The mass of modern literature on Buddhism--both popular and scholarly--reminds one of the parable of the blind men and the elephant. The subject is so vast, and the range that can be included in a manageable book so small, that no one treatment can do it full justice. No one has ever mastered the entire literature on the subject, and given the exponential rate at which it's growing, probably no one ever will. Thus, before exploring the literature, it is important to be clear about your own reasons for exploration, so that you can narrow down the range of your research to manageable proportions: the part of the elephant that you find most interesting and that you feel you can handle. At the same time, it is important to be clear about the variety of reasons that authors may have for writing about Buddhism, and about the limitations inherent in their various approaches, so that you can develop a sense of which blind men (or women) will be your most reliable guides.
In the broadest terms, the books on Buddhism fall into the two categories we used in the Introduction to The Buddhist Religion (hereafter referred to as BR): those that treat Buddhism as Buddhism, i.e., a body of facts about Buddhists, their beliefs, and their actions; and those that treat it as Dharma-Vinaya, i.e., a body of truths that the authors recommend should be incorporated into the conduct of one's life. It is overly simplistic to view these two categories as "books by outsiders" and "books by Buddhists," for there are many objective, scholarly accounts of the Buddhist tradition written by Buddhists, just as there are many non-Buddhists who advocate incorporating particular parts of the Buddhist tradition into a non-Buddhist approach to life. Books that treat Buddhism as Buddhism can be judged like any other account that aims at factual accuracy: How reliable are the data? Are they cited in context or out of context? What are the terms of analysis? Are they appropriate for the data? What are the author's expressed presuppositions? What are his/her unspoken presuppositions? For whom, or what purpose, is the account useful? Is the treatment fair? Is it clear? (It would be good if more writers took to heart the comment that Marilyn Monroe made after having lunch with a famous New York intellectual: "He's no intellectual. He doesn't make things clear to me.")
As for judging books that treat Buddhism as Dharma-Vinaya, it is useful to keep in mind a distinction proposed by Wilfred Cantwell Smith in his book, The Meaning and End of Religion. According to Professor Smith, any religion has two dimensions: tradition and faith. Tradition covers one's inheritance from previous adherents of the religion; faith covers the fullness of one's involvement with that tradition. The two aspects interact, in that the outward manifestations of one's faith add or subtract to the tradition handed on to future generations. Thus, when reading a book that treats Buddhism as Dharma-Vinaya, you can judge it either as an account of the tradition--in which the criteria used for books that treat Buddhism as Buddhism apply--or as a product of the author's faith, i.e., as a contribution to the development of the Buddhist tradition. For example, the works of C. A. F. Rhys Davids on early Buddhism and D. T. Suzuki on medieval Ch'an, which were once accepted as standard accounts, are now largely viewed as inaccurate. Thus they are no longer cited as authorities on the Buddhist tradition in the fields on which they wrote. However, they are now studied as examples of the authors' faith in the Buddhist tradition and of the way that tradition has been reshaped in modern times. In other words, they are read not for what they tell us about early Buddhism or medieval Ch'an, but what they tell us about the authors and the selling of Buddhism in the West in the 20th century.
Another way of classifying books on the Buddhist religion is in terms of the academic disciplines to which they belong. Religious Studies, as an academic field, has something of an identity problem in that, unlike some other fields, it does not have a discipline of its own. Thus it borrows from a number of fields, primarily in the spectrum that runs from sociology through cultural anthropology and history (political, social, and intellectual) to philosophy. Only rarely are writers trained to be at the cutting edge of all of these disciplines, so be prepared for books that are strong in one field but weak in others. For example, there are books by anthropologists on the relationship of the Little Tradition (day-to-day behavior of Buddhists) to the Great Tradition (the ideals expressed in Buddhist texts) that show a shocking ignorance of what those texts actually contain. Conversely, there are historians ignorant in the field of statistics who try to provide statistical analyses of the early Buddhist community based on data in the texts, even though the data base is far too small for any meaningful conclusions.
To make matters worse, proponents of one disciplinary approach sometimes adopt the prejudices of their discipline in belittling the work of those in other disciplines. One of the most desultory of these prejudices is the one that denigrates the study of the great Buddhist thinkers and meditators as "elitist" and "unrepresentative of the Buddhist tradition." On the one hand, these perjoratives cut back at the scholars who make them, for scholarly work--no matter what the topic--is by definition elitist and unrepresentative of the culture to which the scholars belong. For proof of this point, look up the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon on the deconstructionist analysis of monsyllabic imperatives in Dick and Jane. At the same time, limiting the study of religion to the beliefs and practices of Joe Thai and Mary Tamil is like saying that the music of Mozart and Beethoven should not be played because they belong to an unrepresentative elite. Still, a study of Buddhism that did not deign to take Joe and Mary into account would give an unrealistic picture of the tradition, totally useless to anyone who expects to have dealings with the Mary's and Joe's of the Buddhist world. Thus it is wise to expose yourself to books representing a spectrum of approaches to get a general overall picture, and then focus on the approach that meets your needs.
The application of academic disciplines to the study of Buddhism has resulted in the same sorts of issues that have resulted from applying those disciplines to other fields. However, there are two areas in the academic study of Buddhism that deserve special comment at the outset.
One is the question of how appropriate it is to apply those disciplines to Buddhism at all. For example, when studying the ancient texts--such as the Pali Canon or the writings of Nagarjuna--is it proper to use modern methods of textual analysis to study the meaning of the texts in and of themselves, or must one follow the interpretations that later Buddhist commentators gave to the texts? On the surface, the answer would seem to be simple: Study both--that way one can get a sense of what the texts meant to their authors and to others alive at the time when they were composed, and of how that meaning changed over the centuries. The issue is complicated, however, by the fact that there are many modern Buddhists who have committed themselves to living their lives by the teachings of the commentators. Many of these Buddhists feel that scholars who have not made such a commitment--whose only stake in the truth is their paycheck and their academic reputation--have no right to question the commentators' authority. It is easier to make an academic reputation by throwing out accepted views than by supporting them, they note, and the academician need not stick around afterwards to pick up the pieces. At the same time, questions of national pride also come into play. Sri Lankans and Burmese, for example, regard their commentaries on the Pali Canon as great treasures of their national culture, just as Tibetans regard their commentaries on Nagarjuna as treasures of theirs. To use methods of modern critical scholarship on these works, they say, is an act of cultural imperialism; and there are many empathetic post-modern academicians who would support their case. This, of course, would place great restraints on freedom of the academician in giving what he/she feels is an honest appraisal of the tradition. As for the harm that might be done by such honesty, Buddhism would be a weak tradition indeed if it could not stand up to sincere questioning. Thus in BR, and in the bibliography we have given below, we have tended to side with the methods of free inquiry over the claims of traditional authority--except where these methods can be used with a self-serving or hostile intent--but we feel honor-bound to alert you to the issue so that you can decide the merits of the case for yourself.
The second issue brings us back to the point raised at the beginning of this introduction: The subject of Buddhism is so vast, with so many fronts of inquiry going on at once, that no one scholar can hope to keep abreast of findings on every front. The language barrier itself is almost insurmountable. A scholar fully conversant with every aspect even of just modern Buddhism would have to be fully fluent in Pali, Sanskrit, Bengali, Maharasthi, Newari, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Sinhalese, Burmese, Thai, Laotian, and Khmer, to say nothing of the major European languages, and at the same time would have to be familiar enough with several academic disciplines and their findings that he/she would not only be able to keep current with all the latest research but also be in a position to judge its merits. No such person exists. Thus, when an expert in a particular branch of Buddhist Studies compares the findings of his/her research with those in another branch, be prepared to put a question mark next to his/her statements about that other branch, for it is entirely possible that they are based on readings that are partial or out-of-date.
We hope, however, that these warnings will not discourage you from exploring the literature on the Buddhist religion. Buddhism is one of the great traditions of the human race, and it contains many treasures for the delight and edification of anyone who takes the time to explore it with care.
Enjoy.
Note: The sections and numbers here do not necessarily correspond to the sections and numbers in BR.
[3] Other Sources for the Study of the Buddhist Religion
[3.1] On Buddhist Art
[3.2] Audio-Visual Resources on Buddhism
[3.3] Literary Works[3.3.1] Traditional Biographies of Buddhists
[3.3.2] Traditional Autobiographies
[3.3.3] Modern Autobiographies
[3.3.4] Poetry & Fiction
[5] Selected Sources for Material in Specific Chapters of BR
[5.1.1] Social and Intellectual Context
[5.1.2] The Biography of the Buddha
[5.1.3] The Jatakas
[5.1.4] The Wheel of Life
[5.1.5] Dependent Co-arising[5.2.1] The First Sermon
[5.2.2] Practice & Attainment
[5.2.3] Founding the Sangha
[5.2.4] The Parinirvana[5.3] The Development of Early Indian Buddhism
[5.3.1] General Sources
[5.3.2] Formation of the Canon
[5.3.3] On the Sutras
[5.3.4] On Vinaya
[5.3.5] On Abhidhamma
[5.3.6] Early Sects
[5.3.7] Asoka
[5.3.8] Religious Life in the Early Centuries[5.4] The Rise and Development of Mahayana Buddhism
[5.4.1] General
[5.4.2] The Teaching of Emptiness
[5.4.3] Madhyamika
[5.4.4] Yogacara[5.5] Soteriology and Pantheon of the Mahayana
[5.5.1] General
[5.5.2] The Bodhisattva Path
[5.5.3] The Celestial Bodhisattvas
[5.5.4] The Celestial Buddhas[5.6] Vajrayana and Later Indian Buddhism
[5.6.1] General
[5.6.2] The Universities
[5.6.3] Buddhist Tantrism
[5.6.4] The Disappearance of Indian Buddhism[5.7] Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia
[5.7.1] General
[5.7.1] Sri Lanka
[5.7.1] Southeast Asia
[5.7.1] Forest Traditions
[5.7.1] Theravada Meditation[5.8] Buddhism in Central Asia and China
[5.8.1] Central Asia
[5.8.2] General Readings on Chinese Buddhism
[5.8.3] First to Tenth Centuries
[5.8.4] T'ien-t'ai
[5.8.5] San-lun
[5.8.6] Fa-hsiang
[5.8.7] Hua-yen
[5.8.8] Pure Land
[5.8.9] The Third Period Sect
[5.8.10] Ch'an
[5.8.11] Modern China[5.9] Buddhism in Korea and Vietnam
[5.9.1] Korea
[5.9.2] Vietnam[5.10.1] General
[5.10.2] Nichiren
[5.10.3] Pure Land
[5.10.4] Shingon
[5.10.5] Tendai
[5.10.6] Zen
[5.10.7] Modern Japan[5.11] Buddhism in the Tibetan Cultural Area
[5.11.1] General Culture & History
[5.11.1] Bon & Early Buddhism
[5.11.1] Medieval & Modern Buddhism[5.12.1] Asian-American Buddhism
[5.12.2] Euro-Buddhism
[6.1] Buddhist Databases & Input Projects
[6.2] Buddhist Studies: Academic and Other Information Sources
AI = Access to Insight (see [6.1])
BR = Robinson, Johnson, et al., The Buddhist Religion
EB = John Strong, The Experience of Buddhism
EoB = Encyclopedia of Buddhism
SBE = Sacred Books of the East
For ease of reference, books of special interest for Women's Studies are marked with a [W]; books on meditation, with an [M].
The companion volume for the earlier editions of The Buddhist Religion, Stephan V. Beyer's The Buddhist Experience: Sources and Interpretations, has since been supplanted by John Strong's The Experience of Buddhism: Sources and Interpretations, which is the first book to which students are advised to turn for source readings. Nevertheless, Beyer's volume (hereafter referred to as Beyer, Experience) is still useful, offering lively translations of texts--in many cases hard to find elsewhere--drawn from all major Buddhist canonical languages. The author's interpretations, however, are not always as reliable as Strong's.
Two other source for students who seriously want to learn more are:
Buddhism and Asian History, edited by Joseph M. Kitagawa and Mark D. Cummings (New York: Macmillan, 1987); and
Buddhism: A Modern Perspective, edited by Charles S. Prebish (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1975).
The former book, composed of articles drawn from The Encyclopedia of Religion, gives a good sense of the recent state of scholarship on nearly all the Buddhist traditions in Asia. The articles range from solid to brilliant. The latter book, written by former students of Richard Robinson, has summaries of almost all major topics in Buddhist history and thought, and is organized as a series of lectures in an introductory "course" on Buddhism. Both books include useful bibliographies as guides to further reading, although some of their recommendations have since become dated.
The following works, almost all available in paperback editions, should provide beginning students with sufficient materials to supplement what has been presented in BR. On occasion, this bibliography identifies a book by an incomplete reference (lacking place, publisher, or date) or lists a book that may have been reprinted at a later date. Readers can ascertain the book's availability with the author and title citation.
Auboyer, Jeannine, Buddha: A Pictorial History of His Life and Legacy. New York: Crossroad, 1983. Beautifully produced pictorial survey.
Bapat, P. V., ed., 2500 Years of Buddhism. New Delhi: Government of India, Publications Division, 1956. Issued to commemorate the 2500th anniversary of the Buddha's Final Nirvana, this book is a good source of information on the whole of Buddhism.
Basham, A. L., The Wonder That Was India. New York: Grove Press, 1959. Many reprints. A survey of the culture of the Indian subcontinent before the coming of the Muslims; a many-splendored classic. Contains much historical information on the background and context of Buddhism in India, comparisons with Hinduism, and material on Buddhism itself. Includes examples of art and literature.
Bechert, Heinz and Richard Gombrich, eds., The World of Buddhism: Monks and Nuns in Society and Culture. London: Thames and Hudson, 1984. Looks like a coffee-table book, with gorgeous pictures of Buddhist art and practice, but the articles, covering most aspects of the Buddhist tradition, are all by established scholars, ranging from mediocre (Bechert's article on Burma) to brilliant (Carrithers on Sri Lanka).
Cabezon, Jose Ignacia, ed., Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender. Albany: SUNY Press, 1992. Essays focusing mainly on gender issues, with an added section on gay issues, drawing on Buddhist traditions in South and East Asia. [W]
Conze, Edward, Buddhism: Its Essence and Development. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965. Succinct introduction to major Buddhist ideas; mixes insight with controversy.
-----, ed., Buddhist Texts through the Ages. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964. Collection of texts, including translation of Pali excerpts by I. B. Horner, of Mahayana texts by Edward Conze, of Buddhist Tantra by David Snellgrove, and of Chinese and Japanese texts by Arthur Waley. Excellent translations, but somewhat difficult to use due to lack of continuity and introductory materials.
-----, Buddhist Thought in India. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1967. A good survey of Indian Buddhist thought. A detailed, more advanced source than others; should be of interest to those who like philosophy.
de Berval, Rene, ed., Presence du bouddhisme. Saigon: France-Asie, 1959. Articles of varying quality in French and English on Buddhism in most countries. Now somewhat dated. Many photographs, maps and charts.
Gyatso, Janet, ed. In the Mirror of Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Albany: State University Press of New York, 1992.
Horner, I. B., The Living Thoughts of Gotama the Buddha. London: Cassell, 1948. Good anthology from Pali sources. Miss Horner has also written a succinct summary of Theravada Buddhism, "Buddhism: the Theravada," in R. C. Zaehner, ed., The Concise Encyclopedia of Living Faiths, pp. 267-295 (Boston, Beacon Press, 1967). In the same source, Edward Conze summarizes Mahayana, pp. 296-320; and Richard H. Robinson describes Buddhism in China and Japan, pp. 321-347.
Keown, Damein et.al., eds. Buddhism and Human Rights. London: Curzon, 1998.
Kohn, Michael H., trans., The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen. Boston: Shambhala, 1991.
Lamotte, Etienne, History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era. Louvain-La-Neuve: Institut Orientaliste, 1988. (Hereafter: Lamotte, History.) An authoratative work, strong on history but weaker than Warder on doctrine.
Lopez, Donald S., Jr., ed., Buddhism in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995. Focuses on non-elite forms of Buddhist belief, ritual, and practice in general, with some sections on monastic practice. By "non-elite," the editor presumably means everything but systematic doctrine. Best read in conjunction with an anthology--such as Conze, Buddhist Texts through the Ages or Beyer, Experience--that provides more of the doctrinal background. [W] [M]
____, ed., Buddhist Hermeneutics. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988. Good range of articles on how Buddhists regard the process of communicating the Dharma.
Malalasekera, G. P., ed., Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Colombo: Government of Sri Lanka, 1961. Compehensive range of articles, many of very high quality. (hereafter referred to as EoB).
Morgan, Kenneth W., ed., The Path of the Buddha. New York: Ronald Press, 1974. Good survey of Buddhism throughout Asia written by prominent Asian Buddhist scholars. Similar to, but less complete than, P. V. Bapat, cited above.
Prebish, Charles S., ed. Buddhist Ethics: A Cross-Cultural Approach. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt, 1992.
-----, Historical Dictionary of Buddhism. Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1993.
Queen, Christopher and Sallie B. King, eds., Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia. Albany: SUNY Press, 1996. Essays discussing the growth of socially active Asian Buddhist movements resulting from the interaction of Buddhist and Western Enlightenment ideals.
Schober, Juliane, ed., Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997. Essays discussing the structure and function of biographical narrative in Indian and Theravadin Buddhist tradtions, starting with the narratives of the Buddha's lives, and extending up to narratives of modern Theravadin figures.
Warder, A. K., Indian Buddhism, 2nd ed. rev. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980. Authoritative. Especially good on philosophical and literary issues; excellent bibliography and index.
Warren, Henry C., Buddhism in Translations. New York: Atheneum, 1963. Judicious, comprehensive selections from Pali texts in graceful but dated translations.
Zürcher, Erik, Buddhism, Its Origin and Spread in Words, Maps, and Pictures. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1959; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1962. Very useful for tracing the spread of Buddhism from its beginnings in India throughout the rest of Asia. The maps, in particular, are excellent.
[ 2] BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Edward Conze, Buddhist Scriptures: A Bibliography. Edited and revised by Lewis Lancaster. (New York: Garland, 1982).
Frank E. Reynolds, Guide to the Buddhist Religion (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1981).
John Powers, The Yogacara School of Buddhism: A Bibliography. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1991.
Bibliographie bouddhique (Paris: 1928 and following).
S. Hanayama, Bibliograpy on Buddhism (Tokyo, 1961).
Yushin Yoo, Books on Buddhism: An Annotated Subject Guide (Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976).
Other sources are issues of Buddhist Text Information and Buddhist Research Information, available from the Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions (5001 Melville Memorial Library, SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794). Another bibliographic series comes from the Institute Belge des Hautes Etudes Bouddhiques, which issues the Serie bibliographies (Brussels, starting in 1969), including Bibliographie du bouddhisme zen (1969), Bibliographie du bouddhisme (1971), and Bibliographie de la litterature prajñaparamita (1971), all by Pierre Beautrix.
For German-language publications, consult Hans Ludwig Held's Deutsche Bibliographie des Buddhismus (Hildesheim/New York: G. Olms, 1973).
A useful bibliography of journal articles is Yushin Yoo's Buddhism: A Subject Index to Periodical Articles in English, 1728-1971 (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1973).
Journals that often contain articles about Buddhism and are likely to be easily available are Buddhist Studies Review, Bulletin de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient, Bulletin of the London School of Oriental and African Studies, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, History of Religions, Indo-Iranian Journal, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Journal of Asian Studies, Journal Asiatique, Journal of Buddhist Ethics (see [6.2]), Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Philosophy East and West, and T'oung Pao.
[3] OTHER SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF THE BUDDHIST RELIGION
The books listed above are good, scholarly accounts of the Buddhist religion. But there are other ways of learning about Buddhism, too. Some different kinds of sources are listed below to help those beginning their study of Buddhism to get a rounded view of the subject.
Art has always been a major part of religious practice and a major expression of religious experience. Buddhist art is particularly rich, a multicultural tradition spanning more than two thousand years. Buddhists have produced an enormous amount of art; the books listed below give only a sampling.
The most complete single source on Buddhist art is P. M. Lad, The Way of the Buddha (New Delhi: Government of India, Publications Division, 1956). Issued on the occasion of the 2500th anniversary of the Buddha's Final Nirvana, this book selects art from all sources to describe the background of Buddhism, the Bodhisattva's life and message, the growth of Buddhism, the pantheon, and the spread of Buddhism beyond India. Complete notes accompany the many illustrations.
A very useful work for the study of Buddhist (and Indian) art and iconography is Gosta Liebert's Iconographical Dictionary of the Indian Religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism (Leiden: Brill, 1976). Carefully defines the terms, iconographic forms, and deities encountered in Buddhist art and literature.
Other worthwhile studies of Buddhist art include:
Bandaranayake, S. Sinhalese Monastic Architecture: The Viharas of Anuradhapura. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1974.
Behl, Benoy K. The Ajanta Caves: Artistic Wonder of Ancient Buddhist India. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998. The pictures vastly outshine the text. The author photographed the murals in the cave temples using natural light, and the results are spectacular. The accompanying text is most useful where it shows how the murals embody principles of Indian aesthetic theory, but it's weak on issues of Buddhist doctrine.
Berkson, Carmel. The Caves at Aurangabad: Early Buddhist Tantric Art in India. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 1986. Excellent black-and-white photographs of Buddhist cave temples, one of which includes one of the few ancient Buddhist shrines to Tara remaining in India.
Brown, R.L. The Dvaravati Wheels of the Law and the Indianization of South East Asia. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996.
Buddhadasa, Bhikkhu, Teaching Dhamma by Pictures. Bangkok: Social Science Association Press of Thailand, 1968. This book presents a traditional Thai manuscript that illustrates the Buddhist Path, with commentary on its symbolism.
Bussagli, Mano, Painting of Central Asia. Geneva: Editions d'art Albert Skira, 1963. Magnificent Buddhist paintings from the rich finds of Central Asia.
Chihara, D. Hindu-Buddhist Architecture in Southeast Asia. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996.
Coomaraswamy, Ananda K., Elements of Buddhist Iconography. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935. An early interpretation of symbolism in Buddhist art.
-----, History of Indian and Indonesian Art. New York: Dover, 1965. Excellent survey, including Buddhist art.
Dagyab, Loden Sherap, Tibetan Religious Art. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz, 1977. Excellent two-volume work, the first introducing the art, the second showing it in color plates.
Dallapiccola, Anna, ed., The Stupa: Its Religious, Historical, and Architectural Significance. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1980.
Davidson, J. Leroy, The Lotus Sutra in Chinese Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954.
Dehejia, Vidya. Discourse in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narratives of India. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1997. Sophisticated analysis. Should be read in conjunction with the article by Robert Brown in Schober [1].
Fickle, Dorothy H., The Life ot the Buddha: Murals in the Buddhaisawan Chapel National Museum, Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department, 1972. Includes color illustrations of one of the better examples of Thai mural art.
Fontein, Jan, The Pilgrimage of Sudhana: A Study of Gandavyuha Illustrations in China, Japan, and Java. The Hague: Mouton, 1968. The Pilgrim's Progress of Buddhism in art and literature, spanning several civilizations.
-----, and Money L. Hickman, Zen, Painting and Calligraphy. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1970. Attractive selection of and commentary on Zen art.
Freeman, Michael and Roger Warner, Angkor: The Hidden Glories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
Ghosh, A., ed., Ajanta Murals. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1967. Beautiful illustrations, sensitively interpreted.
Ginsberg, Henry. Thai Manuscript Painting. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1989.
Goepper, Roger, Alchi: Ladakh's Hidden Buddhist Sanctuary: The Sumtsek. Boston: Shambala, 1996. Gorgeous photos, with a text by an art historian, detailing a temple in the western Himalayas preserving a mixture of Kashmiri, Tibetan, and central Asian artistic styles.
Gray, Basil, Buddhist Cave Paintings at Tun-huang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959.
Griswold, Alexander, et al., The Art of Burma, Korea, Tibet. New York: Crown, 1964. A good survey of little known areas.
Hisamatsu, Shin'ichi, Zen and the Fine Arts. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1971. Large selection of Zen-related arts.
Jessup, Helen Ibbitson and Thierry Zephir, eds., Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory. (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997). Hefty, beautifully-produced catalog for an excellent exhibition of Khmer sculpture, mostly Buddhist and Hindu, from the seventh to sixteenth centuries. Includes a number of informative scholarly articles on the history, religion, architecture, and technology of Ancient Cambodia, with a focus on the Angkor period.
Karmay, Heather, Early Sino-Tibetan Art. Warminster, England, 1975.
Knox, Robert, Amaravati: Buddhist Sculpture from the Great Stupa. London: British Museum Press, 1992. The latest research on the history of one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in southern India (or, formerly in southern India; now most of the best pieces are in the British Museum). Gorgeous photos.
Krom, N. I., The Life of Buddha on the Stupa ot Barabudur According to the Lalitavishtara Text. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1926. An excellent retelling of the biography with photographs of the episodes from the great Javanese stupa.
Lyons, Islay, Gandharan Art in Pakistan. New York: Pantheon, 1957. Records an important phase of Buddhist art, the product of Indo-Greek culture. Read with Sharma, cited below.
Marshall, Sir John, The Monuments of Sanchi. London: Probsthain, 1940. A study of one of the most important remaining Indian Buddhist stupas.
Miksic, John, Borobudur: Golden Tales of the Buddha. Boston: Shambala, 1990. Good modern introduction to the history and interpretation of the great Javanese stupa, well-illustrated.
Mitra, Debala, Buddhist Monuments. Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad, 1971. Excellent description of sacred Buddhist sites in India.
Okazaki, Joji, Pure Land Buddhist Painting. Translated and adapted by Elizabeth ten Grotenjuis. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1977.
Pal, Pratapaditya, Light of Asia: Buddha Sakyamuni in Asian Art. Los Angeles: County Museum of Art, 1984.
Rawson, Philip, The Art of Southeast Asia. New York: Praeger, 1967.
Rhie, Marylin M. and Robert A. F. Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. New York: Harry H. Abrams, 1991.
Roland, Benjamin, The Art of Central Asia. New York: Crown, 1974. Good analysis of the art record, revealing its many interesting Buddhist features.
-----, The Evolution of the Buddha Image. New York: Abrams, 1963.
Rosenfeld, John M., The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. Berkeley: University of California Press. An exhaustive but readable study of Kushan (Kusana) art.
Saunders, E. Dale, Mudra, a Study of Symbolic Gestures in Japanese Buddhist Sculpture. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1960.
Sharma, R. C., Buddhist Art: Mathura School. New Delhi: Wiley Eastern Limited, 1995. Cites recent archaeological finds to argue the primacy of the Mathura (native Indian) school of sculpture over the Gandharan (Indo-Greek) in the development of the Buddha image.
Singh, Madanjeet, Himalayan Art. New York: Macmillan, 1971.
Sivaramamurti, Calambur, The Art of India. New York: Abrams, 1977. Includes many Buddhist pieces and puts them in the context of Indian civilization.
Snellgrove, David L., The Image of the Buddha. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1978.
Sullivan, Michael, The Cave Temples of Maichishan. Berkeley: University of California Press. Beautifully illustrated study of the Buddhist cave temples carved into the mountain in an isolated region of China.
Weidner, Marsha, et. al. Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism, 850-1850. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1994.
Weiner, Sheila, Ajanta: Its Place in Buddhist Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977. Short but comprehensive analysis of the painting, sculpture, and architecture of one of the best-preserved Indian Buddhist sites.
Wray, Elizabeth, The Ten Lives of the Buddha. New York: Weatherhill, 1972. Features Thai temple murals, many of very high quality, illustrating the perfections developed by the Bodhisattva in the ten penultimate Jataka tales.
Zwalf, W., Buddhism: Art and Faith. London: British Museum Publications, 1985.
Many good films on Buddhism exist, catalogued and reviewed by experts in Robert A. McDermott, ed., Focus on Buddhism (1981), available in cloth or paper from Anima Publications, 1053 Wilson Avenue, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 17201. This book spans the entire Buddhist experience by cultural area, listing other aids such as slide sets and recordings as well.
Donald K. Swearer's, The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia (SUNY, 1996) contains a more up-to-date inventory of post-1980 audio visual aids relating to Southeast Asian Buddhism.
Literary works composed by Buddhists provide an especially attractive way of learning about their religion. From Beyer's selection of passages in The Buddhist Experience, a student can gain some idea of the great diversity of literary genres Buddhists have used. Discussed below are some extra samples.
The great Buddhist biographical tradition of China remains, for the most part, untranslated, and what little has been translated often appears in sources difficult to find:
Chavannes, Edouard, Memoires sur les Religieux Eminents, Paris, 1894.
Gernet, Jacques, "Biographie de Maitre Chen-houei du Ho-tso," Journal Asiatique, vol. 239 (1951): 29-68. This is the biography of Shen-hui who worked to establish his master Hui-neng as the Sixth Patriarch of Ch'an.
Liebenthal, Walter, "A Biography of Tao-sheng," Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 11 (1955): 64-96.
Link, Arthur, "Biography of Shih Tao-an," T'oung Pao, vol. 46 (1958): 1-48.
-----, "Shih Seng-yu and His Writings," Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 80 (1960): 17-43.
Soymie, Michel, "Biographic de Chan Tao-k'ai," Melanges publics par L'Institut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, Tome Premier, Paris, 1957: 415-422.
Tsu, Y. Y., "Diary of a Chinese Buddhist Nun: Tz'e-kuang," The Journal of Religion, vol. 7 (1927): 612-618. Reprinted in The Chinese Way in Religion. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1973: 120-124. [W]
Weinstein, Stanley, "A Biographical Study of Tz'e-en," Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 15 (1959): 119-149. This is a study of K'uei-chi, the last great master of the San-lun school.
Wright, Arthur, "Biography of the Nun An Ling-shou," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 15 (1952): 193-196. [W]
-----, "Fo-t'u-teng, A Biography," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 11 (1948): 321 -371.
The entire Lives of Eminent [Chinese] Nuns has been translated by Kathryn Ann Tsai in Lives of the Nuns: Biographies of Chinese Buddhist Nuns from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994 [W]. This is the most readily available of the books listed in this subsection. The entire Lives of Eminent [Chinese] Monks has been translated by Arthur Link, but this translation remains in manuscript form only. The biography of Hui-ynan appears in Erik Zurcher, Buddhist Conquest, vol. 1, pp. 240-253. Biographies of Korean monks are in Peter Lee, Lives of Eminent Korean Monks, Harvard University Press, 1969. Three Chinese Tantric masters have been studied by Chou I-liang in "Tantrism in China," (see reference in bibliography). Fascinating glimpses of the Chinese Tantric monk I-hsing, mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer of the late seventh and early eighth centuries, can be found in Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 3, Cambridge, 1959, passim.
The biographies and records of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims and travelers have been given much more attention.
Beal, Samuel, Buddhist Records of the Western World, London, 1885; Paragon, New York, 1968. This book includes the Hsi-yu-chi of Hsuan-tsang, Fo-kuo-chi of Fa-hsien, and travels of Sung Yun from Lo-yang ch'ieh-lan chi.
-----, Life of Hsuan-tsang, London, 1911. His materials are taken from Hsuan-tsang's biography.
Chavannes, Edouard, "Voyage de Song-yun dans l'Udyana et le Gandhara," Bulletin de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, vol. 3 (1903): 1-63.
Giles, H. A., The Travels of Fa-hsien, Cambridge, 1877, 1923.
Grousset, Rene, In the Footsteps of the Buddha. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1932; Hertford: Stephen Austin and Sons, 1971. This is a narrative account of Central Asian and Indian history and religion woven together from the record of Chinese Buddhist travelers to these lands.
Legge, James, The Travels of Fa-hsien. Oxford, 1886.
Levi, Sylvain, "Les missions de Wang Hiuen Ts'e dans l'Inde," Journal Asiatique, 9th series, vol. 15 (1900): 297-468.
Reischauer, Edwin, trans., Ennin's Diary. New York: Ronald Press, 1955.
-----, Ennin's Travels in T'ang China. New York: Ronald Press, 1955, especially pp. 164-271. Ennin was in China during the great persecution of 845. The Diary is a translation of Ennin's diary and Travels puts Ennin and his diary into context. Both books are highly recommended.
Takakusu, J., A Record of the Buddhistic Religion. Oxford, 1896; Delhi, 1966; Taipei, 1970. This is the account of I-tsing, a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who traveled to India returned by way of Southeast Asia.
Watters, T., On Yuan Chwang's Travels, (2 vols.). London, 1904. His materials are taken from Hsuan-tsang's own account of his travels.
The traditional biography of a Korean monk from the Koryo dynasty is translated by Adrian Buzo and Tony Prince in Kyunyo-jon: The Life, Times and Songs of a Tenth-Century Korean Monk (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.
The traditional biographies of the lineage founders of the Tibetan Kagyu school are now all available in English. These include:
The Life and Teaching of Naropa, translated by Herbert V. Guenther (London: Oxford University Press, 1963; also reprinted by Shambala);
The Life of Marpa the Translator, translated by the Nalanda Translation Committe, under the direction of Chogyam Trungpa (Shambala);
Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa, translation edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, (London: Oxford University Press, 1969). A more recent translation of this biography is Lobsang P. Lhalungpa's The Life of Milarepa (New York: Dutton, 1977); of the four books listed here, this is the best-loved in Tibet;
The Life of Gampopa, translated by Jampa Mackenzie Stewart (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1995).
One extended autobiographical account of at least part of a Buddhist's life was written in the seventeenth century by Japan's most famous haiku poet, Matsuo Basho. A lay Buddhist who practiced some Zen meditation, Basho at the relatively late and frail age of forty became a wanderer, going against his personal inclination to settle down in his older years. He left five sketches of his resulting travels, which filled the remaining ten years of his life. They are a magnificent literary self-portrait of a Buddhist aesthete. Basho made his wanderings to see faraway parts of Japan into an extended journey of self-discovery. His sketches are translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa in Basho: The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches (Baltimore: Penguin, 1966). A more recent, and very clean, translation of Narrow Road to the Interior has been made by Sam Hamill (Boston: Shambala, 1991). The same translator's more comprehensive The Essential Basho (Boston: Shambhala, 1998) provides excellent translations of the travel sketches plus a large selection of the author's haiku.
Another Japanese Buddhist poet (1763-1827) also left a lyric diary; it, too, has been translated by Yuasa: Issa's The Year of My Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960).
The Zen monk Hakuin left several autobiographical narratives. The longest and most comprehensive is translated by Norman Waddell in Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin (Boston: Shambhala, 1999).
Charles Luk has translated the autobiography of one of the last great Chinese meditation masters, Xu Yun in Empty Cloud (Longmead: Element Books, 1988) [M].
The Autobiography of Phra Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, a teacher of the Thai Kammatthana tradition, is available on the World Wide Web at Access to Insight (http://world.std.com/-metta/), hereafter referred to as "AI". This is a lively account; especially interesting are the author's descriptions of his training with Phra Ajaan Mun Bhuridatto and his early years meditating in the forest [M].
Another valuable set of traditional Buddhist autobiographies has been recovered and translated by David Snellgrove under the title Four Lamas of Dolpo. Volume I is Introduction and Translations (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967). This is a complete book, with suitable introduction, ample photographic illustrations, texts, and critical commentary and annotation. The autobiographies reveal what life was like in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as remembered by four lamas of the Dolpo region, which today is in western Nepal but which has always been a cultural borderland of Tibet.
Two "secret" biographies of the seventeenth century Dzogchen adept, Jigme Lingpa, are the subject of a thorough study by Janet Gyaltso in Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.
The mass exodus from Tibet of monks and lamas after 1959 has resulted in quite a few autobiographies of refugees. These accounts help us grasp the meaning of the diaspora as well as to glimpse the traditional lives of important individuals. The present Dalai Lama wrote My Land and My People (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962). And his brother, Jigme Norbu Thubten, now a professor at Indiana University, recorded his experiences in Tibet Is My Country (New York: Dutton, 1961). Chogyam Trungpa contributed Born in Tibet (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968). Rato Khyongla Nawang Losang wrote his fascinating My Life and Lives: The Story of a Tibetan Incarnation (New York: Dutton, 1977), with interesting chapters on Lhasa, monastery study, debating sessions, the New Year, Tantric studies, and his flight to India after being forced to teach in a Communist school. B. Alan Wallace translated another Gelug monk's memoirs in The Life and Teaching of Geshe Rabten (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1980), subtitled A Tibetan Lama's Search for Truth. It traces the Geshe's life from a farm in Kham into the monastic life and training, and finally to his flight to India. Rinchen Dolma Taring's autobiography Daughter of Tibet. (London: Wisdom Publications, 1987), provides a noblewoman's perspective on the diaspora and life in Tibet for the last fifty years prior to that event [W].
From Vietnam comes Learning True Love: How I Learned and Practiced Social Change in Vietnam (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1993), a readable autobiographical account by Chan Khong (Cao Ngoc Phuong), one of the founding members of the Order of Interbeing, who describes her social work both in Vietnam and in the West [W].
A growing category of Buddhist autobiographies is those composed by Western Buddhists. John Blofeld's The Wheel of Life: The Autobiography of a Western Buddhist (Berkeley, Calif.: Shambhala, 1972) records the author's wanderings around China, life in a Ch'an monastery, and a Tibetan initiation. Although the work is not a full autobiography, D. P. E. Lingwood, or Sangharakshita, wrote The Thousand Petalled Lotus: An English Buddhist in India (London: Heinemann, 1976). Jiyu Kennett Roshi, now the abbess of Shasty Abbey in California, recorded her experiences as an Englishwoman training in a Japanese Soto monastery in How to Grow a Lotus Blossom (Mt. Shasta, Calif.: Shasta Abbey Press, 1977) [W]. Of great importance to our knowledge of the early development of Buddhism in Euro-American culture are three autobiographies published in the 1970s. Christmas Humphreys wrote Both Sides of the Circle (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1978), describing his transition from Theosophist to Zen Buddhist. Alan Watts describes how he became the prophet of Zen, along with Suzuki (who directly influenced all three of these autobiographers), calling his work In My Own Way (New York: Vintage, 1973). Watts' brand of Zen did not even require being a Buddhist, a designation that made him uncomfortable, as did disciplined meditation and moral sentiments of all sorts. Edward Conze's autobiography is The Memoirs of a Modern Gnostic: Part 1, Life and Letters; Part 2, Politics, People and Places (Sherborne, England: Samizdat Publishing Company, 1979). Part 3, Forbidden Thoughts and Banished Topics, has been delayed in publication in order to await the demise of all the principals, thus releasing the publisher from libel suits. Although Conze's account is valuable in that he reports meetings with a wide range of interesting and important figures, it fails the Holden Caulfield test for a good book: after reading it, you would not want to call the author up on the phone.
From the American side of the Atlantic, Natalie Goldberg tells of her Zen training in Long Quiet Highway (New York: Bantam, 1993) [W]. Lawrence Shainberg has given an account of his life as a Zen student in Ambivalent Zen (New York: Pantheon, 1996). Stephen T. Butterfield, a student of Chogyam Trumpa, records his ambivalent feelings about his training in The Double Mirror: A Skeptical Journey into Buddhist Tantra (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1994).
There have been many Buddhist belle-lettrists. A. K. Warder's Indian Kavya Literature (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass)--planned in eight volumes, of which six have been published--offers partial translations of Indian Buddhist belles lettres, such as the work of Asvaghosa, Matrceta, Arya Sura, Dharmakirti as poet, and Saraha, among others, discussing them from the point of view of the general Indian literary tradition. The book treats poetry and tales from the Pali Canon from the literary point of view as well. Asvaghosa's Saundarananda has been translated by E. H. Johnston (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975). For translations of his Buddhacarita, see the listings under chapter 1, below. A readable translation of Matrceta's Hymn to the Buddha (Satapancasatka) has been made by S. Dhammika (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1989, also available on AI). Peter Khoroche has provided a stylish translation of Arya Sura's extremely stylish Jatakamala, entitledOnce the Buddha Was a Monkey: (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989).
The primary Chinese Buddhist poet is Han-shan, whose works lie at the point of intersection between Taoist and Ch'an practice. Like Basho, Han Shan never became a monk but remained a lay Ch'an Buddhist. His poems, as arranged by his translator, Burton Watson, in Cold Mountain, 100 poems by the T'ang Poet Han-shan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), describe his transformation from a carefree youth and subsequent life as a family man through difficult, bitter years that led eventually to the "Cold Mountain," both a place where he took refuge and his own more awakened state of mind. There is some question, however, as to whether there were two or more "Han-shan's", and of whether the poems describe the author's actual experiences, or were written--as was common with Chinese poetry--in empathy with the experiences of others. Robert G. Henricks provides an annotated, scholarly translation of the complete Han-shan's corpus in The Poetry of Han-shan (Albany: SUNY Press, 1990.)
Another Chinese Buddhist poet, one who deserves to be read more by Westerners, is Li Ho: J. D. Frodsham, translator, The Poems of Li Ho (791 -817) (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1970). In Poems of Wang Wei (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973), G. W. Robinson has translated a fine selection of poems by this great T'ang dynasty poet and has provided some introductory notes on his relationship to Buddhism. The work of Su Tung-p'o, the great Sung poet, includes a number of pieces with Buddhist themes, which can be found translated by Burton Watson in Selected Poems of Su Tung-p'o (Port Townsend, Wa.: Copper Canyon Press, 1994).
New translations are making the sixteenth-century Chinese folk novel Monkey more available to Westerners. Arthur Waley translated selections of Wu Ch'eng-en's novel (New York: Grove Press, 1958), and now Anthony C. Yu--The Journey to the West, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977 and following)--has brought out a complete translation. Berkeley's Asian Humanities Press is publishing the sequel by Tung Yueh under the title The Tower of Myriad Mirrors (1978). Monkey is the best of popular Chinese Buddhist literature, a work of consummate fantasy. Supposedly the account of Hsuan-tsang's journey to India to fetch Buddhist scriptures for the Chinese emperor, the novel tells of a fabulous stone monkey who pursued and gained power (siddhi) from a venerable patriarch. Running amok on a spree through Heaven, he made too many powerful enemies and was released from imprisonment in a mountain only when forced by the goddess of compassion, Kuan-yin, to accompany the priest Tripitaka (Hsuan-tsang) to India, thus putting his formidable powers to a useful purpose. The "real" story of Hsuan-tsang is equally fascinating, and is told by Waley in The Real Tripitaka (New York: Macmillan, 1952) and more recently by Sally Hovey Wriggins in Xuanzang: A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996).
Many themes from Korean Buddhism can be found in the tales and literary works included in Peter Lee's Anthology of Korean Literature: From Early Times to the Nineteenth Century (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1981).
William LaFleur has written an excellent study of Buddhist themes in medieval Japanese literature: The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983). He also offers a selection of poems from Saigyo (1118-1190) in his Mirror for the Moon (New York: New Directions, 1977). Lady Murasaki's The Tale of Genji, which reflects popular Buddhism in the Heian period, is available in English translation (New York: Modern Library, 1993) [W]. One of the most popular figures in Japanese Zen history is Ryokan (1758-1831) who, like Han-shan, avoided institutional Zen, preferring to be a mountain recluse, living off meager alms in order to devote full time to meditation and poetry. Two collections of his works in English are notable: Burton Watson's Ryokan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977); and the more comprehensive Great Fool: Zen Master Ryokan--Poems, Letters, and Other Writings, translated by Ryuichi Abe and Peter Haskel (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996). Sam Hamill has provided a selection of excellent translations of Japanese haiku, many of which express Buddhist themes, in The Sound of Water: Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa and Other Poets (Boston: Shambala, 1995).
The Tibetan Buddhist poet who has attracted the most interest in the West is the Sixth Dalai Lama. Rick Fields and Brian Cutillo have translated a selection of his poems in The Turquoise Bee: The Lovesongs of the Sixth Dalai Lama (HarperSanFrancisco). Gary W. Houston has also translated the poetry in Wings of the White Crane: Poems of Tshangs dbyangs rgya misho (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981).
Modern Asian Buddhists have written novels, too. One, by Michio Takeyama, The Harp of Burma (Rutland, Vt.: Charles Tuttle, 1968), describes in poignant terms a Japanese soldier who becomes a Theravadin monk in Burma rather than return to Japan at the end of World War II. The book was made into a fine Japanese film, The Burmese Harp. Both call forth deep feelings. Yukio Mishima's final tetralogy of novels, The Sea of Fertility, is structured around the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth, with a denouement derived from the doctrine of not-self.
Western writers--Buddhist and not--have also appropriated Buddhist themes in their poetry and fiction. Some notable examples: J. D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye; Seymour: An Introduction), Aldous Huxley (Island), Jeanne Larsen (Bronze Mirror; Manchu Palaces) [W], and the Beat poets in general. For an anthology of Beat Buddhist writings, see Carole Tonkinson, Big Sky Mind: Buddhism and the Beat Generation (New York: Riverhead, 1995) [W]; also Canoeing Up Cabarga Creek: Buddhist Poems by Philip Whalen (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1996). For a more general anthology of Buddhist themes in contemporary American poetry, see Johnson, Kent and Craig Paulenich, Beneath a Single Moon (Boston: Shambala, 1991).
Although most of the popular books on Buddhism leave much to be desired in terms of factual reliability, many are well worth reading. Adventurers have left us exciting records of their experiences in Buddhist countries. An example is Sven Hedin's, Trans-Himalaya (Leipzig, 1909, English edition, New York: Macmillan, 1909). Hedin roamed over Central Asia in the early twentieth century. Another example is Heinrich Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet (New York: Dutton, 1954, recently reprinted). He escaped from an Allied prison camp in India where he was interned at the outbreak of the Second World War. Rather than staying in India, he made his way to Tibet and personally witnessed that closed society until the end of the war. Fosco Maraini wrote Secret Tibet (London: Hutchinson, 1952; New York: Grove Press, 1960), an exciting, perceptive book on his experiences in Buddhist monasteries. The Asian Journals of Thomas Merton (New York: New Directions, 1975) record the author's encounters with Buddhists of various traditions during his fatal visit to Asia. Russell Johnson and Kerry Morgan have provided a vivid account, with gorgeous photographs, of the life and scenery along the pilgrim's trail to and around Mount Kailasa in western Tibet in The Sacred Mountain of Tibet: On Pilgrimage to Kailasa (Rochester, Vt.: Park Street Press, 1989). Lama Anagarika Govinda, a European convert to Buddhism, recounted his wanderings in Tibet in Way of the White Clouds (Boulder, Colo.: Shambhala, 1978). Another European Buddhist, John Blofeld, reminisces about his own experiences in pre-Second World War Buddhist China to illustrate his impressionistic, faithful accounting of the Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin (Boulder, Colo.: Shambhala, 1978) [W]. Margaret D. Williamson left a record of her meetings with the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in Memoirs of Political Officer's Wife in Tibet, Sikkim and Bhutan (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1987) [W].
Traveling scholars have also written accounts of their journeys, such as Snellgrove's Buddhist Himalaya: Travels and Studies in Quest of the Origins and Nature of Tibetan Religion (Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1957) and his reissued Himalayan Pilgrimage: A Study of Tibetan Religion (Boulder, Colo.: Prajna Press, 1981). Similarly, Marco Pallis wrote Peaks and Lamas (London: Woburn Press, 1957), describing his travels in Buddhist areas of India, Sikkim, and Ladakh in the 1930s.
A more recent group of travelers, those who journey to Asia to meditate, have produced a considerable number of books on their experiences, many of which are often found in bookstores today. An example of one of these is Janwillem van de Wetering's The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery [M]. The experiences of Western women training in Japanese monasteries can be found in Zen and a Lady by Claire Myer Owens (New York: Baraka Books, 1979) [W] and Diary of a Zen Nun by Nancy Ambhoux (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1986) [W]. Of special interest is Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind, by Maura O'Halloran (Boston: Charles Tuttle, 1994), the collected letters of an Irishwoman who trained in a Zen monastery and died in Thailand on her way back to the West [W].
A frank and entertaining account of one American's five-year stint as a monk in a Thai forest monastery is Paul Breiter's Venerable Father: A Life with Ajahn Chah (Bangkok, 1993) [M], which can be ordered from Wisdom Publications in Boston. Readable accounts have been written by Peter Matthiessen, an American naturalist and adventurer, whose Buddhist adventures in the wilds of Asia and America are recorded in his books The Snow Leopard (New York: Viking Press, 1978) and The Nine-headed Dragon River (Boston: Shambala, 1986).
[5] SELECTED SOURCES FOR MATERIAL IN SPECIFIC CHAPTERS
Although scholars can be generally expected to be more reliable than popular writers, even they can show remarkable biases in their work. As in any scholarly field, Buddhologists have come to widely different conclusions on some of the most basic aspects of the Buddhist religion. Thus any student attempting to learn of the tradition from scholarly works is well-advised to check a number of authorities before coming to any fixed conclusions.
The following selection, which makes no pretense at being exhaustive, is designed to offer an introduction to the scholarly literature, listing three sorts of works: those that are standard in the field, those that the authors of BR have found especially helpful, and those that show some of the range of scholarly opinion on controversial subjects.
For background on the setting of the Buddha's Awakening, students can consult the following works.
Basham, A. L., History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas. London: Luzac, 1951. Excellent, detailed survey of another Samana sect, contemporary to the Buddha.
Fairservis, Walter A., The Roots of Ancient India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975. Detailed archaeological study of early Indic civilization.
Gonda, Jan, Vedic Literature: Samhitas and Brahmanas. Wiesbaden, 1975. An authoritative book by a fine scholar.
Hopkins, Thomas J., The Hindu Religious Tradition, 2nd ed. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1982. See especially the first chapters and the bibliography.
Jaini, Padmanabh S., The Jaina Path of Purification. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. Treats another Samana school from the Buddha's time.
Jayatilleke, K. N., Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1963. Sophisticated, thorough-going study of early Buddhist logic, epistemology, and semantics, somewhat marred by the author's attempts to make Buddhist thought respectible in terms of Logical Positivism. Excellent survey of sramana movement, pp. 69-168.
Johnson, Willard, Poetry and Speculation of the Rg Veda. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. Describes the early development of the Sanskrit world view, discussing many Buddhist themes.
Warder, A. K., Outline of Indian Philosophy. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971. Contains excellent discussions of the sramana movements, Lokayata in particular, and of the influence of astronomy on the Indian world view.
Bareau, Andre, Recherches sur la biographie du bouddha. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1963. Exhaustive comparative study of the Pali sources, aimed at disproving Frauwallner's thesis (below) about the original biography of the Buddha.
Beyer, Experience, contains a lively translation from Cantos 13 and 14 of Asvaghosa's Buddhacarita (Acts of the Buddha), on the Awakening, pp. 186-197.
Conze, Edward, Buddhist Scriptures. Baltimore: Penguin, 1959. Gives a condensed translation of the Buddhacarita, pp. 34-66.
Cummings, Mary, The Lives of the Buddha in the Art and Literature of Asia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, 1982.
Frauwallner, E., The Earliest Vinaya and the Beginnings of Buddhist Literature. Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1956. Advances the thesis that there was originally a full biography of the Buddha that was then lost except for fragments preseved in the early canons.
Johnston, E. H., trans., The Buddhacarita, Or, Acts of the Buddha. 3d ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984. The best complete translation, with an excellent introduction.
Karetsky, Patricia Eichenbaum, The Life of the Buddha: Ancient Scriptural and Pictorial Traditions. Lanham: University Press of America, 1992.
Nakamura, Hajime, Gotama Buddha. Los Angeles: Buddhist Books International, 1977. A short, scholarly retelling of the life.
Ñanamoli, Bhikkhu, The Life of the Buddha. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1972. Life and teachings of the Buddha selected from Pali sources. One of the best books to use as a "first reader" for Pali Buddhism.
Narada Thera, The Buddha and His Teachings. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1988 (reprint).
Reynolds Frank E., and Charles Hallisey, "The Buddha," in Kitagawa and Cummings, Buddhism and Asian History: 29-49. Surveys the concept of "Buddha" in all its forms.
Reynolds, Frank E., "The Many Lives of Buddha: A Study of Sacred Biography and Theravada Tradition," in Reynolds, Frank E. and Donald Capps, eds., The Biographical Process. The Hague: 1976.
Thomas, E. J., The Life of the Buddha as Legend and History. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1927. Readable, scholarly, standard.
Warren, Buddhism in Translations, pp. 38-83, 331-349.
Cowell, E. B., ed., Jataka Stories. Three volumes. (London: Pali Text Society, 1956; there is also a more recent reprint by Motilal Banarsidass.) Very free translations of the canonical and commentarial text of the Pali Jatakas.
Horner, I. B., Ten Jataka Stories (London, 1957; there is also a more recent reprint by Mahamakut Press, Bangkok). Very literal translations.
Jones, John Garrett, Tales and Teachings of the Buddha: The Jataka Stories in Relation to the Pali Canon. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1979.
Many children's versions of the more popular Jataka tales have been issued, both in Asia and in the West. An interesting study could be made of how they are altered in becoming modern children's stories.
Gelman, H. S., et al., trans., Petavatthu: Stories of the Departed, & Vimanavatthu: Stories of the Mansions. London: Pali Text Society, 1974. Translations of relatively late Pali texts in which hungry ghosts and devas appear to meditators to recount their mode of life and their actions, while human, that led to such a rebirth.
Haldar, J. R. ,Early Buddhist Mythology. New Delhi: Manohar, 1977. A study of little-known subjects relating to early Buddhism.
Law, B. C., The Buddhist Conception of Spirits. Varanasi, India: Bharatiya Publishing House, 1974. (Reprint from 1936.)
-----, Heaven and Hell in Buddhist Perspective. Varanasi, India: Bharatiya Publishing House, 1973. (Repreint from 1925.)
Matsunaga, Daigan and Alicia Matsunaga, The Buddhist Concept of Hell. New York: Philosophical Library, 1972. From the Vedas through Mahayana.
McDermott, James P., "Karma and Rebirth in Early Buddhism," in Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980): 165-192.
Renou, Louis, et Jean Filliazat, L'lnde classique. Tome 1 (Nos. 1-1357). Pans: Payot, 1947. Tome 2 (Nos. 1358-2494). Paris: Imprimeries Nationale, 1953. The standard topical encyclopedia of Indology. Tome 2, pp. 315-608, presents everything the fledgling scholar should learn about Buddhism and much that is new to veterans. On pantheon, see Nos. 1029, 1077-1079, 1086-1087, 2266-2272.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu, The Wings to Awakening (Barre, Mass.: Dhamma Dana Publications, 1996), also available at AI [M]. On karma, see sections I/A and I/B.
Warren, Buddhism in Translations, pp. 289-291, 308 330.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu, trans., The Great Discourse on Causation: The Mahanidana Sutta and its Commentaries. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1984. Contains a clear introduction and appendix giving the commentarial and Abhidhamma explanations of dependent co-arising.
Jayatilleke, Theory of Knowledge, pp. 445-457.
Johansson, Rune E. A., The Dynamic Psychology of Early Buddhism. London: Curzon, 1979. Pali sources on dependent co-arising, explained with a strong slant from Western psychology.
Kalupahana, David J., Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1975. The most complete treatment of the topic in English. Criticized by Paul Griffiths in On Being Mindless (LaSalle, Il.: Open Court, 1986), p. 32f. For an alternative to both Kalupahana and Griffiths, see Thanissaro, below.
Ñanananda, Bhikkhu, Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1976.
-----, The Magic of the Mind. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1974. This work and preceding one treat dependent co-arising in the context of early Buddhist psychology.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu, The Wings to Awakening . On dependent co-arising, see Introduction and section III/H/iii.
Thomas, E. J., The History of Buddhist Thought. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1933. On dependent co-arising, see pp. 58-70.
Warder, Indian Buddhism. On dependent co-arising, pp. 107-156.
Jayatilleke, Theory of Knowledge, pp. 382-401. On faith.
Ñanamoli, Life, pp. 206-256. On the four noble truths.
The following five books give a sense of the current range of opinion on the not-self doctrine:
Collins, Steven, Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Hamilton, Sue. Identity and Experience: The Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism. London: Luzac Oriental, 1996. A study of the five aggregates as explained in the Sutta Pitaka.
Harvey, Peter, The Selfless Mind. Surrey: Curzon Press, 1995,
Perez-Ramon, Joacquin, Self and Non-Self in Early Buddhism. The Hague: Mouton, 1980.
Thanissaro, Wings to Awakening, sections II.G and III.H.i.
Most scholarly works on early Buddhist meditation tend to follow The Path of Purification, the fifth-century C.E. work by Buddhaghosa, in positing a radical split between the two main forms of Buddhist meditation, tranquility meditation and insight meditation, even though the earlier sources view the two forms as two aspects of a single, unified process. A sample of works following Buddhaghosa is included under the bibliography for chapter 7, as they reflect Sri Lankan and Burmese practice more accurately than they do earlier accounts of Buddhist meditation.
Two recent works that focus on early Buddhist meditation, treating tranquility and insight practice as two aspects of a single process:
Gethin, R. M. L., The Buddhist Path to Awakening: A Study of the Bodhi-Pakkhiya Dhamma. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992. A scholary study of Pali and Sarvastivadin sources [M].
Thanissaro, Wings to Awakening, sections II/B, III/E, and III/F. [M]
On nirvana:
Collins, Steven. Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities: Utopias of the Pali Imaginaire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Avoids discussing nirvana as a possible experience, and instead focuses on it as a literary trope playing a formal, semantic, and syntactic role in the narrative and discursive thought of the Pali Canon and commentaries.
Johansson, Rune E. A., The Psychology of Nirvana. New York: Doubleday, 1970. Study of early Pali Buddhist thought on nirvana and its attainment, based on close readings of the texts, with interpretations strongly colored by the author's background in Western psychology.
Kasulis, Thomas P., "Nirvana," in Kitagawa and Cummings, Buddhism and Asian History: 395-408. A compact survey of how a wide variety of Buddhist traditions view nirvana.
Katz, Nathan, Buddhist Images of Human Perfection: The Arahant of the Sutta Pitaka Compared with the Bodhisattva and the Mahasiddha. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1982.
Poussin, Louis de La Vallee, Nirvana. Paris, 1925. His mature view on nirvana from a mystical/religious perspective, well developed.
-----, The Way to Nirvana. Cambodge, 1917. Popular lectures by one of the greatest modern Buddhologists.
Stcherbatsky, Theodore, The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana. Leningrad: Office of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., 1927. An attack on La Vallee Poussin by another great master, arguing from a philosophical interpretation of Nagarjuna's work. REcently reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu, The Mind Like Fire Unbound (Barre, Mass.: Dhamma Dana Publications, 1993), also available at AI [M].
Warren, Buddhism in Translations, pp. 117-128, 380-391.
Welbon, Guy Richard, The Buddhist Nirvana and Its Western Interpreters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968. A readable history of the West's intellectual encounter with Buddhism as instanced in the problem of nirvana.
Chakravarti, Uma, The Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987. The best book on early Buddhist social theories and policies.
Thomas, Life, pp. 89-142.
Wijayaratna, Mohan, Buddhist Monastic Life According to the Texts of the Theravada Tradition. Translated by Claude Grangier and Steven Collins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Chapter 1 gives an interesting account of the origins of the Sangha.
Cook, Elizabeth, ed., Holy Places of the Buddha. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1994.
Ñanamoli, Life, pp. 271-332.
Thomas, Life, pp. 143-164.
Warren, Buddhism in Translations, pp. 95-110.
Barua, Dipak Kumar, Viharas in Ancient India: A Survey of Buddhist Monasteries. Calcutta: Indian Publications, 1969.
Horner, I. B., Women Under Primitive Buddhism. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975 (reprint). Useful early study [W].
Kloppenborg, Ria, The Paccekabuddha: A Buddhist Ascetic. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill 1974. A thorough study of the most neglected of the three Paths of Buddhist practice. A condensed version of this book (1983) is available from the Buddhist Publiction Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Ling, Trevor, The Buddha: Buddhist Civilization in India and Ceylon. Baltimore: Penguin, 1976.
Narain, A. K., The Indo-Greeks. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.
Pande, G. C., Studies in the Origins of Buddhism. Allahabad, India: University of Allahabad, 1957.
Pardue, Peter, Buddhism: A Brief Account. New York: Macmillan, 1971. Social history.
Tarn, W. W., The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1951.
Varma, Vishvanath Prasad, Early Buddhism and Its Origins. Delhi: Munshiram Monaharlal, 1973.
Wagle, Narendra, Society at the Time of Buddha. New York: Humanities Press, 1967. The social structure of India in the Buddha's time, based on the Pali Canon.
Yu, Chai Shin, Early Buddhism and Christianity: A Comparative Study. Delhi: Motilal, 1980.
Conze, Edward, Thirty Years of Buddhist Studies. Oxford: Cassirer, 1967. A collection of articles. The first, "Recent Progress in Buddhist Studies," first published in 1959-1960, summarizes the state of scholarship on the Buddhist scriptures at that time.
l'Inde Classique, Nos. 1940-2169. The best scholarly piece on Buddhist literature.
Lancaster, Lewis, "Buddhist Literature: Its Canon, Scribes and Editors" in The Critical Study of Sacred Texts, ed. Wendy D. O'Flaherty. Berkeley: Berkeley Religious Studies Series, 1979, pp. 215-29.
Lamotte, History, pp. 124-191.
Law, Bimala Churn, A History of Pali Literature (2 vols.). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1933.
Norman, K. R., Pali Literature, Including the Canonical Literature in Prakrit and Sanskrit of All Hinayana Schools of Buddhism. Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1983.
Thomas, Thought, pp. 261 287. A survey of the Pali Canon and other Buddhist scriptures.
Warder, Indian Buddhism, pp. 201-212; 228-239
Winternitz, Moriz, A History of Indian Literature. Volume 2: Buddhist and Jaina Leterature. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass.
Efforts to date the formation of the canon, or a determine which parts of the canon are older than others, are usually based more on the authors' subjective notions of how Buddhism "probably" developed than on any objective criteria. Two interesting but failed efforts to date the Canon based on objective criteria--see the discussions in BR on page 53--are included in:
Schopen, Gregory, "Deaths, Funerals, and the Division of Property in a Monastic Code," in Lopez, Buddhism in Practice: 473-487.
Warder, A. K., Pali Metre. London: Pali Text Society, 1967. This book is a must-read for anyone who attempts a serious study of Pali poetry, but is generally too technical for the beginning student.
Some of the best translations from the Pali Suttas include:
Carter, John Ross and Malinda Palihawadana, trans., The Dhammapada. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987). Contains extensive material from the commentaries and alternative versions of the Dhammapada preserved by other schools.
(The new PTS translation of the Dhammapada--K.R. Norman's The Word of the Doctrine (Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1997)--is not recommended, as it takes the principle of literalness to ludicrous extremes.
Ireland, John D., trans., The Itivuttaka: The Buddha's Sayings. (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1991.
-----, trans., The Udana: Inspired Utterances of the Buddha. (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1990.
Ñanamoli, Bhikkhu, and Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans., The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995). The best translation of an entire nikaya.
Norman, K. R., trans., The Elders' Verses I: Theragatha. London: Pali Text Society, 1969.
-----, trans.,The Elders' Verses II: Therigatha. Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1971. Both this translation and the preceding one are so literal as to lose the poetic flavor of the original, but no reliable alternative translations are available. The Therigatha is especially noteworthy as it is the oldest record of women's religious experience in the world [W].
-----, trans., The Rhinoceros Horn and Other Early Buddhist Poems (Sutta Nipata) London: Pali Text Society, 1985. Again, extremely literal, but there are no other reliable (and plenty of unreliable) translations available.
Walshe, Maurice O'C., trans., The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1996). Fairly loose in spots, but very readable.
The only complete English translations of the Samyutta and Anguttara Nikayas (from the Pali Text Society) are unreliable. The Buddhist Publication Society offers useful anthologies:
Ireland, John, et. al., trans., Samyutta Nikaya: An Anthology.
Nyanaponika Thera, trans., Anguttara Nikaya: An Anthology.
A useful selection of translations from the Pali Suttas is available at AI.
Comparative studies based on other canons:
Brough, John, ed., The Gandhari Dharmapada. (London: Oxford University Press, 1962). Unfortunately, Brough does not give translations from the Gandhari. To counteract the then-prevalent view that the Pali Canon was the only reliable source on early Buddhism, Brough felt the need to be fairly intemperate in his attacks on it. A useful response to some of his more ill-considered judgments can be found in the notes to Carter and Palihawadana, above.
Minh Chau, Bhiksu Thich, The Chinese Madhyama Agama and the Pali Majjhima Nikaya. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass).
Frauwallner, E., The Earliest Vinaya and the Beginnings of Buddhist Literature. Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1956.
Hirakawa, Akira, trans., Monastic Discipline for the Buddhist Nuns: An English Translation of the Chinese Text of the Mahasamghika-Bhiksuni-Vinaya. Patna: Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute [W].
Horner, I. B., trans., The Book of Discipline. 6 volumes. London: Pali Text Society, 1938-1966. An almost-complete translation of the Pali Vinaya Pitaka--"almost," because the translator decided against translating some of the more sexually explicit passages into English [W].
Prebish, Charles S., Buddhist Monastic Discipline: The Sanskrit Pratimoksa Sutras of the Mahasamghikas and Mulasarvastivadins. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1975. The introduction, on the rise of Buddhist monasticism, should be read in conjunction with Wijayaratna.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu, The Buddhist Monastic Code: The Patimokkha Training Rules Translated and Explained. Valley Center, CA: Metta Forest Monastery, 1994. Also available at AI.
Tsomo, Karma Lekshe, Sisters in Solitude: Two Traditions of Buddhist Monastic Ethics for Women. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. Complete translations, with a brief comparative analysis, of the Chinese Dharmagupta and Tibetan Mulasarvastivada versions of the Bhiksuni Pratimoksa Sutra [W].
Wijayaratna, Mohan, Buddhist Monastic Life According to the Texts of the Theravada Tradition. Translated by Claude Grangier and Steven Collins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. The best general introduction to the topic of Vinaya and its relation to the Dharma. A good corrective to the work of Sukumar Dutt (see below) [W].
Guenther, Herbert V., Philosophy and Psychology in the Abhidharma. Berkeley, Calif.: Shambhala, 1976.
Jacobson, Nolan Pliny, Buddhism, the Religion of Analysis. London: Feffer & Simons, 1974.
Nyanatiloka, A Guide through the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1971.
Nyanaponika, Thera, Abhidamma Studies. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1965.
Warder, Indian Buddhism, pp. 218-224.
Watanabe, Fumimaro, Philosophy and its Development in the Nikayas and Abhidhamma. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983.
Aung, S. Z. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids, trans., Points of Controversy. London: Pali Text Society, 1915 (since reprinted). A translation of the Kathavatthu, the Theravada account of the issues that divided the early schools.
Banerjee, Anukul Chandra, Sarvastivada Literature. Calcutta: World Press, 1979.
Bareau, Andre, Les sectes bouddhiques du Petit Vehicule. Saigon: Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, 1955. A definitive scholarly work.
Chau, Thich Thein, "The Literature of the Pudgalavadins," Journal of the International Asociation of Buddhist Studies 7, no. 1 (1984): 7-40.
-----, "Les Réponses des Pudgalavadins aux critiques des écoles bouddhiques," Journal of the International Asociation of Buddhist Studies 10, no. 1 (1987): 33-53. These two articles are the first scholarly accounts to report the Pudgalavadins' position in their own words.
-----, The Literature of the Personalists of Early Buddhism. Translated by Sara Boin-Webb. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999. A thorough treatment of the four extant Pudgalavadin treatises preserved in the Chinese canon.
Conze, Edward, Buddhist Thought in India. Hinayana sects, pp. 119-191.
Dutt, Nalinaksha, Buddhist Sects in India. Calcutta: Firma KLM, 1977. Dated, but the only monograph in English. Should be read in conjunction with Warder and Lamotte.
Funahashi, Issai, et al., "Abhidharmakosa-sastra," in Encyclopaedia of Buddhism (EoB), vol. 1, pp. 58a-63.
Karunaratne, W. S., H. G. A. van Zeyst, and Kogen Mizuno, "Abhidhamma," fascicule 1, pp. 37b-49a, in EoB, ed. G. P. Malalasekera, published by the Government of Sri Lanka. Fascicule 1 appeared in 1961.
Kao Kuan-ju, "Abhidharma-mahavibhasa," EoB, vol. 1, pp. 64b-80a.
Mizuno, Kogen, "Abhidharma Literature," EoB, vol. 1, pp. 64b-80a.
Lamotte, History, pp. 517-592.
Poussin, Louis de La Vallee, trans., Abhidharmakosabhasyam. Translated from the French by Leo M. Pruden. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press. Annotated translation of Vasubandhu's masterwork, the crowning piece of the Abhidharma movement.
Warder, Indian Buddhism, pp. 212-218; 239-242; 272-278; 288-330; 341-347
Stcherbatsky, Theodore, The Central Conception of Buddhism and the Meaning of the Word "Dharma." London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1923. Reprint by Susil Gupta, Calcutta, 1956; more recently by Motilal Banarsidass. A brief interpretive exposition of the Abhidharmakosa's doctrine.
Willemen, C., et. al. Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997.
Lamotte, History, pp. 223-259
Nikam, N. A., and Richard McKeon, The Edicts of Asoka. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959. Translates the edicts.
Przyluski, Jean, The Legend of Emperor Asoka in Indian and Chinese Texts. Calcutta: Mukhopadhyay, 1967.
Seneviratna, Anuradha, ed., King Asoka and Buddhism. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1994.
Strong, John, The Legend of King Asoka. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983. Sensitive translation and discussion of the Asokavadana, the Sarvastivadin legend of Asoka.
Tharpar, Romila, Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983.
Warder, Indian Buddhism, pp. 243-271
Anesaki, M., "Ethics and Morality (Buddhist)," ERE, vol. 5, pp. 447b 455b.
Auboyer, Jeannine, Daily Life in Ancient India (from approximately 200 B.C.E. to 700 C.E.). New York: Macmillan, 1965. Contains information on early Indian (including Buddhist) worship and life.
Blackstone, Kathryn R., Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggles for Liberation in the Therigatha. London: Curzon, 1998. [W]
Davids, T. W. Rhys, Buddhist India. Delhi: Motilal Banaradass, 1980 (reprint). Religious life in the early centuries.
Dutt, Nalinaksha, Early Monastic Buddhism. Calcutta: Calcutta Oriental Book Agency, 1960.
Dutt, Sukumar, Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1962. See note under Wijayaratna, above, section [5.3.4].
-----, Early Buddhist Monachism. Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1960.
Geden, A. S., "Monasticism (Buddhist)," ERE, vol. 8, pp. 797a-802b.
Horner, Living Thoughts, pp. 74-75, 88 138.
Keown, Damien, The Nature of Buddhist Ethics. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992).
Murcott, Susan, The First Buddhist Women. Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1991. A feminist analysis of the Therigatha [W].
Olivelle, Patrick, The Origin and Early Development of Buddhist Monachism. Colombo: Gunasena, 1974.
Ray, Reginald A., Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Presents a valuable portrait of the "three-tiered" structure of the early Buddhist community--forest monks, town monks, and lay supporters--but the author's assertion that the Vinaya was primarily a town-monk project is based on a partial and inaccurate reading of the texts.
Schopen, Gregory. Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996. Important in the sense that it is controversial and heavily promoted by those who share the author's point of view. Best read by someone with a firm grasp of debating technique and good access to the sources cited by the author.
Snodgrass, Adrian, The Symbolism of the Stupa. Ithaca: Cornell University Southeast Asian Studies Program, 1985.
Warder, Indian Buddhism. On lay Buddhism, pp. 187-200
Warren, Buddhism in Translations, pp. 91-94, 392-421, 441-481.
Wilson, Liz. Charming Cadavers: Horrific Figurations of the Feminine in Indian Buddhist Hagiographic Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996 [W].
Zysk, Kenneth G., Asceticism and Healing in Ancient India: Medicine in the Buddhist Monastery. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Bareau, Les sectes bouddhiques, pp. 296-305.
Basham, A.L., ed. Papers of the Date of Kaniska. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968.
Conze, Buddhist Thought in India, pp. 195-204.
Dutt, Nalinaksha, Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism. London: Luzac, 1930.
Kalupahana, David, The Principles of Buddhist Psychology. Albany: SUNY Press, 1987. Views the history of the development of Buddhist philosophy and psychology as a story of general decline and capitulation to non-empiricist notions.
Kiyota, Minoru, ed., Mahayana Buddhist Meditation: Theory and Practice. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1978 [M].
Lamotte, Etienne, "Sur la formation du Mahayana," in Asiatica (Festchrift F. Weller). Leipzig, 1954: 381-386.
Pye, Michael. Skilful Means: A concept in Mahayana Buddhism. London: Duckworth, 1978. An excellent study of one of the most important concepts in Mahayana thought, although the author seriously underestimates the originality of the Mahayana use of the concept.
Warder, Indian Buddhism, pp. 352-422.
Williams, Paul, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1989. Good survey of Mahayana, focusing on India and China, but also including discussions of Tibetan and Japanese developments.
Williams, Paul. Altruism and Reality: Studies in the Philosophy of the Bodhicaryavatara. London: Curzon, 1998.
[5.4.2] The Teaching of Emptiness
Conze, Edward, Buddhist Wisdom Books. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1958 (also New York: Harper & Row, 1972). Contains Diamond-Cutter Sutra and Heart Sutra; translation with commentary.
-----, trans., The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.
-----, The Prajnaparamita Literature. The Hague: Mouton, 1960.
-----, Selected Sayings from the Perfection of Wisdom. London: Buddhist Society, 1955.
Lamotte, Etienne, L'Enseignement de Vimalakirti (Vimalakirtinirdesa). Louvain, Belgium: Publications Universitaires, 1962. Excellent French translation, with copious notes and introduction, of one of the most important and well-written Mahayana Sutras.
Thurman, Robert A. F., trans., The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti. A translation of the Vimalakirti-nirdesa Sutra from the Tibetan.
Wayman, Alex, trans., The Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala. A translation of the Srimala Sutra from the Chinese [W].
Of all the Indian Buddhist schools, Madhyamika has attracted the most scholarly interest. And among the Madhyamikans, Nagarjuna has attracted the most controversy. These controversies revolve around two points of contention: whether Nagarjuna was a nihilist, and whether he should be read on his own or as interpreted by his later followers in the Madhyamika school, Candrakirti and Tsongkhapa in particular. The first controversy centers on the question of whether the more radical elements in his teachings can rightfully be interpreted outside of the context of his religious goals. This controversy will probably never be settled, as it comes down to the same issues that keep philosophers and intellectual historians in separate academic fields. The second controversy seems rather pointless, as there should be enough room in this world for both approaches to Nagarjuna's thought.
Eckel, Malcolm David, To See the Buddha: A Philosopher's Quest for the Meaning of Emptiness. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. An excellent introduction to the world-view of Mahayana religion-and-philosophy, theory-and-practice in general, and that of Bhavaviveka in particular. Presents a strong case for the position that Madhyamika doctrine can be properly understood only when viewed in its religious context.
Garfield, Jay L., The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Both the translation and the author's notes follow the Gelug interpretation of the text.
Harris, I.C. The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogacara in Indian Mahayana Buddhism. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991.
Huntington, C. W., Jr., The Emptiness of Emptiness: An Introduction to Early Indian Madhyamika. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989. A translation, with an extensive introduction and analysis, of Candrakirti's The Entry into the Middle Way. Presents Madhyamika as a radical form of deconstructionism.
Inada, Kenneth K., Nagarjuna. A Translation of His Mularmadhyamaka- karika with an Introductory Essay. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1970.
Kalupahana, David J., Nagarjuna: The Philosophy of the Middle Way. Albany: SUNY Press, 1986. Presents a strong case for viewing Nagarjuna's more radical positions in the context of the standard Hinayanist elements in his work. The author's argument is weakened, however, by his insistence on forcing Nagarjuna and early Buddhism into the mold of Jamesian Pragmatism.
Lindtner, Christian, Master of Wisdom. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1986. Translations of six of Nagarjuna's works, with an analysis by the translator.
Nagao, Gadjin, Madhyamika and Yogacara: A Study of Mahayana Philosophies. Albany: SUNY Press, 1991.
Napper, Elizabeth, Dependent-Arising and Emptiness. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1989. Although this book centers on a translation of a text by Tsongkhapa, the translator's introduction contains the best review available of the literature on Nagarjuna. Puts the other books on Nagarjuna listed here into perspective.
Ramanan, K. V., Nagarjuna's Philosophy as Presented in Maha-Prajnaparamita-Sastra. Tokyo, 1966; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1978.
Robinson, Richard H., Early Madhyamika in India and China. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967. Read pp. 21-70.
Ruegg, D.S., and L. Schmithausen, eds. Earliest Buddhism. Madhyamaka. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990.
Sprung, Mervyn, trans., Lucid Exposition of the Middle Way. Boulder, Colo.: Great Eastern, 1980. Translates the essential chapters of Candrakirti's Prasannapada.
Sprung, Mervyn, ed., The Problem of Two Truths in Buddhism and Vedanta. Boston: Reidel, 1973. Contains several interesting articles, including one by A. K. Warder questioning whether Nagarjuna was, in fact, a Mahayanist.
Stcherbatsky, Theodore, The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana. Leningrad: Office of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.,1927. Translation and commentary on chapters from the Mulamadhyamaka-karika on causality and nirvana.
Streng, Frederick J., Emptiness: A Study in Religious Meaning. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, ]967. A study of Nagarjuna and his vision with respect to the relation between religious awareness and symbolic expression. Contains complete translations of Nagarjuna's two chief works.
Wood, Thomas, Nagarjunian Disputations. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. The latest statement of the nihilist case.
East Asian scholarship has long followed the sixth-century Yogacaran commentators, such as Sthiramati, in interpreting Yogacara as a form of philosophical Idealism, and for decades Western scholars have followed suit. More recent studies, such as Anacker's, Sutton's, and Willis', listed here, have shown that the classical forms of Yogacara doctrine--as in the Lankavatara Sutra and the works of Vasubandhu and Asanga--are not Idealist at all.
Anacker, Stefan, Seven Works of Vasubandhu. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984. Translations with perceptive introductions. A good place to start on Yogacaran thought.
Cleary, Thomas, trans., The Flower Ornament Scripture. Boston: Shambala, 1983. Complete translation of the immense Avatamsaka Sutra, from the Chinese.
Fukaura, Seibun, "Alaya-vijnana," EoB, vol. 3, pp. 382b-388b.
Lamotte, Etienne, La somme du Grand Vehicule d'Asanga (Mahayanasamgraha). Tome 2. Traduction et commentaire. Louvain, Belgium: Museon, 1938. A basic manual of Yogacara.
Poussin, Louis de La Vallee, La Siddhi de Hiuen-tsang. Paris: Geuthner, 1928-1948. Translation of Hsuan-tsang's Ch'eng-wei-shih-lun, a synthesizing commentary on the Thirty Verses of Vasubandhu.
Powers, John. Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Samdhinirmocana Sutra. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993.
Powers, John, trans., Wisdom of Buddha: The Samdhinirmocana Sutra. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1994. An annotated translation, from the Tibetan, of the essential Yogacara text.
Rahula, Walpola, "Asanga," EoB, vol. 2, pp. 113b-146b.
Sutton, Florin Giripescu, Existence and Enlightenment in the Lankavatara Sutra: A Study in the Ontology and Epistemology of the Yogacara School of Mahayana Buddhism. Albany: SUNY Press, 1991. Presents a strong case against Suzuki's interpretation of the sutra, arguing for an interpretation more in line with continental phenomenology.
Suzuki, D. T., trans., Lankavatara Sutra. London: Kegan Paul, 1932 and 1956.
-----, Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra. London: Routledge, 1930. Treats the sutra as presenting a doctrine of Idealistic monism.
Willis, Janice Dean, On Knowing Reality: The Tattvartha Chapter of Asanga's Bodhisattvabhumi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979. One of the first Western works to question the thesis that classical Yogacara was a form of idealism.
Bhattacharyya, Dipak Chandra, Studies in Buddhist Iconography. New Delhi: Manohar, 1978.
Kloetzli, W. Randolph, Buddhist Cosmology: Science and Theology in the Images of Motion and Light. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983. Contrasts Hinayana and Mahayana cosmologies in terms of their basic metaphors.
Paul, Diana, Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in the Mahayana Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. Pioneering study [W].
Batchelor, Stephen, trans., Shantideva: Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979.
Dayal, Har, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature. London: Kegan Paul, 1932. (Reprinted, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975.)
Guenther, Herbert V., trans., The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, by Sgam-po-pa. London: Rider, 1959. An excellent Tibetan manual of the Bodhisattva Course. Hard to read because of the translator's idiosyncratic renderings of technical terms.
Santideva, The Bodhicaryavatara. Translated by Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Readable translation, with excellent introductions and notes.
l'Inde Classique, Nos. 2336-2339.
Lamotte, History. Maitreya, pp. 775-788.
-----, "Manjusri," T'oung Pao, vol. 48 (1960), pp. 1 96.
Sponberg, Alan and Helen Hardacre, eds., Maitreya: The Future Buddha. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Warren, Buddhism in Translations, pp. 480-486.
"Aksobhya," EoB, vol. 3, pp. 363-368a.
"Amita," EoB, vol. 3, pp. 434a-463b.
Birnbaum, Raoul. The Healing Buddha. Boston: Shambhala, 1989.
Fuss, M. Buddhavacana and Dei Verbum: A Phenomenological and Theological Comparison of Scriptural Inspiration in the Saddharmapundarika Sutra and in the Christian Tradition. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991.
Gomex, Luis O., The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of measureless Light. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996. "User-friendly" translations of both the Sanskrit and Chinese versions of the longer and shorter Sukhavativyuha Sutra, the basic Pure Land text. More scholarly translations of the same texts are promised by the translator in a future volume. Includes useful notes and introductions, and a very useful bibliography on Pure Land and related subjects.
Howard, A.F. The Imagery of the Cosmological Buddha. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986.
Lamotte, Etienne, trans. The Suramgamasamadhi Sutra. Translated into English by Sara Boin-Webb. London: Curzon, 1998.
Lern, H., trans., "The Saddharma-pundarika or the Lotus of the True Law," SBE, vol. 21. Oxford: Clarendon, 1909. An obsolete masterpiece: the only English translation of the Sanskrit version of this text.
The Shinshu Seiten ("The Holy Scripture of Shinshu"), compiled and published by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii, Honolulu, 1955. The three chief Pure Land Sutras translated from the standard Chinese versions, plus other texts from Chinese and Japanese.
Takakusu, J., trans., "The Amitayur-dhyana-sutra," SBE, vol. 49, pp. 161-201.
Watson, Burton, The Lotus Sutra. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Translated from the Chinese.
Chattopadhyaya, D. ed., Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1970. A translation of the history written by the medieval Tibetan monk, based on sources that have since been destroyed. A valuable source on Buddhism's later centuries in India.
Hattori, M., trans., Dignaga on Perception. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Oriental Series, 1968.
Mookerjee, Satkari, Buddhist Philosophy of Universal Flux. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980. On the school of Dignaga.
Singh, Amar, The Heart of Buddhist Philosophy: Dinnaga and Dharmakirti. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1984. Provides a needed corrective to Mookerjee and Stcherbatsky on Dignaga and Dharmakirti, but unfortunately is one of the most disorganized books imaginable.
Stcherbatsky, Theodore, Buddhist Logic, 2 vols. Leningrad, 1930. Reprint, NewYork: Dover Books, 1962. A study of Dharmakirti.
Warder, Indian Buddhism, pp. 443-485. Best introduction to the topic.
Bharati, Agehananda, The Tantric Tradition. New York: Weiser, 1975. Treats both Buddhist and Hindu Tantra; dense.
Dasgupta, Shashibhusan, An Introduction to Tantric Buddhism. Berkeley, Calif: Shambhala, 1974.
-----, Obscure Religious Cults. Calcutta: Firma K. L. M., 1962.
Dowman, Keith, Masters of Mahamudra: Songs and Histories of the Eighty-Four Buddhist Siddhas. Albany: SUNY Press, 1985. Very readable.
George, Christopher S., The Candamaharosana Tantra. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1974.
Guenther, Herbert V., The Tantric View of Life. Boulder, Colo: Shambhala, 1976. Almost as dense as Bharati on same.
-----, The Royal Song of Saraha. Berkeley, Calif.: Shambhala, 1973.
Kinsley, David. Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Kvaerne, Per, An Anthology of Buddhist Tantric Songs. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1977. Translation with introduction to late Buddhist Tantric songs (Caryagiti).
Lorenzen, David L., The Kapalikas and Kalamukhas: Two Lost Saivite Sects. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972. Pathbreaking study of the Saivite sect that formed the model for the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras.
Pott, P. H., Yoga and Tantra. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1966. Helpful work for the study of Buddhist Tantra.
Robinson, James B., Buddha's Lions: The Lives of the Eighty-Four Siddhas. Berkeley: Dharma, 1980.
Sanderson, Alexis, "Saivism and the Tantric Traditions," in Sutherland, Stewart, et.al., eds., The World's Religions. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988. Excellent survey of the various forms of Saivism from which the Buddhist Tantrists took inspiration [W].
Shaw, Miranda, Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. Enthusiastic, well-documented study of the leading role played by women in the Tantric movement. Overturns the earlier male-oriented interpretations of the role of women in the Tantrism [W].
Snellgrove, David L., The Hevajra Tantra. Part 1, Introduction and Translation. London: Oxford University Press, 1959. Readable and well-informed introduction.
-----, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and their Tibetan Successors. Vol 1. Boston: Shambhala, 1987. Excellent study of Indian Tantrism, together with proto-Tantric elements in earlier Mahayana. Best book to read first on the subject of Buddhist Tantrism.
Tucci, Guiseppe, The Theory and Practice of the Mandala. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973 [M].
-----, Tibetan Painted Scrolls. Vol. 1, The Religious Ideas: Vajrayana. Rome: Libraria cello Stato, 1949.
Warder, Indian Buddhism, pp. 485-506. Offers synopses of a number of important Tantras.
Wayman, Alex, Yoga of the Guhyasamajatantra. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977.
Aiyappan, A., and P. R. Srinivasan, Story of Buddhism with Special Reference to South India. Madras, India: Government of Madras, 1960.
Banerji, Aparna, Traces of Buddhism in South India. Calcutta: Scientific Book Agency, 1970.
Basu, N. N., Modern Buddhism and Its Followers in Orissa. Calcutta, 1911.
Gellner, David, "Buddhism and Hinduism in the Nepal Valley," in Sutherland, Stewart, et.al., eds., The World's Religions. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988.
Joshi, Lalmani, Studies in the Buddhistic Culture of India, 2nd rev. ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977.
Mishra, V. B., Religious Beliefs and Practices of North India during the Early Mediaeval Period. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1973. On Buddhism, pp. 138-145.
Naudou, Jean, Buddhists of Kashmir. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980.
Ram, Rajendra, A History of Buddhism in Nepal A.D. 704-1396. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1978.
Aronson, Harvey B., Love and Sympathy in Theravada Buddhism. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980. An excellent study: readable, insightful.
Bechert, Heinz, Buddhismus, Staat und Gesellschaft in den Landern des Theravada Buddhismus. 3 volumes. Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1966, 1967, 1973.
-----, "Sangha, State, Society, 'Nation': Persistence of Tradition in 'Post-Traditional' Buddhist Societies," Daedalus, Winter 1973: 85-95.
-----, "Theravada Buddhist Sangha: Some General Observations on Historical and Political Factors in Its Development," Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 29 (1969-1970): 761-778.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu, ed., A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1993. A translation, with through notes and explanatory essays, of the Abhidhammattha Sangaha, which for 800 years has been the basic textbook on Abhidhamma used in Theravada countries.
Bond, George, The Word of the Buddha: The Tipitaka and its Interpretation in Theravada Buddhism. Colombo: Gunasena, 1982. Analysis of the approaches developed by the Theravada school for explicating the Pali Canon.
Coedes, George, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1968.
-----, The Making of Southeast Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.
Gombrich, Richard F.,Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988.
Jayatilleke, K. N., The Message of the Buddha. New York: Free Press, 1974. Discussions of Buddhist topics from a modern Theravadin point of view.
Law, Bimala Churn, Buddhaghosa. Bombay: Bombay Branch Royal Asiatic Society, 1946.
Lester, Robert C., Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1973.
Ling, Trevor, Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil: A Study in Theravada Buddhism. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1962.
Ñanamoli Thera, trans., The Minor Readings and Illustrator. London: Pali Text Society, 1960. This translation of the Khuddakapatha and its commentary is a good introduction to basic Theravada doctrine and the commentarial literature as a whole.
-----,The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga). Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1991. Superb translation of the work that defines Theravada doctrine in Sri Lanka and Burma, with a fine introduction by the translator.
Rahula, Walpola, What the Buddha Taught. New York: Grove Press, 1974. A very popular work, read widely both in the West and Asia; presents the basic doctrines of early Buddhist thought in modern rationalist dress. One of the clearest statements of modern scholarly "Protestant Buddhism."
Smith, Bardwell, ed., Religion and Legitimation of Power in Sri Lanka; Religion and Legitimation of Power in Thailand, Laos, and Burma. Both Chambersburg, Pa.: Anima Books, 1978. Collections of essays on religion and politics in Theravada countries.
Swearer, Donald K., The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia. Albany: SUNY Press, 1995. An up-to-date survey, touching on just about everything related to the subject.
Adikaram, E. W., Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon. Dehiwala, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Cultural Centre, 1994 (reprint). Excellent, informative study, based on what the commentarial literature reveals about its early social context.
Bartholomeusz, Tessa J., Women under the Bo Tree: Buddhist Nuns in Sri Lanka. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Excellent study. [W]
Bond, George, The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1992. An analysis of modern developments in Sri Lankan Buddhism. Less provocative than Gombrich and Obeyesekere on the same topic.
Carrithers, Michael, "'They will be Lords upon the Island': Buddhism in Sri Lanka," in Bechert and Gombrich, The World of Buddhism: 133-146.
Evers, Hans-Dieter, Monks, Priests and Peasants: A Study of Buddhism and Social Structure in Central Ceylon. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1972.
Gombrich, Richard F., Buddhist Precept and Practice. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991. An analysis of religious practices in rural Sri Lanka. This is an updated and improved version of the author's earlier Precept and Practice.
-----, and Gananath Obeyesekere, Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. Modern developments in Sri Lanka.
Gunawardana, R.A.L.H., Robe and Plough: Monasticism and Economic Interest in Early Medieval Sri Lanka. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1979. Thorough study of the Sri Lankan Sangha from the 8th to the 12th century, a period in which monastic fiefdoms rose to their highest power, were destroyed by outside invasions, and then were replaced by a system of monastic governance that has shaped the Theravada tradition--both in Sri Lanka and in Southeast Asia--up to the present era. Emphasizes economic and political issues over doctrinal ones.
Holt, John Clifford, Buddha in the Crown: Avalokitesvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Holt, John Clifford. The Religious World of Kirti 'Sri: Buddhism, Art, and Politics of Late Medieval Sri Lanka. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. A study of the Kandyan king responsible for the Buddhist revival of the eighteenth century.
Ludowyk, E. F. C., The Footprint of the Buddha. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1958. Description of the monuments of "old Ceylon."
Malalgoda, Kitsiri, Buddhism in Sinhalese Society, 1750-1900: A Study of Religious Revival and Change. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.
Prothero, Stephen R., The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steele Olcott. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
Rahula, Walpola, History of Buddhism in Ceylon. Colombo, Srl Lanka: M. D. Gunasena, 1956. Treats period from third century B C.E to tenth century C.E.
-----, The Heritage of the Bhikkhu. New York: Grove Press, 1974. Argues the case for the legitimacy of modern political involvement by Sri Lankan monks, based on a reading of the traditional political role of the Sri Lankan Sangha.
Seneviratne, H. L., Rituals of the Kandyan State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978. Describes the ritual at the Palace of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Sri Lanka.
Smith, Bardwell L., ed., The Two Wheels of Dhamma. Chambersburg, Pa.: American Academy of Religion, 1972. Important work on Sri Lankan Buddhism.
Trainor, Kevin, Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Landan Theravada Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. The best study yet of the relic cult in Theravada Buddhism.
Bizot, Francois, Les bouddhismes des Thais. Bangkok, 1993. General survey of the Tantric and Reform "Buddhisms" of Thailand by a scholar whose life work has been tracking down the remnants of Tantrism in mainland southeast Asia.
Brereton, Bonnie P., Thai Tellings of Phra Malai. Tempe: Arizona State University, 1995. A study of a Thai story, chanted a funerals, that desribes a monk's visionary journey through the worlds of the afterlife, ending with a vision of Maitreya.
Bunnag, Jane, Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman. London: Cambridge University Press, 1973. Good study of "domesticated" Buddhism in Thailand.
Cabaton, Antoine, "Cambodia," ERE, vol. 3, pp. 155a-167a. An overall picture of Cambodian religious life.
Damais, Louis-Charles, "Le bouddhisme en Indonesie." In Presence du bouddhisme, by Rene de Berval: 813-824. Saigon: France-Asia, 1959.
Gomez, Luis O. and Hiram W. Woodward, eds., Barabudur: History and Significance of a Buddhist Monument. Berkeley: Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series, 1981.
King, Winston L., A Thousand Lives Away: Buddhism in Contemporary Burma. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964. A perceptive outsider assesses the state of Theravada thought and values in contemporary Burma.
Payutto, Phra Prayudh, Buddhadhamma: Natural Laws and Values for Life. Translated by Grant A. Olson. Albany: SUNY Press, 1995. Interpretation of Theravada doctrine for modern urban Thais. Excellent introduction by the translator.
Reynolds, Mani and Frank, The Three Worlds According to King Ruang. Berkeley, Calif.: Asian Humanities Press, 1980. Translation of an early medieval Thai classic on Buddhist cosmology.
Sarkisyanz, E., Buddhist Backgrounds of the Burmese Revolution. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1965.
Spiro, Melford E., Buddhism and Society. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. An anthropological study of the way in which classic Buddhist teachings are transformed in actual contemporary practice. Unfortunately, the author has a limited notion of what those teachings are; and, doubly unfortunately, few authors have been permitted into Burma/Myanmar in recent years to provide more up-to-date and better-informed studies on the role of Buddhism in contemporary life there.
-----, Burmese Supernaturalism. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1967. An anthropologist looks at the total religious system of the Burmese. See especially "Supernaturalism and Buddhism," pp. 246-280. This book sticks closer to the author's fieldwork than the above book, and thus is the stronger of the two.
Strachan, Paul, Pagan: Art and Architecture of Old Burma. Whiting Bay, Scotland: Kiscadale Publications, 1989. Most up-to-date account of the history of Pagan and its religion. Beautifully illustrated.
Strong, John, The Legend and Cult of Upagupta: Sanskrit Buddhism in North India and Southeast Asia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. Excellent study of an apparently Sarvastivadin cult surviving from the centuries when Theravada reforms movements had not yet come to dominate Thai and Burmese Buddhism.
Swearer, Donald K., Wat Haripuñjaya: A Study of the Royal Temple of the Buddha's Relic, Lamphun, Thailand. Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1976. Excellent study of a northern Thai temple complex and its varied activities.
Swearer, Donald K., and Sommai Premchit. The Legend of Queen Cama: Bodhiramsi's Camadevivamsa, a Translation and Commentary. Albany: SUNY Press, 1998. A traditional account of how Buddhism was established in northern Thailand. [W]
Tambiah, S. J., Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in Northeast Thailand. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1970. Masterful study of the world of rituals, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, in one of the least "reformed" areas of Thailand.
-----, World Conqueror and World Renouncer. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1976. Important study of the Thai Sangha and Buddhist polity, although some of the author's informants on contemporary Sangha politics were less than reliable.
Terwiel, B. J., Monks and Magic, An Analysis of Religious Ceremonies in Central Thailand. London: Curzon Press, 1975. Gives the rural Thai rice farmer's view of Buddhism. Written by a participant-observer anthropologist who joined the Sangha to describe the power exchange between monk and peasant.
Wells, Kenneth E., Thai Buddhism, Its Rites and Activities. Bangkok: Christian Bookstore, 1960 (reprint). A straight description of ceremonies, liturgies, and festivals.
Yoe, Shway (pseudonym of James George Scott), The Burman, His Life and Notions. London: Macmillan, 1896. Now in paperback. A sympathetic and informative classic.
The major weakness of Strong EB in covering Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia is the absence of readings on the forest traditions. For balance, the following works should be consulted:
Carrithers, Michael, The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983. Combines anthropology, history, and textual study to analyze modern (19th and 20th century) movements to revive the moribund forest tradition in Sri Lanka. Quite a sensitive and intelligent work, although the author presents his material largely with an eye to showing why he feels that one movement--the samsthava founded by Ven. Jinavamsa--has been the most successful.
Kamala Tiyavanich, Forest Recollections: Wandering Monks in Twentieth-Century Thailand. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997. Contains many interesting quotations, drawn from autobiographies and hagiographies, describing the forest adventures of the monks of the Kammatthana tradition. However, the author's thesis concerning the place of that tradition in modern Thai Buddhist history entails many serious omissions and distortions of the facts.
Kornfield, Jack, ed., Living Buddhist Masters. Santa Cruz, Calif.: Unity Press, 1977. (Recently re-released as Living Dharma (Boston: Shambala), as most of the masters are now dead.) Writings by modern Thai and Burmese mediation masters, most but not all from the forest. Heavily edited. [W]
----- and Paul Breiter, eds., A Still Forest Pool: The Insight Meditation of Achaan Chah. Wheaton, Il.: Theosophical Publishing House, 1985. The only commercially available book of teachings by a master of the Kammatthana tradition.
Nanayon, Upasika Kee, An Unentangled Knowing. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1996. An earlier, American edition of this book, printed for free distribution, included an essay by the translator placing Upasika Kee Nanayon in the context of the social dynamic of Theravadin practice. This essay, along with the booklets that made up this book, is now available on AI. [W]
Swearer, Donald K., ed., Me and Mine: Selected Essays of Bhikkhu Buddhadasa. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989. Translations, heavily edited, with a scholarly introduction.
Tambiah, S. J., The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. Excellent survey of the history of Theravadin forest movements; very superficial and at times misinformed analysis of the present-day situation in Thailand. On the Kammatthana tradition, consult Taylor.
Taylor, J. L., Forest Monks and the Nation-state. Singapore: Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, 1993. Somewhat hard to obtain, but the only reliable full-length scholarly study of the Kammatthana tradition.
Teich, Anne, ed., Blooming in the Desert: Favorite Teachings of the Wildflower Monk Taungpulu Sayadaw. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1996. Life and teachings of a Burmese forest monk.
Teachings of the Kammatthana tradition have been translated into English for free distribution, but most are hard to obtain in book form. A large selection is available on the WorldWideWeb at AI.
Works on meditation following the commentarial view of the radical split between tranquility and insight practice, and by Westerners who have studied in centers that adopt that view:
Beyer, Experience, pp. 79-99.
Byles, Marie M., Journey into Burmese Silence. London: George Allen 8r Unwin, 1962. A plucky Australian lady in Burmese meditation centers. Informative about Burma and its religion, as well as about what happens when one meditates. [W]
Gunaratana, Henepola, The Path of Serenity and Insight: An Explanation of the Buddhist Jhanas. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1985. Places more emphasis on jhana (dhyana) practice than do the other works in this category, but nevertheless accepts Buddhaghosa's view that jhana is not necessary for Awakening.
King, Winston, Theravada Meditation: The Buddhist Transformation of Yoga. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1992.
Lerner, Eric, Journey of Insight Meditation: A Personal Experience of the Buddha's Way. New York: Schocken Books, 1977. An expenence of vipassana meditation.
Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973. Deals with Satipatthana (mindfulness) meditation from the point of view of the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition.
Solé-Leris, Amadeo, Tranquility and Insight. London, 1986.
Soni, R. L., The Only Way to Deliverance. Boulder, Colo.: Prajna Press, 1980. Uses Theravada materials to discu