The Buddha and the Sahibs
The Buddha and the Sahibs

Author: Charles Allen

Publisher: John Murray

Published: 2015-09-24

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1473617936

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Today there are many Buddhists in the West, but for 2000 years the Buddha's teachings were unknown outside Asia. It was not until the late 18th century, when Sir William Oriental Jones, a British judge in India, broke through the Brahmin's prohibition on learning their sacred language. Sanskrit, that clues about the origins of a religion quite distinct from Hinduism began to be deciphered from inscriptions on pillars and rocks. This study tells the story of the search that followed, as evidence mounted that countries as diverse as Ceylon, Japan and Tibet shared a religion which had its origins in India yet was unknown there. British rule brought to India, Burma and Ceylon a whole band of enthusiastic Orientalist amateurs - soldiers, administrators and adventurers - intent on investigating the subcontinent's lost past. Unwittingly, these men helped lay the foundations for the revival of Buddhism in Asia during the 19th century and its spread to the West in the 20th. Charles Allen's book is a mixture of detective work and story-telling, as this acknowledged master of British Indian history pieces together early Buddhist history to bring a handful of extraoridinary characters to life.

The Search for the Buddha
The Search for the Buddha

Author: Charles Allen

Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers

Published: 2004-05-24

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 9780786713745

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The historian-author of Soldier Sahibs illuminates the role of British soldiers who unlocked the secrets of Sanskrit and introduced the teachings of Buddhism to the Western world in the late eighteenth century. Reprint.

Ashoka
Ashoka

Author: Charles L. Allen

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Published: 2012-09-27

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781468300710

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Through his third century BCE quest to govern the Indian subcontinent by moral force alone, Ashoka transformed Buddhism from a minor sect into a major world religion. His bold experiment ended in tragedy, and in the tumult that followed the historical record was cleansed so effectively that his name was largely forgotten for almost two thousand years. Yet, a few mysterious stone monuments and inscriptions miraculously survived the purge. In Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor, historian Charles Allen tells the incredible story of how a few enterprising archaeologists deciphered the mysterious lettering on keystones and recovered India's ancient past. Drawing from rich sources, Allen crafts a clearer picture of this enigmatic figure than ever before.

Sacred Traces
Sacred Traces

Author: Janice Leoshko

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1351550306

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In his novel Kim, in which a Tibetan pilgrim seeks to visit important Buddhist sites in India, Rudyard Kipling reveals the nineteenth-century fascination with the discovery of the importance of Buddhism in India's past. Janice Leoshko, a scholar of South Asian Buddhist art uses Kipling's account and those of other western writers to offer new insight into the priorities underlying nineteenth-century studies of Buddhist art in India. In the absence of written records, the first explorations of Buddhist sites were often guided by accounts of Chinese pilgrims. They had journeyed to India more than a thousand years earlier in search of sacred traces of the Buddha, the places where he lived, obtained enlightenment, taught and finally passed into nirvana. The British explorers, however, had other interests besides the religion itself. They were motivated by concerns tied to the growing British control of the subcontinent. Building on earlier interventions, Janice Leoshko examines this history of nineteenth-century exploration in order to illuminate how early concerns shaped the way Buddhist art has been studied in the West and presented in its museums.

Great Disciples of the Buddha
Great Disciples of the Buddha

Author: Nyanaponika

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-01-30

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 086171864X

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A perennial favorite, Great Disciples of the Buddha is now relaunched in our best-selling Teachings of the Buddha series. Twenty-four of the Buddha's most distinguished disciples are brought to life in ten chapters of rich narration. Drawn from a wide range of authentic Pali sources, the material in these stories has never before been assembled in a single volume. Through these engaging tales, we meet all manner of human beings - rich, poor, male, female, young, old - whose unique stories are told with an eye to the details of ordinary human concerns. When read with careful attention, these stories can sharpen our understanding of the Buddhist path by allowing us to contemplate the living portraits of the people who fulfilled the early Buddhist ideals of human perfection. The characters detailed include: Sariputta Nanda Mahamoggallana Mahakassapa Ananda Isidasi Anuruddha Mahakaccana Angulimala Visakha and many more. Conveniently annotated with the same system of sutta references used in each of the other series volumes, Great Disciples of the Buddha allows the reader to easily place each student in the larger picture of Buddha's life. It is a volume that no serious student of Buddhism should miss.

Where Is the Buddha?
Where Is the Buddha?

Author: Thich Nhat Hanh

Publisher: Parallax Press

Published: 2021-11-23

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 1952692067

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A new story for children from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh: a young boy named Minh goes on a journey to find the Buddha, only to discover the Buddha is in each one of us Minh loves going to the temple with his parents. Everyone is nice to him there as they go about their daily work. But his favorite part of the temple is the Buddha statue. He is very impressed by all of the bananas, mangoes, and other fruits that people leave for the Buddha. He imagines that the Buddha must really like all of those fruits! To Minh, the Buddha statue is the Buddha. As Minh grows up, eventually he realizes that the Buddha statue isn't actually the Buddha. But if the statue isn't the Buddha, then what is? Where is the Buddha? With his characteristic insight, sincerity, and sense of humor, Thich Nhat Hanh guides young readers through a charming tale of discovery, beginning in India with the story of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha, and then on to Vietnam with Minh and his quest. Includes a section at the end of the book on How to Be a Buddha, with basic breathing exercises and meditations for children.

Buddhist India
Buddhist India

Author: Thomas William Rhys Davids

Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.

Published: 1971

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9788120804241

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1903. In this volume Rhys, the celebrated Buddhist scholar, attempts to describe ancient India, during the period of Buddhist ascendancy, from the point of view, not so much of the brahmin, as of the rajput. The two points of view naturally differ very much. Priest and noble in India have always worked very well together so long as the question at issue did not touch their own rival claims as against one another. When it did-and it did so especially during the period referred to-the harmony, as will be evident from the following pages, was not so great.

Introduction to Buddhist Meditation
Introduction to Buddhist Meditation

Author: Sarah Shaw

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-04-30

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 104000668X

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This lively introduction to Buddhist meditation offers students and practitioners alike a deeper understanding of what meditation is and its purpose and place in the context of different Buddhist schools. The historical background and geographical spread of Buddhist meditation is explored alongside an examination of the development of meditative practices. Chapters cover basic meditative practice, types of meditation, meditation in different regions, meditation and doctrine, and the role of chanting within meditation. Although not a practical guide, Introduction to Buddhist Meditation outlines the procedures associated with Buddhist practices and suggests appropriate activities, useful both for students and interested Buddhists. Vivid quotations from Buddhist texts and carefully selected photographs and diagrams help the reader engage fully with this fascinating subject. Thoroughly revised throughout, this new edition also features a glossary and key, making it ideal reading for students approaching the topic of Buddhist meditation for the first time.

Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

Author: Stephen Batchelor

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2010-03-02

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1588369846

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Does Buddhism require faith? Can an atheist or agnostic follow the Buddha’s teachings without believing in reincarnation or organized religion? This is one man’s confession. In his classic Buddhism Without Beliefs, Stephen Batchelor offered a profound, secular approach to the teachings of the Buddha that struck an emotional chord with Western readers. Now, with the same brilliance and boldness of thought, he paints a groundbreaking portrait of the historical Buddha—told from the author’s unique perspective as a former Buddhist monk and modern seeker. Drawing from the original Pali Canon, the seminal collection of Buddhist discourses compiled after the Buddha’s death by his followers, Batchelor shows us the Buddha as a flesh-and-blood man who looked at life in a radically new way. Batchelor also reveals the everyday challenges and doubts of his own devotional journey—from meeting the Dalai Lama in India, to training as a Zen monk in Korea, to finding his path as a lay teacher of Buddhism living in France. Both controversial and deeply personal, Stephen Batchelor’s refreshingly doctrine-free, life-informed account is essential reading for anyone interested in Buddhism.