| Description |
xxii, 374 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm |
| Contents |
Introduction -- THE BUDDHA AND HIS INDIAN CONTEXT -- Background to the life of the Buddha -- The life of the Buddha -- The nature and role of the Buddha -- The nature and style of the Buddha's teaching -- EARLY BUDDHIST TEACHINGS: REBIRTH AND KARMA -- Rebirth and cosmology -- Karma -- Belief in rebirth and karma -- EARLY BUDDHIST TEACHINGS: THE FOUR HOLY TRUTHS -- The First Holy Truth: suffering -- The Second Holy Truth: the origin of suffering -- The Third Holy Truth: Nibbāna -- The Fourth Holy Truth: the Path -- EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN BUDDHISM -- The early Sangha -- Emperor Asoka and Buddhism -- Devotion and symbolism in early Buddhism -- The Abhidhamma -- The early schools and their doctrines -- The rise of the Mahāyāna -- MAHĀYĀNA PHILOSOPHY -- The Perfection of Wisdom literature and the Madhyamaka school -- The Yogācāra school -- Tathāgata-garbha thought -- The Avataṃsaka Sūtra and the Hua-yen School -- MAHĀYĀNA HOLY BEINGS -- The path of the Bodhisattva -- The Mahāyāna Buddhology -- The Mahāyāna pantheon -- The Tantric perspective -- THE LATER HISTORY AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM -- Buddhism in India and Central Asia -- Sri Lanka -- South-east Asia excluding Vietnam -- The lands of Northern Buddhism -- China -- Vietnam and Korea -- Japan -- BUDDHIST PRACTICE: DEVOTION -- Focuses and locations of devotional acts -- Bowing, offerings and chanting -- The refuges -- Attitudes to images -- Protective chanting -- Devotion to Avalokiteśvara -- Devotion to Amitābha -- Devotion to Bhaiṣajya-guru -- Devotion to the Lotus Sūtra -- Pilgrimage -- Festivals -- BUDDHIST PRACTICE: ETHICS -- The role and basis of ethics in Buddhism -- Giving -- Keeping the precepts -- Lovingkindness and compassion -- Care for the dying and the dead -- The ethics of social relationships -- BUDDHIST PRACTICE: THE SANGHA -- The role of monasticism -- Patterns of ordination -- Nuns -- The monastic code of discipline -- The economic base of the monastic life -- Study and meditation -- Communal life -- Relations with the laity -- BUDDHIST PRACTICE: MEDITATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF WISDOM -- The approach to meditation -- The practice of Calm meditation in Southern Buddhism -- The practice of Insight meditation in Southern Buddhism -- The classical path of Calm and Insight in Northern and Eastern Buddhism -- Pure Land visualizations -- Tantric visualizations -- Tantric techniques of spontaneity -- Zen meditation -- THE MODERN HISTORY OF BUDDHISM IN ASIA -- Communist Asia: Buddhism under a cloud -- The continuing tradition and its modern varieties -- Recovering old ground -- BUDDHISM BEYOND ASIA -- Scholarship -- The influence of Buddhism through literature and philosophy -- the Theosophical Society: a bridge between East and West -- Immigration, foreign wars and travel -- Buddhist missions and organizations. |
| Bibliography |
Bibliography: pages 326-343. |
| Note |
Includes indexes. |
| Subject |
Buddhism.
|
| Indexed Term |
Buddhism |
| ISBN |
0521313333 |
|
