Discover the birth of Buddhism and the essentials of Buddhist teachings with this comprehensive explanation of early Buddhism’s key doctrines. You’ll come away with:

• insight into the beginning of Buddhism and the significance of its core beliefs—dependent arising, non-self, moral life, the diagnosis of the human condition, the critique of theoretical views, and the nature of Nibbāna;

• a lucid understanding of the Buddha’s challenge to the concept of the subject as a self-entity and the reality of both the subject and object, perceiver and perceived, as a dynamic process;

• a grasp of early Buddhist teachings as representing a middle position (equally aloof from spiritual eternalism and materialist annihilation) and a middle path (equally aloof from self-mortification and sensual indulgence); and

• the experience of the Buddha’s teachings on attaining liberation as comprehensible, sensible, and something we can make part of our own practice.

“Mountains and waters are the expression of old buddhas.”

So begins “Sansuikyō,” or “Mountains and Waters Sūtra,” a masterpiece of poetry and insight from Eihei Dōgen, the thirteenth-century founder of the Sōtō school of Zen.

Shohaku Okumura—renowned for his translations of and magisterial teachings on Dōgen—guides the reader through the rich layers of metaphor and meaning in “Sansuikyō,” which is often thought to be the most beautiful essay in Dōgen’s monumental Shōbōgenzō. His wise and friendly voice shows us the questions Dōgen poses and helps us realize what the answers could be. What does it mean for  mountains to walk? How are mountains an expression of Buddha’s truth, and how can we learn to hear the deep teachings of river waters? Throughout this luminous volume, we learn how we can live in harmony with nature in respect and gratitude—and awaken to our true nature.

Imagine that the Buddha asked Jesus to write a text for a Zen audience that would explain his take on the mysteries of his Kingdom. Imagine also that Jesus chose to present it in a set of short koanlike sayings similar to the classic koan collections of the Zen tradition. This is, in essence, the gnostic Gospel of Thomas. A Zen reading of Thomas allows us to access the living Jesus through Buddhist eyes so we can add to and refine our own practice with his wisdom. Likewise, Thomas can be a gateway for Christians to make use of Zen.

Like the Buddha, this Jesus of Thomas wishes us to realize, individually and personally, the truth of the eternal. He offers teachings for the whole of our lives, dealing with such topics as: the proper use of money; how to foster wisdom and insight; the nature of awakening and non-attachment; love and judgment; how to rest in the essential; and the nature of what it means to be an enlightened person. Like koans, the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas ask each of us to discover the same secrets of mystery that Jesus himself discovered and to live out that knowledge in our own unique way.

Traditionally, Zen koans—the teaching stories of Zen—are drawn from the words and teachings of ancient masters and primarily address the concerns of (male) monastic practitioners. In The Crow Flies Backwards, Ross Bolleter changes all that. The 108 modern koans offered within address sexuality and childbirth, family, parenthood, work, money and even the nature time itself. These koans are drawn from a variety of modern sources: Western philosophy, the Bible, contemporary and classic literature from Proust to Lewis Carroll and Mary Oliver and Anne Carson, as well as stories provided by author’s encounters with his Zen students.

Bolleter’s commentaries provide guidance to the reader on how to engage with each koan and koans in general, and direct guidance in to meditate with koans. An appendix offers rarely-seen intimate and in-depth accounts of the process of koan introspection, from four of the author’s senior students.

The Tibetan Book of Everyday Wisdom: A Thousand Years of Sage Advice presents a genre of Tibetan works known as “wise sayings” (lekshé). While most Tibetan literature focuses on the Buddhist path, wise sayings literature has traditionally been a centerpiece of secular education in Tibet and in the cultivation of social mores and an honorable way of life. Drawing inspiration from classical Indian literature on human virtue and governance (nitisastra), including the folktales in the Pañcatantra, the authors of these Tibetan works strove to educate young minds in the ways of the civilized world, especially by distinguishing the conduct of the wise from that of the foolish.

This anthology includes some of the best-loved classics of Tibetan literature, such as Sakya Pandita’s Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings, Panchen Sönam Drakpa’s Ganden Wise Sayings, and Gungthang’s Treatise on Trees and Treatise on Water. The final work is the intriguing Kaché Phalu’s Advice. Ostensibly written by a wise Tibetan Muslim, this versified text enjoys great popularity within Tibetan-speaking communities, such that many Tibetans are able to recite at least a few verses from memory.

Learn more about the Library of Tibetan Classics

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The Foundation of Buddhist Practice contains the important teachings that will help us establish a flourishing Dharma practice, beginning with the four seals shared by all Buddhist philosophies, and moves on to an explanation of the reliable cognition that allows us to evaluate the veracity of the Buddha’s teachings.

The book provides many other essential Buddhist teachings, including:

• the relationship of a spiritual mentor and student, clarifying misunderstandings about this topic and showing how to properly rely on a spiritual mentor in a healthy, appropriate, and beneficial manner;

• how to structure a meditation session;

• dying and rebirth, unpacking the often difficult-to-understand topic of multiple lives and explaining how to prepare for death and  aid someone who is dying;

• a fruitful explanation of karma and its results;

• and much more.

His Holiness’s illumination of key Buddhist ideas will support Western and contemporary Asian students in engaging with this rich tradition.

Learn more about the Library of Wisdom and Compassion series.

Ruth Fuller Sasaki and Sokei-an Shigetsu Sasaki: two pioneers of Zen in the West. Ruth was an American with a privileged life, even during the height of the Great Depression, before she went to Japan and met D. T. Suzuki. Sokei-an was one of the first Zen priests to come to America; he brought the gift of the Dharma to the United States but in 1942 was put in an internment camp. One made his way to the West and the other would find her way to the East, but together they created the First Zen Institute of America and helped birth a new generation of Zen practitioners: among them, Alan Watts, Gary Snyder, and Burton Watson. They were married less than a year before Sokei-an died, but Ruth would go on to helm trailblazing translations in his honor and to become the first foreigner to be the priest of a Rinzai Zen temple in Japan.

With lyrical prose, authors Steven Schwartz and Janica Anderson bring Ruth and Sokei-an to life. Two dozen intimate photographs photos show us two people who aren’t mere historical figures, but flesh and blood people, walking their paths.

Sanctuary: A Meditation on Home, Homelessness, and Belonging examines the interface between inner and outer sanctuary, and the ways they affect one another.

“Sanctuary” is the home we can return to when our lives are under threat, where we can face what’s difficult to love, and have a place where we can truly say, “I am home”—and spiritual teachers often emphasize sanctuary’s inner dimensions, that “our true home” is within. “Homelessness,” in turn, can be viewed as a forced experience or one in which there is a spiritual void in being or feeling home.

Drawing from her life as a Zen Buddhist priest whose ancestors labored as slaves in Louisiana, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel explores the tension between oppression—based on race, religion, ability, class, orientation, gender, and other “ghosts of slavery”—and finding home within our own hearts. Through intimate personal stories and deep reflection, Manuel helps us see the moment when the unacknowledged surfaces as “the time we have been practicing for,” the epiphany when we can investigate the true source what has been troubling us. This insightful book about home and homelessness, sanctuary and refuge offers inspiration, encouragement, and a clear-eyed view of cultivating a spiritual path in challenging times.

A lodestone of Zen Buddhism, the Platform Sutra presents the life, work, and wisdom of Eno, or Huineng, the fascinating and much-loved seventh-century Sixth Patriarch of Chinese Zen. He was an illiterate woodcutter who famously attained enlightenment after only hearing a single line of the Diamond Sutra, and who went on to decisively upstage senior monks with a poem that demonstrated the depth and clarity of his insight. His example has demonstrated to generations of students and spiritual seekers worldwide that enlightenment is attainable regardless of education or social standing. His exhortations to directly perceive one’s true nature, right here and now, still reverberate in contemporary Zen.

Shodo Harada Roshi’s fresh reading of the Platform Sutra offers both the history behind the work and the lived experience of its wisdom. In a plain-English, conversational voice, Shodo Harada brings the sutra to life for his students, discussing and explaining its central points chapter by chapter and illustrating it with his own beautiful calligraphy. This is an essential Buddhist text brought to life.

All Miguel Chen ever wanted was to be happy. Just like everyone else.

But—also like everyone else—he’s suffered. A lot. Running from difficult personal losses—like the deaths of loved ones—was something he did for years, and it got the best of him. Eventually, though, he stopped running and started walking a spiritual path. That might be surprising for a dude in a relentlessly touring punk band (Teenage Bottlerocket), but Miguel quickly found that meditation, mindfulness, and yoga really helped. They allowed him to turn inward, to connect to himself and the world around him. Suddenly, he had found actual happiness.

Miguel’s realistic. He knows it’ll never be all sunshine and peaches. And yet, he is (for the most part) at peace with the world and with himself. It shocks even him sometimes. But he’s come to see the interconnectedness of all things, the beauty of life…even the parts that suck.

Each short chapter ends with a hands-on practice that the reader can put into action right away—and each practice offers a distilled “TL;DR” takeaway point.

TL;DR: Miguel Chen shares stories, meditations, and practices that can help us reconnect to each other, ourselves, and the world. They’ve worked for him—they can work for anyone.

We all struggle at times with how to bring meditation off the cushion and into the beautiful, dynamic, and messy realm of relationship. At a time when humanity seems to have forgotten our inherent interrelatedness, this book offers an inspiring set of principles and practices for deepening intimacy and remembering the interconnection that is our birthright. Eden Tull interweaves heartfelt personal stories, sharing her journey from seven years as a monastic in a silent Zen Monastery to living and teaching in the megatropolis of Los Angeles and beyond, with teachings and mindful inquiry to help the reader connect personally with the principles of Relational Mindfulness.

In a voice that is transparent, vulnerable, and brave, Tull shares possibilities for integrating mindfulness In gentle yet powerful tone, she covers topics ranging from balance and personal sustainability to sexuality to conscious consumerism.

Relational Mindfulness is based on the simple understanding that the most subtle form of love is attention. While a revolution usually means to evolve and change, this shift is actually a return to a simple and sacred understanding we seem to have forgotten—one we can only remember when we are present.

What happens when a free-spirited, modern American girl goes on a spiritual quest into structured, traditional Japanese Zen life?

Gesshin Claire Greenwood was a liberal, free-spirited American girl who found meaning and freedom in disciplined, traditional Japanese Zen life. However, she came to question not only contemporary American values but also traditional monastic ones.

This book is about becoming an adult—about sexuality, religion, work, ethics, and individuality—but it is also about being a human being trying to be happy. Questioning is a theme that runs throughout the book: how can I be happy? What is true? What is authentic? The reader is invited along a journey that is difficult, inspiring, sad, funny, and sincere.

A must-read for students of Tibetan Buddhism, The Life and Teachings of Tsongkhapa provides a thorough exploration of the great teacher’s wisdom.

In The Life and Teachings of Tsongkhapa, you’ll discover Tsongkhapa’s teachings on:

• transcendental aspects of sutra, tantra, and insight meditation,

• mystic conversations with great bodhisattvas,

• deeply spiritual songs in praise of Manjushri and Maitreya,

• and much more.

The anthology concludes with a number of intensely moving songs in praise of Tsongkhapa and his immeasurable contribution to Tibetan Buddhism by such realized and remarkable Tibetan Buddhists as the Seventh Dalai Lama, the Eighth Karmapa, Dulnagpa Palden, and Khaydrup Je.

This edition has been substantially corrected by Robert Thurman and contains a new introduction and a bibliography of all the works referenced in the text.

We’re all beginners when it comes to aging. And although the fact that we are in new territory can certainly contribute to the difficulties in dealing with getting older, it can also have a very positive side. Aging can be seen as a new phase of our life: a phase of renewal. Nowhere is this more evident than in our opportunity to devote more time to reflection and inner exploration. The result, regardless of whatever physical limitations we may be experiencing, is the possibility of cultivating and living increasingly from kindness and gratitude—two of the essential qualities of a life of satisfaction and equanimity.

With techniques that are both simple and richly unfolded, this book will help readers:

• learn the subtle art of being with pain

• uncover the fears that amplify suffering

• tap into the true sources of meaningfulness and joy

Mipham’s Sword of Wisdom explores the Nyingma-lineage understanding of valid cognition in Vajrayana Buddhism. This translation, a clear and concise primer on higher realization through valid cognition in Buddhist philosophy, presents these ideas in English for the very first time and includes the sutra presentation of the two truths and the tantra teachings of the two truths as the purity and equality of all phenomena.

When you’ve finished Mipham’s Sword of Wisdom, you’ll have

• rich insights into Nyingma teachings on valid cognition,

• a profound new understanding of the two truths and their inseparability,

• a solid foundation in valid cognition through direct perception and reasoning according to the traditional Indian treatises of Dharmakirti and Dignaga,

• and much more.

An absolute essential of Buddhist thought and practice.

In addition to practitioners of Insight meditation, those who engage in other meditation forms such as dzogchen, mahamudra, and zazen will find that The Four Foundation of Mindfulness provides new means of understanding how to approach and deepen their own practices.

The entire Great Discourse is included here, coupled with a beautifully clear commentary from the great scholar-yogi, Venerable U Sīlānanda.

Both broad and deep, this eye-opening book is one of the best available overviews of the radical psychological teachings underlying the Buddhist approach to freedom and peace. Sophisticated without being daunting, brilliantly clear without becoming simplistic, Andrew Olendzki’s writing is filled with rich phrases, remarkable images, and the fruits of decades of careful thought. Grounded in profound scholarship, psychological sophistication, and many years of teaching and personal practice, this much-anticipated collection of essays will appeal to anyone looking to gain a richer understanding of Buddhism’s experiential tools for exploring the inner world. In Unlimiting Mind, Olendzki provokes fresh and familiar reflections on core Buddhist teachings. 

The sound of silence is like a subtlety behind everything that you awaken to; you don’t notice it if you’re seeking the extremes. Yet as we start to become more poised, more present, fully receptive of all this moment has to offer, we start to experience it vividly and listening to it can draw us ever—deeper into the mysteries of now.

Always skillful and good humored, Ajahn Sumedho’s teachings defy boundaries. Anyone—from laypeople looking to deepen their grasp of the Buddha’s message, to lifetime Buddhist monastics—will appreciate the author’s sparkling insights into to such key Buddhist themes as awareness, consciousness, identity, relief from suffering, and mindfulness of the body. The Sound of Silence represents the best of Ajahn Sumedho’s masterful work to help us all see each life with a new and sustaining clarity.

Meditation can seem a mystery. Where do you begin? Where will you end up? What might you find along the way?

You’ll find the answers in The Meditator’s Atlas, a comprehensive and trustworthy “roadmap of the inner world” for anyone who meditates. Respected teacher Matthew Flickstein is your friendly guide, explaining what meditation is, how to do it, and how to make the skills and benefits that it engenders your own, including:

• finding work that supports your priorities
• overcoming doubt
• cultivating helpful attitudes
• incorporating mindfulness into every aspect of your life
• and how all of this adds up to a happier life.

What makes this book unique is the way Flickstein uses two classic Buddhist texts—the Path of Purification, and the Four Foundations of Mindfulness—to help readers make clear sense out of the new, fascinating, and sometimes even frightening states that one may encounter on the long journey to enlightenment. Readers will come away from this book with their own insights clarified and with a helpful sense of what lies ahead.

A thrilling spiritual biography—or rather, three in one—Sons of the Buddha is an excellently written, transcendent account of an all-but-lost Thailand and the early lives of three of its most prominent Buddhist teachers.

Filled with lively anecdotes and illustrations, Sons of the Buddha tells the early life stories of three master Buddhist preachers from Thailand. Ajahn Buddhadasa (1906-93), Ajahn Panya (b. 1911), and Ajahn Jumnien (b. 1936), all monks and abbots of monasteries, have been highly influential in Thai society and tireless in their work and teaching.

A preacher must have common sense, know how to turn everyday life experience into Dharma lessons, and be able to accurately assess the needs of his audience. Sons of the Buddha shows how three boys evolved into remarkable embodiments of the “preacher” ideal. Each would effect changes in moral attitudes and Dharma practices, restore Buddhism’s social dimension, bridge the divide separating laypeople and monastics, and champion an openmindedness toward other religions. In these delightful stories — full of local color — we see what it was that led them to become so fearless and influential.