Early Buddhism

An excellent, comprehensive introduction to Early Buddhism. It covers both theory and practice. This is a great audiobook for anyone - from beginner to teacher - who wants to learn or teach Early Buddhism.

One of the earliest of all Buddhist texts, the Atthakavagga, or Book of Eights, is a remarkable document, not only because it comes from the earliest strain of the literature - before the Buddha, as the title suggests, came to be thought of as a "Buddhist" - but also because its approach to awakening is so simple and free of adherence to any kind of ideology. Instead the Atthakavagga points to a direct and simple approach for attaining peace without requiring the adherence to doctrine.

Over the course of twenty-five centuries, Buddhism spread from its place of origin in northern India to become a global tradition of remarkable breadth, depth, and richness. Donald S. Lopez Jr. draws on the latest scholarship to construct a detailed and innovative history of Buddhism—not just as a chronology through the centuries or as geographic movement, but as a dense matrix of interconnections.

In this simple yet important book, Noah Rasheta takes profound Buddhist concepts and makes them easy to understand for anyone trying to become a better whatever-they-already-are.

The Dīghanikāya or Long Discourses of the Buddha is one of the four major collections of teachings from the early period of Buddhism. Its 34 suttas (in Sanskrit, sutras) demonstrate remarkable breadth in both content and style, forming a comprehensive collection. The Art of Listening gives an introduction to the Dīghanikāya and demonstrates the historical, cultural, and spiritual insights that emerge when we view the Buddhist suttas as oral literature.

This work is a translation of three early Indian Vajrayana treatises from the Sanskrit by three of the early Buddhist Tantric adepts renowned as Mahasiddhas, numbering by the most accepted account eighty-four, who flourished in the medieval era of India from the 8th-12th centuries C.E. The three authors are related by guru-disciple lineal succession, though the first two Anangavajra and Indrabhuti were most likely contemporaries and the third, Laksimnkara was the sister of Indrabhuti and hence his contemporary also. The treatises expound the world-view of Tantric Buddhism, (a.k.a. as ...

This volume continues to trace the development of Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophy in India after its initiator, Nagarjuna. It consists of translations of Sanskrit texts into easily readable English for the general educated public interested in Buddhism or philosophy. Notes and separate Essays dealing with the philosophical content are also included. Presented in this volume are the central philosophical writings of the last two prominent Indian Madhyamikas and two Madhyamaka critiques of the idea of a creator God. Parts of two texts by Chandrakirti are presented: Chapter 6 of Entering the ...

This is an audiobook of Bodhi Leaves No. 56 by Dr. H. Hecker, James Allen, and Kosho Yamamoto.

The three treatises translated herein from the original Sanskrit represent the earliest phase of Vajrayana expository literature. A principle expounded in common by all is the utilization of the special skillful means (upaya-kaushalya) of Vajrayana to transmute afflictive emotions (klesha), especially desire (kama), into Great Bliss (mahasukha) and enlightenment (bodhi). This principle has been called Kama-Siddhi, the "Perfection of Desire" in the Cakrasamvaratantra and cited in Anangayogi's Dakinijalasamvararahasya, the first treatise translated in this volume. The dates of composition ...

This remarkable collection of 73 verses contained in the 'Khuddaka Nikaya' section of the Pali Canon dates from the BC 6th century. It is said to be the earliest voices of women in recorded history. The verses, some brief, some more extended, are the utterances of the bhikkhunis, the nuns at the time of the Buddha, concerning their life and their ‘awakening’.

The Theragatha is one of the most striking texts in the Pali Canon. It is a collection of 264 poems or verses - some short, some long - by monks who, traditionally, lived at the time of the Buddha, and which expressed their experience of insight, the culmination of their spiritual path. In fact, it is generally recognised now that this collection was added to over the years, so that some of the verses date from a later time.