After Buddhism, the culmination of four decades of study and practice in the Tibetan, Zen and Theravada traditions, is Stephen Batchelor's attempt to set the record straight about who the Buddha was and what he was trying to teach. Combining critical readings of the earliest canonical texts with narrative accounts of five members of the Buddha's inner circle, Batchelor depicts the Buddha as a pragmatic ethicist rather than a dogmatic metaphysician. He envisions ...
A Guide to the Bodhisattava’s Way of Life: Sanskrit: Bodhisattvacharyavatara: Tibetan:Byang-Chub Sems-Pa’i Spyod-Pa-La ‘Jug-Pa
Shantideva's Bodhisattvacharyavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life) holds a unique place in Mahayana Buddhism akin to that of the Dhammapada in Hinayana Buddhism and the Bhagavad-Gita in Hinduism. In combining those rare qualities of scholastic precision, Spiritual depth and poetical beauty, its appeal extends to a wide audience of Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. Composed in India during the 8th century of the Christian era, it has since been an ...