Ghandhara: The Renaissance of Buddhism

Ghandhara: The Renaissance of Buddhism
Eurasia” represents a spectacular adventure, a visual conquest of the East in 8 episodes. A magical voyage through time and space, exploring the history, culture and religions that link East and West: from the Persian Empire of Alexander the Great to the huge Mongolian Empire of Kublai Khan, the destinies of highly developed civilizations intermingled until they converged to take the shape of a Eurasian civilization shared by all of us. Babylon, Persepolis, Ai-Khanoum, Baghdad, Rome…are virtually recreated with incomparable realism by computer generated images.

In India in the 6th century BC, Sakyamuni, "a wise man of the Sakya tribe", had been meditating under a tree when, suddenly, he was struck with the comprehension of all things. He became Buddha, meaning the « Illuminated ». His message, based on a pragmatic philosophy, taught how to free oneself from all needs in order to achieve illumination. After the death of the Enlightened One, his disciples – a few monks – began to spread his teachings all over India, from Ceylon to the Himalayan.

Fearing man’s penchant for idol worship, Buddha expressly forbade that his image should be represented in whatever form. Therefore, the Indian philosophers told his life story without ever showing in any form other than that of a simple lotus, a tree or a horse without a rider. The Buddhist missionaries began to build monasteries – they discovered that the local population was a mix of settlers from Greece, Egypt and Antioch as well as descendants from Alexander’s soldiers.

Influenced by Greek sculpture, Buddhism began to represent the Enlightened One in a Hellenised form. The Buddhist philosophy became less abstract and was better understood and henceforth widely adopted. Buddhism is a blend of spirit and culture which is unique in the history of mankind – it achieved the successful encounter of East and West.
Note: Missing English Subs in some sections

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Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature - Alan Cole

Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature - Alan Cole
This beautifully written work sheds new light on the origins and nature of Mahayana Buddhism with close readings of four well-known texts--the Lotus Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Tathagatagarbha Sutra, and Vimalakirtinirdesa. Treating these sutras as literary works rather than as straightforward philosophic or doctrinal treatises, Alan Cole argues that these writings were carefully sculpted to undermine traditional monastic Buddhism and to gain legitimacy and authority for Mahayana Buddhism as it was veering away from Buddhism's older oral and institutional forms. His sophisticated and sustained analysis of the narrative structures and seductive literary strategies used in these sutras suggests that they were specifically written to encourage devotion to the written word instead of other forms of authority, be they human, institutional, or iconic.


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Why Buddhism?: Westerners in Search of Wisdom - Vicki Mackenzie

Why Buddhism?: Westerners in Search of Wisdom - Vicki Mackenzie
Why Buddhism? is a series of interviews through which Vicki McKenzie (author of Cave in the Snow) explores the reason for Buddhism's growing appeal in western society.

Through personal examples, this book will reveal what Buddhism means to a wide range of people in the UK, Australia and US. The interviews are inspiring and informative, covering the process each person went through in becoming involved in Buddhism, as well as the effect it has had on their lives and any difficulties they've encountered.

The subjects interviewed in Why Buddhism? range from the famous, like composer Phillip Glass, actor Tracy Mann, and author/teacher Robert Thurman, to the heroic, such as the nun who brings Buddhist teachings to hardened criminals in jail, the extraordinary - like the Buddhist diamond merchant, and the ordinary made remarkable - like the woman Queensland woman dying a good Buddhist death.

Popular rather than scholarly in tone, Why Buddhism? should appeal to those of us who are keen to know more about a religion that is much talked about but little understood.

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Wisdom of Buddha: The Samdhinirmochana Sutra - John Powers

Wisdom of Buddha: The Samdhinirmochana Sutra - John Powers
Buddhist scholars everywhere should rejoice. This is the first full translation of the Samdhinirmocana Sutra, an important exposition on the nature of existence attributed to the Buddha. This sutra is one of the primary texts of Yogacara, a branch of Mahayana Buddhism. Powers has wisely reproduced the Tibetan text from which he translates on the facing page to aid scholars. Sutras, like all religious tracts, are difficult to read, especially for those unfamiliar with the theological foundation of this form of Buddhism. Luckily for the scholar, the translator has heavily footnoted the more arcane passages and includes a useful bibliography. After reading the text, one wishes that a more comprehensive introduction of Yogacara was included with the translation, but this is a minor criticism of an important addition to the study of Buddhism. Recommended for theological and academic libraries.

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Heart Full of Soul - Krishna Das

Heart Full of Soul - Krishna Das
Night after night, in ashrams and temples, cavernous cathedrals and modest community theaters around the world, Krishna Das sits down behind his harmonium, flanked by his band of supporting musicians, greets the crowd that has gathered to sing, closes his eyes, and begins. And with his opening Om, everyone in the room sets off together on a priceless evening’s journey along the path of devotion.

Heart Full of Soul is a double-CD recording of just such an evening and just such a journey. It is rich with the burnished treasure of the Divine Name, passed back and forth, back and forth between KD and the audience, as they travel together the varied terrain of the heart: from the funky rhythms of “Radhe Radhe Shyam” through the intense longing of “All One (Hare Krishna)” and the balm of “Jaya Bhagavan,” and ending with KD’s joyous version of the gospel classic, “Jesus on the Main Line.”

This is not a single night’s performance caught in amber, but a gift that’s fresh with each listening, drawing us in to join in with Krishna Das in the compelling practice of namakirtan over and over, again and again, whoever and wherever we happen to be.

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Open to Desire: The Truth About What the Buddha Taught - Mark Epstein

Open to Desire: The Truth About What the Buddha Taught - Mark Epstein
Helping readers to reconcile their conflicting thoughts about desire from both a Buddhist and a psychological point of view, Mark Epstein’s well-received book now arrives in trade paperback.

It is common in both Buddhism and Freudian psychoanalysis to treat desire as if it is the root of all suffering and problems, but psychiatrist Mark Epstein believes this to be a grave misunderstanding. In his controversial defense of desire, he makes clear that it is the key to deepening intimacy with ourselves, each other, and our world.

Proposing that spiritual attainment does not have to be detached from intimacy or eroticism, Open to Desire begins with an exploration of the state of dissatisfaction that causes us to cling to irrational habits. Dr. Epstein helps readers overcome their own fears of desire so that they can more readily bridge the gap between self and other, cope with feelings of incompletion, and get past the perception of others as objects. Freed from clinging and shame, desire’s spiritual potential can then be opened up.

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Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang - Jacob Dalton, Sam van Schaik

Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang - Jacob Dalton, Sam van Schaik
This heavily indexed descriptive catalogue provides an indispensable doorway into the Tibetan Dunhuang collections. Its publication promises to make possible many further studies of these long-neglected treasures, particular those relating to the esoteric traditions of tantric Buddhism.

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