Books in Brief
An annotated selection of new and noteworthy guidebooks, teachings, and scholarly texts
The Practice of Mahamudra
Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche
Snow Lion Publications, $12.95
Mahamudra is the highest teaching in the Kagyupa school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Practice of Mahamudra is a thorough explanation of this teaching, condensed from talks given in the United States by Chetsong Rinpoche, the 37th Drikung Kyabgon.
Appearance & Reality:The Two Truths in the Four Buddhist Tenet Systems
Guy Newland
Snow Lion, Publications, $14.95
The two truths, ultimate and conventional, are central concepts to Buddhism, and have been recommended by the Dalai Lama as an excellent starting point for Westerners in their understanding of the Buddha’s religion. Essentially, they deal with what and how things really are. The four tenet systems discussed by Guy Newland are the madhyamika, cittamatra, sautrantika, and vaibhasika, which are traditionally studied in Tibetan monasteries. Like most books of this nature from a Gelugpa viewpoint, Appearance & Reality is thorough, well-researched, and somewhat dry.
Ethics For the New Millennium
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Riverhead, $24.95
Opening the Eye of New Awareness
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Translated by Donald Lopez, Jr.
Wisdom Publications, $14.95
Although the Dalai Lama has recently declared the coming of the new millennium to be essentially meaningless, it does provide a good chance to stop and take stock of where we are and where we are going. In Ethics For the New Millennium, His Holiness tackles the thorny problems of politics, environmental degradation, war, education, human rights, and more, offering the ethics of restraint, compassion, virtue, and responsibility as antidotes to the coming ills of the next thousand years. While his view is informed by his Tibetan Buddhist insight and understanding, the book contains little in the way of Buddhist terminology and will make easy reading for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.
The Dalai Lama uses a different approach in Opening the Eye of New Awareness, a revised edition of one of his first books, originally written in the early years of his exile from Tibet. He relies on his training and quotes from many sutras and teaching texts to give an overview of Tibetan Buddhism for the reader, covering both theory and practice.
Going Home
Jesus and Buddha as Brothers
Thich Nhat Hanh
Riverhead, $22
Fragrant Palm Leaves
Journals 1962-1966
Thich Nhat Hanh
Parallax Press, $20
Following up on his best-selling Living Buddha, Living Christ, Vietnamese Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh continues the Buddhist-Christian dialogue with Going Home. He finds many surface differences and interior similarities between these two great traditions, and offers soothing words for those seeking to understand each other in these separate religions.
Fragrant Palm Leaves offers a more intimate peek into the mind of this modern Buddhist master at a tumultuous time in his life. From 1962-1963 he was student and teaching assistant at Princeton and Columbia Universities, struggling with the violent divisions that shook his homeland and his desire to make Buddhism more accessible to the common people. The journal chronicles his return to Vietnam and his work to establish an “engaged” Buddhism that actively participates in the social and political dimensions of the world. The final entry comes as he is leaving Vietnam once more to live in exile, a tragic separation that continues to this day.
Beyond the Sky and the Earth
A Journey in Bhutan
Jamie Zeppa
Riverhead, $25.95
Jamie Zeppa, a Canadian who left her family at 25 to teach in the remote Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, offers a window into Bhutanese life through her narrative of travel and self-discovery.
Essays on Marriage
Seikan Hasegawa
Great Ocean Publishers
Mind to Mind
Seikan Hasegawa
Great Ocean Publishers, $40
Seikan Hasegawa may have been born in a temple, become a priest at age fourteen, and studied Buddhism in Japan and Thailand before coming to America, but he is well acquainted with the trials of everyday family life in samsara. A husband and father himself, in Essays on Marriage he offers an experienced Zen perspective on issues such as choosing a mate, divorce, sex, and child-rearing. When was the last time you heard a Zen master talk about losing one’s virginity?
Mind to Mind is also informed by Hasegawa’s personal experiences, but the book is even more ambitious. More than 1000 pages in length, this novel charts the experiences and troubles of Hasegawa’s alter ego Mokuzu as he searches for enlightenment among the ashes and shifting tides of post-WWII Japan.
Many Petals of the Lotus
Five Asian Buddhist Communities in Toronto
Janet McLellan
University of Toronto Press
More than 250,000 Buddhists from many various ethnic backgrounds are estimated to live in Toronto. This meticulously researched book examines the lives and beliefs of members of the Japanese, Cambodian, Chinese, Tibetan, and Vietnamese communities. The ways in which these groups interact (and fail to interact) with each other and the dominant Western culture reveal much of what it universal and particular to different traditions of Buddhism.
American Buddhism
Methods and Findings in Recent Scholarship
Edited by Duncan Ryuken Williams and Christopher Queen
Curzon Press, $24.95
Some of the most prominent figures in current American Buddhist Studies lend their statistics and their opinions to this eclectic book. Chapters explore the influence of the Internet on Dharma, profile the silent nation of “night-stand Buddhists,” and fully explain the complex ethnic and religious issues involved in the infamous Buddhist campaign donations to Al Gore. The scholars also pause to examine their own positions as disseminators and creators of Buddhist identity in the West.
Suramgamasamadhisutra
The Concentration of Heroic Progress
An Early Mahayana Buddhist Scripture
Trans. and annotated by Etienne Lamotte
English trans. by Sara Boin-Webb
Curzon Press
The Suramgamasamadhi Sutra was composed thousands of years ago in India, and came to have widespread influence on the Mahayana schools in China and elsewhere. One of the core early Mahayana texts, it elucidates many of the basic Mahayana ideas and includes the surprising conversion of Mara, the Buddhist Satan, to the Buddha’s Dharma. Etienne Lamotte was a towering figure in 20th Century Buddhist Studies; with this translation, Boin-Webb continues the process of disseminating his insights and knowledge to the English-speaking world.
Karma and Chaos
New and Collected Essays of Vipassana Meditation
Paul R. Fleischman
Vipassana Research Publications, $12.95
Paul Fleischman is a noted psychiatrist and a teacher in S.N. Goenka’s lineage of Vipassana meditation. These collected essays range over many subjects, including a detailed account of who shouldn’t go on a meditation retreat and the author’s own reconciliation of Buddhist teachings with his skeptical scientific training. While much of Dr. Flieschman’s approach seems to represent Buddhist meditation as a therapy for the mind, he also carefully explains why Vipassana is not a form of psychotherapy and should not be treated as such.
The Three Principal Aspects of the Path
An Oral Teaching by Geshe Sonam Rinchen
Trans. by Ruth Sonam
Snow Lion, $14.95
Nagarjuna’s “Seventy Stanzas”
A Buddhist Psychology of Emptiness
Commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen
Snow Lion, $16.95
A graduate of Sera Je Monastery’s traditional curriculum, Geshe Sonam Rinchen brings a learned view to these teachings. The first book contains a short work by Tsongkhapa and the Geshe’s own teachings on the desire for freedom from suffering, the wish to benefit all beings, and the realization of true emptiness. Nagarjuna’s “Seventy Stanzas” are a basic part of the Gelugpa monastic curriculum, which the Geshe uses to illuminate the critical Buddhist concept of shunyata.
Tricycle Gift Books for the 1999 Holidays (or Buddhist Calendar Year 2543)
Tabletop Books
Buddha
The Living Way
deForest Trimingham
Random House, 1998, $35 (hardcover)
deForest Trimingham aims his camera at classic Buddhist sites from Nepal to Japan to Vermont and places in between, but his unusual eye imbues traditional images with a fresh new look.
Buddha in the Landscape
A Sacred Expression of Thailand
Mark Standen
Pomegranate, 1999, $12.95, (softcover)
Awash in golds, greens, and stark white, Buddha in the Landscape takes the reader on a lavish tour through the colorful world of modern Thai Buddhism.
Tibet Through the Red Box
Peter Sis
Farrar Straus Giroux, 1998, $25 (hardcover)
Sis’s impressionistic exploration of his father’s journeys in Tibet will fascinate readers of all ages. A unique and beautiful book.
The Tibetan Art of Healing
Ian Baker and Romio Shrestha
Chronicle Books, 1997, $29.95 (softcover)
This book vividly depicts the world of traditional Tibetan medicine, a science based on the inherent connection between mind and bodily health. Unique remedies include yak meat, sexual intercourse, and the dried blood of a murder victim.
Kathmandu Valley Paintings
The Jucker Collection
Hugo Kreijger
Shambhala, $65
For a classy tabletop gift, this collection of previously unpublished Nepalese art is perfect.
The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Myths
Robert Beer
Shambhala, 1999, $60 (hardcover)
Robert Beer’s thirty years of work and study in the Tibetan artistic tradition are summarized in the thousands of intricate drawings and paintings of this collection. For anyone with more than a passing interest in thangkas, this is the OED of Tibetan iconography.
Ruthless Compassion
Wrathful Deities in Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhist Art
Rob Linrothe
Shambhala, 1999, $55 (hardcover)
Another great tabletop gift, Linrothe uses color and black-and-white images to trace the evolution of the wrathful deity motif in India and Tibet.
Bhutan
Kingdom of the Dragon
Robert Dompnier
Shambhala, $59.95
The next best thing to being there. A visit without the altitude sickness.
Worlds of Transformation
Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion
Marilyn Rhie and Robert Thurman
Harry Abrams, 1999, $95 (hardcover)
One of the priciest and grandest tomes on the Buddhist book market – Rhie and Thurman flesh out the universe of the Tibetan religious imagination with more than 200 full-color plates.
The Spirit of Tibet
Portrait of a Culture in Exile
Alison Wright
Snow Lion, 1998, $34.95 (softcover)
Immensely appealing images that document the strength and beauty of Tibetan exiles in India. With its tragic political subtext, this will interest Free Tibet enthusiasts as well as photo-philes.
The Buddha Scroll
Thomas Cleary
Shambhala, 1999, $25 (hardcover)
Here’s your chance to have that 36-foot-long twelfth-century Chinese scroll you’ve always wanted. A perfect present at a wallet-friendly price.
Buddhist Treasures From Nara
Michael Cunningham
Hudson Hills Press, 1999, $65 (hardcover)
More Japanese statues, scrolls, paintings, jars, and ornaments than you can shake a Zen-stick at. For aficionados of Japanese art, this is a treasure trove.
The Art of Twentieth-Century Zen
Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Masters
Audrey Yoshiko Seo and Stephen Addiss
Shambhala, 1998, $65 (hardcover)
Playful black-and-white expressions of the enlightened mind from contemporary Zen masters.
Sengai
The Zen of Ink and Paper
D.T. Suzuki
Shambhala, $17.95
Unorthodox and witty, Sengai (1751�1837) is regarded as one of the greatest Zen artists of all time. This was the final text written by the monumentally important scholar, D. T. Suzuki and he considered it a summation of his work.
Gifts For Kids
The Monkey Bridge
Rafe Martin and Fahimeh Amiri
Alfred Knopf, 1997, $17 (softcover)
A traditional Buddhist story, wherein a king learns the true meaning of power from a compassionate monkey.
The Hungry Tigress
Buddhist Myths, Legends, and Jataka Tales
Rafe Martin
Yellow Moon Press, 1999, $16.95 (softcover)
Jataka tales, the traditional fables of Buddhist Asia, derive from stories about the past lives of the historical Buddha when he embodied animal forms. Martin’s re-tellings of these teaching stories will entertain, and inspire further reflection.
Buddha and His Friends
S. Dhammika and Susan Harmer
Times Books International, 1997, $9.95 (softcover)
Fully illustrated teaching tales of the Buddha’s life.
Anathapindika and Other Stories
S. Dhammika and Susan Harmer
Times Books International, 1998, $9.95 (softcover)
More illustrated stories from the time of the Buddha, including an assasination attempt on Shakyamuni’s life via a rampaging elephant.
The Cat That Lived a Million Times
Sano Yoko
Translated by Judith Huffman
University of Hawai’i Press, 1998, $16.95 (hardcover)
A poignant Japanese Buddhist story of love and loss.
The Wisdom of the Crows and Other Buddhist Tales
Sherab Chodzin, Alexandra Kohn, and Marie Cameron
Tricycle Press, 1998, $16.95 (softcover)
Enchanting stories from India, Tibet, China, and Japan depict a world of talking animals, wise sages, and dangerous monsters.
Poetry suggestions
The Gary Snyder Reader
Gary Snyder and Jim Dodge
Counterpoint, 1999, $35 (hardcover)
The most complete collection of poems from the American Buddha of the Pacific Northwest.
Japanese Death Poems
Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death
Yoel Hoffman
Charles Tuttle, 1998, $16.95 (softcover)
“Empty-handed I entered the world.
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going –
Two simple happenings
That got entangled.”
The Essential Basho
translated by Sam Hamill
Shambhala, 1999, $25 (hardcover)
Four of Basho’s works, including his famous Narrow Road to the Interior, further enhanced by poet Sam Hamill’s sensitive translations.
Chiyo-ni
Woman Haiku Master
Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi
Charles Tuttle, 1998, $14.95 (softcover)
The first book in English on Chiyo-ni (1703-1775), Japan’s most celebrated female haiku poet.
The Zen Works of Stonehouse
Poems and Talks of a Fourteenth-Century Chinese Hermit
translated by Red Pine
Mercury House, 1999, $14.95 (softcover)
“You run around waving scissors and tape
busy all day with needle and thread
when you’re done measuring others
do you ever measure yourself?”
The Selected Poetry of Po Chu-I
translated by David Hinton
New Directions, 1999, $14.95 (softcover)
Twelve centuries later, Po Chu-I is still one of the great Chinese poets and David Hinton is emerging as one of the best translators.
The Buddhist Third Class Junkmail Oracle
The Art and Poetry of d. a. levy
Mike Golden
Seven Stories Press, $21.95 (softcover)
Step into a slightly fractured Buddhist world as you explore the strange phenomenon of d. a. levy, a suicidal visionary who published a dharma rag out of Cleveland, Ohio in the late sixties.
For Mom
When Things Fall Apart:
Heart Advice for Difficult Times
Pema Chodron
Shambhala, 1997, $20, (hardcover)
There are few Dharma voices as clear as Pema Chodron’s, and few people who know more about things falling apart than mothers.
Going Both Ways: For nostalgic baby boomers to buy for themselves, for each other, or for quality bonding with their kids, or for twenty-somethings to buy for themsleves, each other, or their parents
The Dharma Bums
Jack Kerouac
Penguin, 1991, $12.95 (softcover)
The book that Kerouac thought would start a “rucksack revolution” on the nation’s highways and byways. A must for armchair adventurers.
On The Road
Jack Kerouac
Viking, 1997, $24.95 (hardcover)
The undisputed, heavyweight champ of the American counterculture, sounding its barbaric yawp over the rooftops of America. Bursting with visions, music, madness, and the relentless scream of rubber on asphalt.
Big Sky Mind
Buddhism and the Beat Generation
edited by Carole Tonkinson
Riverhead, 1995, $15 (softcover)
Another cross-generational book, this anthology reconfigures the best of the beats in terms of their radical contribution to the history of religion in America, and specifically, their influence on the unfolding of Dharma in the West.
Wisdom of the Zen Masters
The Quest for Enlightenment
Tsai Chih Chung
translated by Brian Bruya
Anchor Books, 1998, $11.95 (softcover)
The latest in a series of delightful comic books of Eastern wisdom. Huineng has never looked so cute.
Introducing Buddha
Jane Hope and Borin Van Loon
Totem Books, 1995, $10.95 (softcover)
Guaranteed to convince the kids that Buddha is “the bomb.”
Gifts From Everyone to Anyone
Buddhism Plain & Simple
The Practice of Being Aware, Right Now, Every Day
Steve Hairn
Broadway, 1998, $10 (softcover)
It doesn’t get any plainer or simpler than this.
Awakening the Buddha Within
Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World
Lama Surya Das
Broadway, 1998, $15 (softcover)
A complete package of Buddhist practices and insight for Westerners.
Entering the Stream
An Introduction to the Buddha and His Teachings
edited by Samuel Bercholz and Sherab Chodzin Kohn
Shambhala, 1994, $18, (softcover)
An excellent selection of teachings from the shoreline to the deep end of the Buddhist spectrum.
The Roaring Stream
A New Zen Reader
edited by Nelson Foster and Jack Shoemaker
Ecco Press, 1997, $18, (softcover)
A gold mine of Zen.
Taking the Path of Zen
Robert Aitken
North Point Press, 1985, $11, (softcover)
One of America’s foremost Zen teachers gently leads the reader down the path.
Ethics for the New Millennium
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Riverhead, 1999 $24.95 (hardcover)
Kindness and compassion are on every page of this gentle read. Good sound bytes for Buddha wannabes. For example: “Well, as the Dalai Lama writes, ‘Our every act has a universal dimension.’”
Tried But True
The Three Pillars of Zen
Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition
Philip Kapleau
Anchor, 1989, $13.95, (softcover)
The book that launched a thousand Zen careers.
Introduction to Zen Buddhism
D.T. Suzuki
Grove Press, 1991, $10 (softcover)
No shelf is complete without at least one Suzuki volume.
Being Peace
Thich Nhat Hanh
Parallax Press, 1988, $10 (softcover)
“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.”
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
Chogyam Trungpa
Shambhala, 1987, $14 (softcover)
A true classic, Trungpa Rinpoche’s message to America is perhaps even truer today than ever.
What the Buddha Taught
Walpola Rahula
Grove Press, 1986, $12, (softcover)
This little gem continues to be one of the clearest and straightforward Buddhist books on the market.
A Path With Heart
A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life
Jack Kornfield
Bantam, 1993, $$14.95 (softcover)
With humor and insight, Jack Kornfield patiently explains the Buddhist way to bring deep spirituality into your everyday life.
How the Swans Came to the Lake
A Narrative History of Buddhism in America
Rick Fields
Shambhala, 1992, $28 (softcover)
The arrival and blossoming of the Dharma in America, compellingly told by a writer who did much to cultivate it. Fields’s classic will be the definitive book on the subject for many years to come.
Buddha for President
Inner Revolution
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness
Robert Thurman
Riverhead, 1999, $14 (softcover)
The Road Less Traveled
Beyond the Sky and the Earth
Jamie Zeppa
A Journey into Bhutan
Riverhead, 1999, $25.95, (hardcover)
Admit it: you wish you could travel to the remote Himalayas, meet Buddhist teachers, and be romanced by a handsome young Bhutanese man. Well, Zeppa beat you to it.
Circling the Sacred Mountain
A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas
Robert Thurman and Tad Wise
Bantam, 1999, $25.95 (hardcover)
Noted Buddhologist Robert Thurman and writer-adventurer Tad Wise lead a group of spiritual seekers to Mount Kailash, the most magical place in Tibet.
Meeting the Buddha
On Pilgrimage in Buddhist India
edited by Molly Emma Aitkin
Riverhead, 1995, $12 (softcover)
All the joys of pilgrimage, without the callouses.
Stocking Stuffers
Buddha Laughing
A Tricycle Book of Cartoons
Bell Tower, 1999, $4.95 (softcover)
Proves that even emptiness can be pretty darn funny; do not read while operating heavy machinery.
Breath Sweeps Mind
A First Guide to Meditation Practice
edited by Jean Smith
Riverhead, 1998, $14 (softcover)
Encouragement and advice for brand new Buddhists from seasoned voices including Jack Kornfield, Sogyal Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama, and friends.
Radiant Mind
Essential Buddhist Teachings and Texts
edited by Jean Smith
Riverhead, 1999, $14 (softcover)
Easily digestible selections from 2500 years worth of Buddhist wisdom.
Sitting
A Guide to Buddhist Meditation
Diana St. Ruth
Penguin, 1998, $9.95 (softcover)
As the title implies, clear and precise instruction on how to get your butt on the cushion and keep it there.
For Birds Not Of A Feather
Afterzen
Janwillem van de Wetering
St. Martin’s Press, 1999, $21.95 (hardcover)
Van de Wetering’s third volume about his Zen misadventures in Japan and New England.
For Skeptics, Agnostics, And Non-Believers, Here’s Your Man
Buddhism Without Beliefs
A Contemporary Guide to Awakening
Stephen Batchelor
Riverhead, 1998, $12 (softcover)
The Faith To Doubt
Glimpses of Buddhist Uncertainty
Stephen Batchelor
Parallax Press, 1990, $13.50 (softcover)
Alone With Others
An Existential Approach to Buddhism
Stephen Batchelor
Grove Press, 1983, $10 (softcover)
Only in America
The Accidental Buddhist
Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still
Dinty Moore
Main Street Books, 1999, $12 (softcover)
From Zen Mountain Monastery to the Dalai Lama, Moore stumbles about the American Buddhist landscape getting everything wrong and having a marvelous time of it.
Crooked Cucumber
The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki
David Chadwick
Broadway Books, 1999, $26 (hardcover)
Am honest biography of one of the most beloved and influential teachers to come to the West.
Bearing Witness
A Zen Master’s Lessons in Making Peace
Bernie Glassman
Bell Tower, 1999, $13 (softcover)
Heart advice for bringing a Buddhist view to the most painful parts of samsara, from urban homelessness to Auschwitz.
The Complete Guide to Buddhist America
Don Morreale
Shambhala, 1998, $23.95 (softcover)
Everything you wanted to know and more about where to practice in America.
Great Eastern Sun
Chogyam Trungpa
Shambhala, 1999, $23 (cloth)
The writings of one of America’s most beloved Buddhist teachers are presented in this companion volume to Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior.
The Buddhist Directory
The Total Buddhist Resource Guide
Compiled by Peter Lorie and Julie Foakes
Tuttle, 1997, $24.95 (paper)
This directory has everything you need to know about Buddhism in America, from a comprehensive listing of traditions and centers to a directory of vegetarian restaurants.
Buddhism and The Information Age
Reinventing the Wheel
A Buddhist Response to the Information Age
Peter D. Hershock
SUNY, 1999, $16.95 (paper)
Hershock assesses out rapidly growing dependence on emerging technologies and urges a new turning of the wheel of Dharma for the 21st century.
Zen Computer
Mindfulness and the Machine
Philip Toshio Sudo
Simon & Schuster, 1999, $22 (cloth)
The future may be driven by technology, but cyberspace and virtual reality will still be realms of samsara.
Karma and Chaos
New and Collected Essays on Vipassana Meditation
Edited by Paul R. Fleischman, M.D.
Vipassana Research Publications, 1999, $12.95 (paper)
Is chaos the arrow of time, or is it karma? Dr. Fleischman’s collection of essays relates complex ideas in simple language that is at once sensitive and incisive.