Zen for Americans: Sermons of a Buddhist Abbot, Addresses on religious subjects & The Dhammapaha

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This book is a modern version about the understanding of th Prajnaparamita heart Sutra.

This book was extremely helpful in steps 7 and 8 because it had a lot of details about Mahayana Buddhism and was very easy to read. I enjoyed reading the information on "emptiness". Also like the other Thich Nhat Hanh books, this too is helpful and user friendly easy to read. It discusses more about looking through the eyes of your neighbor and understancing justice and peace by looking at things through other eyes. This book is a light reading and I like it although I did not for any of my steps. I just use it to have some feelings of a Buddhist monk who wrote it.

The Secret Power Within: Zen Solutions to Real Problems. This is an outstanding book this applies Zen Buddhism to real life problems. I used this book and it was very comprehensive on Zen Buddhism, I also used this book towards the end of my steps it was very interesting also. A textbook presentation of world religions. About one page is devoted to a brief explanation of Tendai. It also paraphrases the beginning of the Lotus Sutra very well. I thought this book was not very useful because it was so hard to understand.

The author expected the reader to have proir knowledge on the subject. Out of all the books that I checked out of the library, this book was the least helpful. I found this book particularly interesting as it outlines the eightfold path in the form of meditation. May take more than one reading. This was a fairly good source. It was not nearly informational as World of the Buddha, but it did include different literature on death and how one should relate to the dead.

This was interesting to me because I had not read about how Buddhist people feel about the dead or their rituals, practices, etc. It did not influence my paper a whole lot but it was interesting for me as a person to read and learn. Garden City Park, NewYork: Avery Publishing Group, Inc. Helpful with step six, sacred texts, but a little hard to read.

The back section was unreadable as it was in the Tibetan language, which was a little interesting view what they read. General editor, Religions of the World Made Simple: From Primitive Beliefs to Modern Faiths. Grosset and Dunlap, I used this text for a general understanding of Buddhism. I used this book to get defintions for a lot of terms that I found in other books.

This is a definite must for anyone studying Buddhism. Park, Austin and Lipscomb. Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East. The introduction was very helpful in explaining the background information about the Buddha, and his teachings, pp. I read this book entirely in one setting more than pages. I liked this book the most in all of the books I had read for this study. This book is well written and I found it very helpful for a few steps, not just one.

I obtained this book out of luck after searching a long time for the resources. A Policy of Kindness. This was an excellent source for step 7. It tells of the Dalai Lama's upbringing and his general life. It even includes some of his most famous speeches, like when he won the Nobel Peace Prize. It includes his views on nonviolence and justice, which directly relates to the class and tells of the battle with the Chinese people and how the Tibetan people are responding.

It is very informational as well as inspirational. He is a great man. This reading was vital to understand better, about intercultural communication. As the title suggests this book was beneficial in shedding lights on how Buddhism can be interpreted today's world. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. This was more or less a dictionary type book which listed Buddhist words and names, along with their meanings, in alphabetical order. This was an essential book in helping with the definitions of some obscure and difficult words that I came across in other texts. A somewhat clinical sociological study of the Zen religion, its structure and organization.

Somewhat dry but it served as a refreshing change from the confusing esoteric rhetoric of the other books. Very good for understanding everyday rituals, this also contains interesting sociological data. I read this book for Step 7 on sacred texts. It was fun to read an entire portion of Theravadan scripture rather than just bits and pieces. The reading was actually light, and Radhakrishnan provides explanatory notes where helpful for understanding the meaning of the text.

This is the sacred text I read most of it.

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It was more challenging because it had the translations under the original text. A lot of it was repetion and the footnotes that explained some of the passages were very helpful. This book was the Buddhist cannon, and was useful in understanding the different principles of Buddhism. This book is a great source for students because it is a simple, well organized, well written book. The Zen Buddhist recommended this book as being vital to the understanding of Zen Buddhism.

This book is authored by a present day Buddhist who presented the complexity of Buddhism to the novice without losing the basic essence of Buddhism. This book was most helpful in explaining The Four Noble Truths, The Eight Fold Path, the concepts of anatman, and the importance of the five skandhas in the overall view of karma, and the soul, and the view of justice and peace.

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: This book is interesting reading, and it is easy to understand when studying Zen Buddhism. A collection of Zen writtings. Provided a lot of insight. Ten Bulls was used in this paper. Dickenson Publishing Company, Inc.

God in Buddhism

The Five Great Religions. The section on Buddhism is a very general overview of Buddhism. I skimmed through the entire section, and referenced the section discussing the spread and split of Buddhism, p. From this book, I read the chapter on general teachings and practices of Buddhist's as well as the chapter on Zen Buddhism. This was a good book for writing on Buddhism's general ideas and practices step 5. This was a well organized and easy to understand book that was of much help to me in researching Buddhism.

Three Ways Of Asian Wisdom. Simon and Shuster, This is a very general text, which got me started in looking for more detailed information. This discussed violence in India and Sri Lanka. It also talks about Ghand's quest for a non-violent political philosophy. While this does not directly pertain to Buddhism, Ghandi is a prevalent figure in Hinduism, which is an important base for the origins of Buddhism. This was a volume of three books. They were both canonical texts of varying translation, and sutra stories. Looking at these books was helpful in setting the atmosphere for learning and reading about Buddhism.

I would not suggest these books as a major resource, because I felt they were overwhelming to deal with. This book was very helpful in outlining the basic beliefs of Buddhist thought. It talked about Buddha and His life giving many accounts and experiences , the Four Noble Truths, and Karma in a way that was easy to understand.

This book goes over the basic teachings of Buddhism in all the different schools. I read the parts of this book dealing with the teachings of Theravada Buddhism. This is a very easy read, although a few pages have been torn out. This book will put you up to your ankles in Buddhist terminology before you know what hit you. It is written for those outside of the Buddhist culture but assumes you have a bit of a background with the subject. I would suggest this book for various parts of almost all the steps, but be warned, you may want to read it after you have done some initial research.

From this book, I read the chapter on koans. I used this book in writing about Buddhist's texts step 7. It was a bit too academic for my tastes and for the purpose I was using it for. This book served me well in helping me to determine a good choice for my study of a sacred text in Buddhism. This book gives a good overview of many different worldviews. Not extremely in-depth, but agains, a good place to start. This book was the best resource of them all!! This book was the first of the resources I went to, because of its great simpleness to read and the wealth of information contained in a short chapter.

I am working on reading the entire packet. The section on Buddhism is what caused me to choose Buddhism for my topic of study. This section was also used in writing about general ideas and practices of Buddhists step 5. When I read the section on Buddhism, I was right away interested in finding more information about it. I remembered my sister getting into it so I felt the need to find out what sort of religion she was in. This section was also used in writing some general practices of Buddhists in step Once again I was very fortunate to have Buddhism covered in our major text which is what this was.

This book is very useful. It has about 90 pages on Buddhism. It explained really well and you can understand Buddhism better if you read this book early in your research. I liked this book because it is easy to read as well. Harper and Collins Publishers, Smith had the ability to actually extract the vital facets of a religion, and put it into easy and chronological order.

I read the section on Buddhism before starting my paper, and throughout the paper. Smith helps clarify a better understanding of Buddhism to the reader. I definitely would recommend the section on Buddhism, pp. This book went into great detail and was a great resource to follow up the general descriptions of the above books. It helped with the full understanding of some of the more difficult concepts. This book went in great detail and was a great resource to follow up the general descriptions of the above books.

This book did not help me much in the research department, but I did use it for the maps. The beginning pages have visual details about Tibet and where it is located. I found it helpful. This another good book for use as a vicarious experience. It is a guide to meditation, and encourages beginnners to try it. I found it helpful for my own attempts at meditating.

This is another good book for use as a vicarious experience. It is a guide to meditation, and encourages beginners to try it. Stone Oliver, Heaven and Earth Film.

World of the Buddha. New York, Grove Press, pp. This book was an excellent source for step 6. The most helpful thing I found in the book was a diagram laying out the sacred books. There are quite a few so it could get very confusing but with this diagram I could understand what part of literature I was reading and where it originated as well as what role it plays in today's Buddhism.

The other thing I really liked about this book is the fact that it contains so many readings. You do not have to keep looking around for other literature to read because it contains so many different forms of literature and many pieces in each form. I definitely recommend this book.

It could be hard to read at times but I think this was due to the fact that the literature is difficult, not the book itself. Essays in Zen buddhism: First Series Grove Press Inc. This book is very similar to Way of Zen. It is helpful for steps four, five and six. It is also can be a good guide for steps eight, nine and ten. This book is alos old but it has been reprinted so it is easier to read.

It also tells a lot about the history of Zen but it deals more with the methods and ways of the Zen. The author is an authority on the subject, I could not have written the paper without the book. This was another really good source. It had a lot of information in it, and it did not get to technical. The author is a world-renowned Zen master, and he knows what he is talking about. I enjoyed reading his writings, because he uses a clear and straight forward writing style. The book is collection of Suzuki's lectures in the west.

Lots of comparison and contrast between Zen and Christianity. I found Suzuki's lectures as a reaching out to others who know little of Zen. Suzuki patiently and orderly walks through Zen. He gives an orderly description to the history of Zen.

I found the book easy to understand. Suzuki takes his time in explaining this rather slippery religion. It is not necessary to read the entire book. Excellent for exploring the practice and essence of Zen. I mostly skimmed the chapters of this book. From glancing at the table of contents and from reading the table of contents, I gathered that this book elaborated on three of the eight precepts preached by the Buddha. It looked like a clear and simple explanation of the main points of overcoming suffering.

This book helped he very much in step 7 because it had a lot of information on "emptiness". The author's examples of emptiness helped me get a better grasp on what this sort of feeling means. At times I found this book hard to understand, but for the most part it was helpful. The book gave some good information on good and bad Karma, on the Dharmes, and also on Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.

An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. The Eastern Buddhist Society, I read the first two chapters, pages , which has clear descriptions of Zen Buddhism. Essays in Zen Buddhism. Suzuki really knows his Buddhism. This book is a very comprehensive book on Zen. Zen and Japanese Buddhism. Dai Nippon Printing Company, This was very helpful as a genreal starting point for Step 9. Although it does not discuss Tendai specifically, but overalll Buddhist thought indtead. I read the majority of this book and referenced back to it for much of my writings.

It was a good book and had a good index for referencing specific points of Buddhism. This book helped me in writing about general ideas and practices of Buddhism step 5. This is a translation of the Lotus Sutra for the Western Student. It is the best interpretaion of the Lotus Sutra that I found. It briefs you in the preface and defines the chapters a little clearer. Interesting to read in story form. A good partner to "The Practice of Meditation for Beginners" perhaps.

I used Soothill's book for Step 7. This book was loaned to me by my local resource and I don't know how readily available it would be to other students. I found it to be an excellent introduction to Buddhist beliefs and practices. It is a lot of reading, but worth it for the overview. I read this whole book about pages , and I wish there was more. I even read the appendices! This book gives the definitive story of the Vietnam War in the 60s and 70s, and shows us what we were never told.

Thich Nhat Hanh shows us the true image of Buddhism in the lives of a people torn apart by foreign powers, from whom they wish nothing by freedom. World Religions in War and Peace. Mcfarland and Company, This book I did find resourceful and used much in regards to Step 5. Thomas Jerry, Little Buddha.

Rudy Wurlitzer, and Mark Peploe. Buena Vista Home Video. Watching this movie was my first step in getting started. It is a good way to get one in the mood to start writing. For example, there is a wonderful metaphor explaining reincarnation, as explained by Dalai Norvu.

The authors gives very compelling arguments toward social revolution in a peaceful way. Some of it goes off on a tangent, however, and I got lost when he started discussing characteristics of the Buddha. North Point Press, Books w-z Go to books: This is a very good book that is short and easy to read the whole thing. It has many important parts especially for steps four through six. Give an attentive REreading to these passages in Ch.

The so-called spirituals, which Give an attentive reading to the section on "Spirituals" in Ch. Option 1 - Based on your attentive reading of the Handout of the Rev. No web-link - paper-copy handout in class. Choice of 1 of 2 Essay-questions 20 pts. I feel an appreciation Focus on Ranya's advocacy , in her response to a questioner, of "interfaith projects" which express her optimism about the future for Muslim-Americans as part of an envisioned Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition.

Focus on Suzanne's explanation to herself about the nature of faith in terms of what she calls a "faith journey," with every marker - "dot" - along the way as "sacred," since for her faith is "a gift from God" requiring work on the believer's part as well as, in Suzanne's life, "spiritual nourishment REwatch the mini-documentary of about 10 minutes presented by Tony Carnes about the many "Houses of Worship" representing the diversity of religious faith-traditions practiced in NYC, itself mirroring our Global Society.

As we saw in class, there is a FULL transcript included. PART I - 20 pts. See the RevPp above for more details with link. You will have a choice of 1 Essay-topic out of 3 options, and compose your in-class, hand-written Essay-response to one Essay-question related to either Ranya or Suzanne or Priscilla. In these pages, Ranya presents her reflections on how her understanding of God toward Whom she made her own humble, mindful "leap" of faith - her "surrender to God" - developed from roots going all the way back to her childhood.

As you reread think about WHAT she tells us. And what are YOUR thoughts about her thoughts? Any meaningful connection with your life? Be prepared to explain In these pages Suzanne also presents her reflections on how her later-in-life after college understanding of "a more subtle God" had its roots in her childhood and youth, BUT developed beyond her earlier notions [ "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, Paul, I Corinthians So, as you reread think about WHAT she tells us about how she was enabled "to understand my connection to God.

Joe L's affirmation of tikkun olam. AND think about how their ideas might - or might not - connect with your own life. No notes or book.

is a totally awesome idea still being worked on.

All in your wonderful minds! In these pages, RANYA presents her reflections on how her understanding of God toward Whom she made her own humble, mindful "leap" of faith - her "surrender to God" - developed from roots going all the way back to her childhood. In these pages SUZANNE also presents her reflections on how her later-in-life after college understanding of "a more subtle God" had its roots in her childhood and youth, BUT developed beyond her earlier notions [ "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, HH the Dalai Lama's thoughts on the disciplined mind vs.

Prior to our every action, Your presentation of, and reflections on,. Hispanics belong to a tradition Latin the [Roman Catholic] mass. Essay at 25 points based on Ch. Give an attentive REreading to p. Give an attentive reading to the section on "Spirituals" on pp. God, Torah, and Israel Jerusalem as holiest place of pilgrimage for all Jews and a holy city also for Christians and Muslims. No web-link - paper-copy handout only. Look at the Chronology on Joseph Smith: Pearl of Great Price Give an attentive reading to p. I would like you to expand upon AND illustrate what M. Based on your attentive reading of the section on "Spirituals" bottom59a-upper60b in Ch.

That is, explain the faith-significance for the slaves in pre-Civil War America of their biblical spirituals. Based on your attentive reading of the section "Personal Voices: Amanda [Berry] Smith" lower64 in Ch. Based on your attentive reading of the double-sided Handout I gave you with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Option 1 - Ranya: Option 2 - Priscilla: Option 3 - Suzanne - midmidend: Most importantly, gods, like humans, are also suffering in samsara , the ongoing cycle of death and subsequent rebirth. Gods have not attained nirvana , and are still subject to emotions, including jealousy, anger, delusion, sorrow, etc.

Thus, since a Buddha shows the way to nirvana, a Buddha is called " the teacher of the gods and humans " Skt: According to the Pali Canon the gods have powers to affect only so far as their realm of influence or control allows them. In this sense therefore, they are no closer to nirvana than humans and no wiser in the ultimate sense. A dialogue between the king Pasenadi Kosala, his general Vidudabha and the historical Buddha reveals a lot about the relatively weaker position of gods in Buddhism. The Pali Canon also attributes supernatural powers to enlightened beings Buddhas , that even gods may not have.

In a dialogue between king Ajatasattu and the Buddha, enlightened beings are ascribed supranormal powers like human flight, walking on water etc. Yet, according to the Buddha, an enlightened person realizes the futility of these powers and instead unbinds himself completely from samsara through discernment. Nowhere in the Pali Canon, are Buddhas ascribed powers of creation, salvation and judgement. In fact, Buddhism is indifferent to all theories on the origin of the universe [7] and holds the belief in creation as a fetter binding one to samsara.

It is important to understand that the Buddha did not expressly say that creation did not occur or that there is no creator. Instead, Buddhist focus is on the effect the belief in theories of creation and a creator have on the human mind. The Buddhist attitude towards every belief is one of critical examination from the perspective of what effect the belief has on the mind and whether the belief binds one to samsara or not. The Buddha declared that "it is not possible to know or determine the first beginning of the cycle of existence of beings who wander therein deluded by ignorance and obsessed by craving.

Huston Smith describes early Buddhism as psychological rather than metaphysical. Thus while most other religions attempt to pass a blanket judgement on the goodness of the world e. This approach is often even in contrast with many of the Mahayana forms of Buddhism. No being, whether a god or an enlightened being including the historical Buddha is ascribed powers of creation, granting salvation and judgement. According to the Pali Canon, omnipotence cannot be ascribed to any being.

Further, in Theravada Buddhism, there are no lands or heavens where a being is guaranteed nirvana, instead he can attain nirvana within a very short time, though nothing conclusive could be said about the effort required for that. In this sense therefore, there is no equivalent of the Mahayana "Pure Land" or magical abode of Buddhas where one is guaranteed to be enlightened, in Early Buddhist tradition. In both Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism which is considered a third branch of Buddhism , there is far less reticence on the part of the Buddha to discuss metaphysical matters than is found in the Pali Canon.

In some major traditions of Mahayana Buddhism the Tathagatagarbha and Pure Land streams of teaching there is a notion of the Buddha as the omnipresent , omniscient , liberative essence of reality, and Buddhas are spoken of as generators of vast "pure lands", "Buddha lands", or "Buddha paradises", in which beings will unfailingly attain Nirvana. Tibetan schools of Buddhism all speak of two truths, absolute and relative. Relative truth is regarded as the chain of ongoing causes and conditions that define experience within samsara, and ultimate truth is synonymous with emptiness.

While there are many philosophical viewpoints, they are all flavors of Madhyamaka , a central thread of the Mahayana philosophical tradition. Unique to the Vajrayana perspective is the expression by meditators of emptiness in experiential language, as opposed to the language of negation used by scholars to undo any conceptual fixation that would stand in the way of a correct understanding of emptiness.

Moreover, it is beyond change, and its open nature is indestructible and atemporal. Although an absolute creator god is absent in most forms of Buddhism, veneration or worship of the Buddha and other Buddhas does play a major role in all forms of Buddhism. While, in Buddhism all beings may strive for Buddhahood, striving to become a god or God in a monotheistic context like in Abrahamic religions would be futile or senseless, even heretical , due to a strict distinction between humanity and divinity.

Throughout the schools of Buddhism, it is taught that being born in the human realm is best for realizing full enlightenment, whereas being born as a god presents one with too much pleasure and too many distractions to provide any motivation for serious insight meditation.

Doctrines of theosis have played an important role in Christian thought, and there are a number of theistic variations of Hinduism where a practitioner can strive to become the godhead for example Vedanta , but from a Buddhist perspective, such attainment would be disadvantageous to the attainment of nirvana. In Buddhism, one venerates Buddhas and sages for their virtues, sacrifices, and struggles for perfect enlightenment, and as teachers who are embodiments of the Dhamma.

In Buddhism, there is no Supreme creator. Yet thoughts or mind, perceptions, etc. The opening phrase of the Dhammapada expresses in a few words the most profound understanding in Buddhism of the role of thought in the creation of our perception of the things dhamma with which we construct our worldview. In modern parlance it expresses a psychology of phenomonologically ideal realism.

These words are of such integral importance to understanding the Buddhist view of the role of thinking in the construction of a worldview that no single English translation should be relied upon. For example, many English translations insert the pronoun "we" into the lines which does not appear in the original Pali. To demonstrate the variety of English translations:. For them is perception supreme. From perception have they sprung. Mind is their master, they are produced by mind.

This verse, however, does not mean that we create the world by thinking in a godlike sense of creation, that is, by existing as a being who thinks of something and it is created. In Buddhism there is no "designer" who is outside of the design. The recognition of a "design" i.

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It is this role of the Sixth Consciousness in creating the fundamental patterns for the building blocks of a worldview that makes thought the "creator" of the world. All the notions we have about ourselves and our world are fundamentally incorrect notions that become the root cause of ignorance. In Buddhism, the term the world does not refer to an objective empirical world accepted as real, but to the process of objectification of a world that we experience.

In Buddhism the world arises moment by moment, and no thing exists beyond the thought-moment of its existence, but that thinking makes it seem to be so by stringing together thought-moments for example, using memory and associations into a tapestry of the illusion of a world.

So in Buddhism, the words the world refers to all this mass of stress created by the delusions of our thought-designs interpreting, configuring, and constructing the world of experience i. It is noteworthy therefore that while creation in most other religions, as perceived by a person who objectifies themselves as a being, or separate entity, is the act of a divine being and viewed as a purely positive event, while in Buddhism, neither is creation divine nor is it only positive, but necessarily both positive and negative, plus and minus, in equal proportion. That is, when the undifferentiated mind i.

This discrimination function must necessarily include both poles of every "opposition" or "polarity" that is discriminated. When the thinking process manas then attempts to configure a design out of the multiplicity of oppositions, it naturally falls on or grasps at one side of the apparent opposition in distinction to the other side in order to create a sense of solidity or fixation to the world. In the Buddhist view, liberation occurs when our thinking mind manas comes down off its self-created throne and sees that the world it creates is illusory and that all things or patterns i.

This Mind that is discriminated is designated in positive language as the Tathagata , Dharmakaya , Tathagatagarbha , Buddha Nature , Suchness, Thusness, etc. In early Buddhism, the Buddha clearly states that "reliance and belief" in creation by a supreme being leads to lack of effort and inaction: It may be noted that the Buddha did not criticize veneration of the noble, veneration of the wise and learned, but only said that the belief in the existence of a creator God fetters the mind to samsara.

Then I said to them, 'Then in that case, a person is a killer of living beings because of a supreme being's act of creation. A person is a thief When one falls back on creation by a supreme being as being essential, monks, there is no desire, no effort [at the thought], 'This should be done. This shouldn't be done. One cannot righteously refer to oneself as a contemplative. This was my second righteous refutation of those priests and contemplative who hold to such teachings, such views.

It is also noteworthy that gods in Buddhism have no role to play in liberation. Sir Charles Eliot describes god in early Buddhism as such: The systems of philosophy then in vogue were mostly not theistic, and, strange as the words may sound, religion had little to do with the gods. If this be thought to rest on a mistranslation, it is certainly true that the dhamma had very little to do with devas.

Often as the Devas figure in early Buddhist stories, the significance of their appearance nearly always lies in their relations with the Buddha or his disciples. Of mere mythology, such as the dealings of Brahma and Indra with other gods, there is little.

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In fact the gods, though freely invoked as accessories, are not taken seriously, and there are some extremely curious passages in which Gotama seems to laugh at them, much as the sceptics of the 18th century laughed at Jehovah. Thus in the [Pali Canon] Kevaddha Sutta he relates how a monk who was puzzled by a metaphysical problem applied to various gods and finally accosted Brahma himself in the presence of all his retinue. After hearing the question, which was "Where do the elements cease and leave no trace behind?

Therefore I gave no answer in their presence. But I do not know the answer to your question and you had better go and ask the Buddha. Even more curiously ironic is the account given of the origin of Brahma. There comes a time when this world system passes away and then certain beings are reborn in the "World of Radiance" and remain there a long time. Sooner or later, the world system begins to evolve again and the palace of Brahma appears, but it is empty. Then some being whose time is up falls from the "World of Radiance" and comes to life in the palace and remains there alone.

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