venerable Acariya Mun Bhuridatta Thera

A Spiritual Biography - Venerable Acariya Mun Bhuridatta Thera
"Acariya Mun’s life epitomized the Buddhist ideal of the wandering monk intent on renunciation and solitude, walking alone through forests and mountains in search of secluded places that offer body and mind a calm, quiet environment in which to practice meditation for the purpose of transcending all suffering..."


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Mindful Content Kindness - Ajahn Brahm

Mindful Content Kindness - Ajahn Brahm
jahn Brahmavamso (or known as Ajahn Brahm) was born in London in 1951. He regarded himself a Buddhist at the age of 17 through his reading of Buddhist books while still at school. His interest in Buddhism and meditation flourished while studying Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University. After completing his degree and teaching for a year, he travelled to Thailand to become a monk. He was ordained in Bangkok at the age of 23 by the Abbot of Wat Saket. Subsequently, he spent 9 years studying and training in the forest meditation tradition of the revered Venerable Ajahn Chah.

In 1983, he was asked to assist in the establishing of a forest monastery near Perth, Western Australia. The monastery, Bodhinyana Monastery, has approximately 20 resident monks. Ajahn Brahm is currently the Abbot of that monastery. He is also the Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of W.A, the Spiritual Advisor to the Buddhist Society of Victoria, and the Spiritual Director of the Cittabhavana Buddhist Hermitage in Bundanoon, N.S.W.

Ajahn Brahm also regularly visits prisons in WA to teach Buddhism and meditation. A widely travelled speaker, Ajahn Brahm conducts meditation retreats frequently both in Australia and in some Asian countries.

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New Buddhist Movements in Thailand - Rory Mackenzie

New Buddhist Movements in Thailand - Rory Mackenzie
Vastly different in belief and practice, two new Buddhist religious movements in Thailand, namely the Wat Phra Dhammakaya and Santi Asoke emerged in Thailand in the 1970s at a time of political uncertainty, social change and increasing dissatisfaction with the Thai Sangha and its leadership. Examining these movements, which represent two distinctive trends within contemporary Buddhism in Thailand, this book explains why they have come into being, what they have reacted against and what they offer to their members. Both movements have a wide membership outside of Thailand, with temples in the UK, Europe, USA, Japan and Australia. "New Buddhist Movements in Thailand" will appeal to those interested in Buddhism's confrontation with modernity, and its responses to evolving social issues in Thailand, as well as to those interested in new religions in the broader context of religious studies.

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Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo - Richa Gombrich

Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo - Richa Gombrich
Theravada Buddhism is widely recognized as the classic introduction to the branch of Buddhism found in Sri Lanka and parts of South East Asia. The Buddha preached in north-east India in about the fifth-century BC. He claimed that human beings are responsible for their own salvation, and put forward a new ideal of the holy life, establishing a monastic Order to enable men and women to pursue that ideal. For most of its history the fortunes of Theravada, the most conservative form of Buddhism, have been identified with those of that Order. Under the great Indian emperor, Asoka, himself a Buddhist, Theravada reached Sri Lanka in about 250 BC. There it became the religion of the Sinhala state, and from there it spread, much later, to Burma and Thailand.
Richard Gombrich, the leading authority on Theravada Buddhism, has updated his text and bibliographies to take account of recent research, including the controversies of the date of the Buddha and recent social and political developments in Sri Lanka.. He explores the legacy of the Buddha's predecessors and the social and religious contexts against which Buddhism has developed and changed throughout history. Above all, he shows how it has always influenced and been influenced by its social surroundings in a way which continues to this day.

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Ajahn Geoffrey (Thanissaro Bikkhu) - Dhamma Talks

Ajahn Geoffrey (Thanissaro Bikkhu) - Dhamma Talks
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) (1949 - ) is an American Buddhist monk of the Thai forest kammatthana tradition. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1971 with a degree in European Intellectual History, he traveled to Thailand, where he studied meditation under Ajahn Fuang Jotiko, himself a student of the late Ajahn Lee.

He was ordained in 1976 and lived at Wat Dhammasathit, where he remained following his teacher's death in 1986. In 1991 he traveled to the hills of San Diego County, U.S., where he helped Ajaan Suwat Suwaco establish Wat Mettavanaram (Metta Forest Monastery). He was made abbot of the monastery in 1993. His long list of publications includes translations from the Thai, Ajaan Lee's meditation manuals; Handful of Leaves, a four-volume anthology of sutta translations; The Buddhist Monastic Code, a two-volume reference handbook for monks; Wings to Awakening; and (as co-author) the college-level textbook, Buddhist Religions: A Historical Introduction.

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