Buddhist books
Much of Gandharan art is thus a compelling fusion of foreign styles that ultimately gave visual form to the region’s Buddhist religious ideals. Buddhism, which had emerged from north India, was embraced by the Gandharan people… Free PDF download (22 MB)
This book provides a detailed biography with a focus on the influential historical writings he composed to defend Chan claims of a “mind-to-mind transmission” tracing back to the historical Buddha.
Book review: There have been many translations of this short text over the years, but this is a completely fresh look and the translator comes up with some rather unique conclusions.
In 1996 around 400 Chinese stone sculptures of the Buddha were discovered in Qingzhou, China…
It is just as if a woman or a man, young, youthful, and fond of ornaments, would look at their own facial reflection in a clean bright mirror or in a bowl of clear water. If they see any dust or blemish there, they will make an effort to remove it. But if they do not see any dust or blemish there, they will be glad about it…
Short film: A Conversation on Chan (Zen) Buddhism with Bill Porter. About 30 minutes
Shenhui thus founded what became known as the Heze (in Japanese, Kataku) school of Zen. The branch largely died out during the early ninth century and is not remembered as a major school. Nevertheless, the doctrine of sudden enlightenment remained a central characteristic that defined the teaching styles and cultural flavour of later Chinese Zen…
With more than 5,000 entries totalling over a million words, this is one of the most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary of Buddhism in English. It is also the first to cover terms from all of the canonical Buddhist languages and traditions: Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean…
