Buddhist books winter 2024 3

Lifting As They Climb: Black Women Buddhists & Collective Liberation
by Toni Pressley-Sanon
Shambhala Publications, 2024, 328 pp., $24.95, paper

Weaving together the timelines and testimonials of six Black Buddhist women, this collection, edited by Toni Pressley-Sanon, pays tribute to an essential history relevant to contemporary American Buddhism. This poignant autobiographical text interrogates the isolation shared by Black women Buddhists in predominantly white, affluent Buddhist spaces. Beyond this, Pressley-Sanon spotlights the contributions of Black Buddhists who also embrace African wisdom traditions and ancestry in their work toward collective liberation.

Buddhist books winter 2024 2

Real-World Enlightenment: Discovering Ordinary Magic in Everyday Life
by Susan Kaiser Greenland
Shambhala Publications, 2024, 240 pp., $18.95, paper

In this book, built on the lofty premise that real-world enlightenment is accessible in the here and now, Susan Kaiser Greenland offers practical advice for dealing with the stresses of work and home. Real-world enlightenment is described as an “experience of love and well-being that reaches far beyond us,” and is also known as awe or wonder. Each chapter is divided into bite-size pieces full of easily digestible nuggets of practices and takeaways to sustain readers throughout their busy day.

Buddhist books winter 2024 4

Original Love: The Four Inns on the Path of Awakening
by Henry Shukman
HarperOne, 2024, 352 pp., $27.99, hardcover

Poet and Zen teacher Henry Shukman’s new book is “a work of unabashed advocacy” with the immodest goal of teaching readers to love meditation. Based on a 6th-century Chinese document describing the path of meditation as a cart track, the book is presented as a journey punctuated by four inns: mindfulness, support, absorption, and awakening. Ostensibly secular, the book is deeply grounded in dharma and loaded with guided meditations that grow more advanced as the journey progresses.


Illustration by Ben Wiseman

Scholar’s Corner

Candrakīrti’s Introduction to the Middle Way: A Guide
by Jan Westerhoff
Oxford University Press, 2024, 296 pp., $29.95, paper

The 3rd-century Indian monk Nagarjuna forever changed Mahayana Buddhist thought, and the 7th-century scholar-monk Candrakīrti is one of the few commentators on Nagarjuna’s teaching to reach an equal level of importance. Jan Westerhoff, a University of Oxford professor of Buddhist philosophy, takes up the classic commentary mantle and offers a detailed explication of Candrakīrti’s Introduction to the Middle Way. Meant to be read side by side with the text, Westerhoff’s introduction, comprehensive commentary, and helpful synopsis illuminate this critical text of Nagarjuna’s Madhyamaka school. Practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism will find this particularly useful.


WHAT WE’RE REREADING

An Unentangled Knowing: The Teachings of a Thai Buddhist Lay Woman

An Unentangled Knowing: The Teachings of a Thai Buddhist Lay Woman

by Upasika Kee Nanayon, translated by Thānissaro Bhikkhu

Considered one of the foremost Thai Buddhist teachers of her time, Upasika (Laywoman) Kee (1901–1978), with her aunt and uncle, started a women’s practice center in 1945 with no formal organizational support. Kee displays amastery of the practice that shines through in this collection of dharma talks recorded during her long teaching career. Upasika Kee made the teachings her own and taught the dharma in a grounded and relatable way. With an introduction that explores the social challenges faced by female lay monastics, this short book (available for free download) offers a brief biography of Upasika Kee and will interest those seeking practical advice on Buddhist practice.

Thank you for subscribing to Tricycle! As a nonprofit, to keep Buddhist teachings and practices widely available.