Want to learn deeply about Buddhism? If you are very curious about learning Buddhism then in this post, we recommended some best books which will help you to understand Buddhism and apply it to your life.
These all books are written by experts who actually living their life in Buddhism and have huge amount of knowledge to teach you.
Check out these recommendations and let us know your opinion about them in the commend section.
Table of Contents
A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life by Jack Kornfield
A guide to reconciling Buddhist spirituality together with the American way of life addresses the challenges of religious living in the modern world and offers guidance for bringing a feeling of the sacred to everyday adventure.
After the ecstasy, the laundry: how the heart grows wise on the spiritual path by Jack Kornfield
“Enlightenment does exist,” internationally renowned author and meditation master Jack Kornfield assures us. “Unbounded freedom and joy, oneness with the divine… these experiences are more common than you understand, rather than far away.”
But after attaining such realization — after the ecstasy — we are faced with the day-to-day job of translating that freedom into our lives that are imperfect. We’re facing the laundry.
Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts by Reb Anderson
Getting Upright takes us beyond the traditional interpretation of moral precepts into the greatest meaning that informs them. Reb Anderson first introduces us to the fundamental ideas of Zen Buddhist practice.
Who was Shakyamuni Buddha and what was his fundamental teaching? What does it mean to be a bodhisattva and take the bodhisattva vow? Why should we confess and acknowledge our historical twisted karma?
The author explores the ten basic precepts, including not killing, not stealing, not lying, not misusing novelty, and not using intoxicants.
A talented storyteller, Anderson takes us into the heart of situations, where moral judgments aren’t easy and we do not have all of the answers.
With compassion and wisdom, he teaches us how to confront the emotional and ethical chaos of our lives.
Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks by Gregory Schopen
“No serious scholar of Buddhist studies can manage to dismiss this argumentative, challenging, and provocative set of experiments…. In every circumstance, Schopen’s arguments are refreshing, honest, often brilliant, and constantly cogently presented.”
Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction by Damien Keown
This accessible volume covers both the teachings of the Buddha as well as also the integration of Buddhism into daily life.
What are the distinctive characteristics of Buddhism? What or who is the Buddha, and what are his teachings? Just how has Buddhist thought evolved over time, and how can modern dilemmas be faced from a Buddhist perspective? Words such as”karma” and”nirvana” have entered our vocabulary, but what exactly do they really mean?
Keown has taught Buddhism in an introductory level for many decades, and in this book he provides a lively, challenging response to those frequently asked questions.
Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings by William Edelglass and Jay L. Garfield
Buddhist Philosophy fills that lacuna. It collects significant philosophical texts from every major Buddhist tradition. Each text is translated and introduced by a recognized authority in Buddhist studies.
Each debut sets the text in context and introduces the philosophical issues it addresses and arguments it presents, offering a useful and authoritative guide to studying and to teaching the text.
The volume is organized into topical sections that reveal the way that Western philosophers consider the construction of the subject, and each section is introduced by an article describing Buddhist approaches to this subject matter, and the place of the texts collected in that section from the venture.
Creation and Completion by Jamgon Kongtrul, translated by Sarah Harding
Creation and Completion represents some of their most profound teachings of Jamgon Kongtrul (1813-99), one of the authentic spiritual and literary giants of Tibetan history.
Though brief, it offers a lifetime of advice for all who wish to engage in-and deepen-the practice of tantric Buddhist meditation.
How to Practice by 14th Dalai Lama
As human beings, we all share the desire for happiness and meaning in our lives. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the ability to find true fulfillment lies within each of us.
In this very special book, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, Nobel Prize winner, and bestselling author helps readers embark upon the path to enlightenment with a gorgeous illumination of the timeless wisdom and also an easy-access reference for daily exercise.
In Love with the World by Helen Tworkov and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
At thirty-six years old, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche was a rising star within his generation of Tibetan masters and the respected abbot of three monasteries.
Then 1 night, telling no one, he slipped out of his monastery in India with the intention of spending the next four decades on a wandering escape, after the early practice of holy mendicants.
His goal was to throw his names and functions so as to explore the deepest aspects of his being.
Introduction to the History of Indian Buddhism by Eugène Burnouf
The strongest work on Buddhism to be printed in the nineteenth century, Introduction à l’histoire du Buddhisme indien, by the great French scholar of Sanskrit Eugène Burnouf, set the course for the academic study of Buddhism, and Indian Buddhism particularly, for another hundred decades.
Originally published in 1844, the masterwork was read by some of the most important thinkers of the time, such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in Germany and Emerson and Thoreau in America. But a century and a half , Burnouf’s text has largely been forgotten.
Journey to the West by Anthony C Yu
Journey to the West is a traditional Chinese mythological novel. It was composed during the Ming Dynasty based on traditional folktales.
Due to 100 chapters, this fantasy relates the experiences of a Tang Dynasty (618-907) priest Sanzang and his three disciples, Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand, as they travel west in search of Buddhist Sutra.
The first seven chapters recount the birth of the Monkey King and his rebellion against Heaven. In chapters eight to twelve, we understand the way Sanzang was born and he is looking for the scriptures, as well as his preparations for the journey.
The rest of the story describes how they vanquish demons and monsters, tramp within the Fiery Mountain, cross the Milky Way, and after beating many threats, finally arrive at their destination – the Thunder Monastery in the Western Heaven – and also locate the Sutra.
Attached are a number of illustrations drawn throughout the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
Author Bhante Gunaratana, a renowned meditation masterthat takes us step by step through the myths, realities, and benefits of meditation and the practice of mindfulness.
This expanded edition includes the entire text of its predecessor together with a brand new chapter on fostering loving kindness.
For anybody who’s new to meditation, this really is a great resource for learning how to live a more productive and peaceful lifestyle.
No‑Nonsense Buddhism for Beginners by Noah Rasheta
Presented in a very practical question-and-answer format, Mindless Buddhism is the most accurate introductory guide to understanding the essential concepts of Buddhism and how they relate to your daily life. How is awakening different from enlightenment? Can agnostics and atheists be Buddhists? Am I supposed to stop thinking when I meditate?
In this book, Noah Rasheta, a Buddhism teacher and host of the popular Secular Buddhism podcast, gives us an easy-to-access introduction to the teachings of Buddhism, answering frequently asked questions and more.
With this book, you will have a fundamental understanding of Buddhism and how to apply its philosophy to your daily life, thanks to: • a simple structure in four parts addressing the different aspects of Buddhism: the Buddha, the key concepts of Buddhism, the teachings of the Buddha and current Buddhist practices; • direct questions and answers which simplify the essential concepts of Buddhism; • “Buddhism in everyday life” inserts which make this philosophy less abstract by offering concrete examples drawn from the daily life.
Presented in a simple and familiar style, the information and guidance in this book gives you the foundation you need to develop or continue your own Buddhist practice.
Nothing Holy about It: The Zen of Being Just Who You Are by Tim Burkett
When Bodhidharma, the incredible first progenitor of Zen, was gotten some information about the primary rule of his sacred educating, he’s said to have answered: “A huge vacancy—with nothing blessed about it!” A thousand years and-a-half later, Tim Burkett finds that the appropriate response actually applies: you don’t have to go searching for something heavenly—buddha nature is here before you.
The compact synopsis of Zen instructing he presents in this book is communicated unequivocally as far as what he discovered directly before him: starting with the magnificent non-sacredness he encountered within the sight of his unique educator, Shunyru Suzuki, and proceeding through a lifetime of additional educating experiences.
On the Path to Enlightenment: Heart Advice from the Great Tibetan Masters by Matthieu Ricard
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche enlivened Matthieu Ricard to make this collection by revealing to him that “when we come to value the profundity of the perspective on the eight incredible customs [of Tibetan Buddhism] and furthermore observe that they all lead to a similar objective without repudiating one another, we figure, ‘No one but obliviousness can lead us to receive a partisan view.'” Ricard has chosen and interpreted probably the most significant and rousing lessons from over these conventions.
Open Heart, Clear Mind: An Introduction to the Buddha’s Teachings by Thubten Chodron
This functional prologue to Buddhism centers around the utilization of Buddhist brain research to present day life.
Thubten Chodron, an American Buddhist cloister adherent, presents the fundamental purposes of this way for getting ourselves and improving the nature of our lives.
In a clear style and with warmth and humor, Chodron gives us the principal purposes of the Buddha’s instructing on changing ongoing mentalities and understanding our full human potential.
Open Heart, Open Mind by Tsoknyi Rinpoche with Eric Swanson
In Open Heart, Open Mind, Tsoknyi Rinpoche- – one of the most darling of the contemporary age of Tibetan Buddhist contemplation experts – clarifies that a daily existence liberated from dread, agony, instability, and uncertainty isn’t just conceivable, it’s our inheritance.
We long for harmony, for the capacity to cherish and be adored straightforwardly and uninhibitedly, and for the certainty and clearness to address the different difficulties we face in our every day lives.
Radiant Mind: Awakening Unconditioned Awareness by Peter G Fenner
“Radiant Mind.”Students in the West regularly feel baffled in attempting to follow the Eastern way to arousing, befuddled by apparently ambiguous or nonsensical lessons.
Peter Fenner made the Radiant Mind practice to assist you with getting through the impediments that are frequently trying for specialists in our culture.
Drawing upon his experience in both Eastern otherworldliness and Western brain research, Fenner presents to you an exact, bit by bit way to deal with nondual practice that incorporates: How to watch and break up obsessions to live in the present time and place, without being constrained by your desires.
Practices to extend and settle your experience of essence until it turns out to be second nature.
Communication as a way to receptiveness – for you and people around you. Devices for distinguishing your cognizant and oblivious wellsprings of anguish – and figuring out how to rise above those examples, and much more
Real Happiness: A 28-Day Program to Realize the Power of Meditation by Sharon Salzberg
Genuine Happiness is a finished manual for beginning and keeping up a contemplation practice. Starting with the easiest breathing and sitting methods, and dependent on three key aptitudes—focus, care, and cherishing consideration—it’s a training anybody can do and that can change our lives by bringing us more noteworthy strength, innovativeness, harmony, clearness, and parity.
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
Siddhartha is a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse that manages the otherworldly excursion of self-revelation of a man named Siddhartha during the hour of the Gautama Buddha. The book, Hesse’s ninth novel, was written in German, in a basic, expressive style.
Start Where You Are by Pema Chödrön
Start Where You Are is an imperative handbook for developing courage and arousing a caring heart. With understanding and humor, Pema Chödrön presents rational direction on how we can “start where we are”— grasping as opposed to preventing the agonizing perspectives from getting our lives.
Pema Chödrön outlines her lessons on empathy around 59 customary Tibetan Buddhist adages, or trademarks, for example, “Consistently apply just a blissful perspective,” “Don’t look for others’ torment as the appendages of your own satisfaction,” and “Consistently think about whatever incites resentment.”
Taking the Path of Zen by Robert Aitken
The establishment of Zen is the act of zazen, or intercession, and Aitken Roshi demands that everything streams from the center.
He examines right breathing, pose, schedule, educator understudy relations, and koan study, just as normal issues and achievements experienced all the while.
Throughout the book the writer re-visitations of zazen, offering further counsel and further developed strategies. The direction reaches out to different strict perspectives and incorporates point by point conversations of the Three Treasures and the Ten Precepts of Zen Buddhism.
Taking the Path of Zen will fill in as direction and guide for any individual who is attracted to the methods of Zen, from the essentially inquisitive to the genuine Zen student.
The Book of Joy by 14th Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World is a book by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu distributed in 2016 by Cornerstone Publishers. In this verifiable, the creators examine the difficulties of carrying on with a happy life.
The Buddha and His Teachings by Narada Maha Thera
THE BUDDHA AND HIS TEACHINGS gives a decent wellspring of data for the individuals who wish to comprehend the life of the Buddha and his major teachings.
The Book was first distributed in 1942. The current version has been modified and extended. In spite of the fact that fundamentally planned for the understudies and learners instead of researchers, the peruser will think that its a very important handbook, offering a sound establishment to the essential principles of Buddhism as found in its unique Pali tradition.
The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh
In The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, presently with included material and new experiences, Thich Nhat Hanh acquaints us with the center lessons of Buddhism and gives us that the Buddha’s lessons are available and appropriate to our day by day lives.
With verse and lucidity, Nhat Hanh grants consoling insight about the idea of misery and its function in making empathy, love, and bliss – all characteristics of edification.
Covering such huge lessons as the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Three Doors of Liberation, the Three Dharma Seals, and the Seven Factors of Awakening,
The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching is a brilliant reference point on Buddhist idea for the started and unenlightened alike.
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Buddhist Wisdom by Gill Farrer-Halls
Joyful Effort, Right Livelihood, Compassionate Living, Freedom from Suffering – such standards offer recuperating equalization to the boisterous quest for the American Dream and clarify why Buddhism is the quickest developing religion in the West.
In Buddhism, numerous searchers locate their actual way to harmony and joy, paying little heed to difficulty. This richly outlined blessing book incorporates: The account of Prince Siddhartha and Buddhism’s spread all through Asia; Basic convictions of Buddhism, stressing the Tibetan, Zen, and Theravada conventions; Inspiring statements from educators, for example, the Dalai Lama; Practical guidance on the most proficient method to reflect and what’s in store when visiting a Buddhist center.
Readers new to Buddhism just as experienced experts will welcome this available manual for living in congruity with ourselves, our networks, and our world.
The Issue at Hand by Gil Fronsdal
Essays on Buddhist Mindfulness Practice. A rousing and entirely open gathering of articles and altered chats on the Buddhist act of care.
As Gil Fronsdal states, “the quest for the current issue is the quest for what is nearest close by, for what is legitimately observed, heard, smelt, tasted, felt, and cognized in the present.
” Gil brings the act of care not exclusively to formal reflection however to all the changing parts of consistently life.
The Lotus Sutra by Tsugunari Kubo and Akira Yuyama (traslators)
Translated from the Chinese by The Lotus Sutra (Taisho No. 262), deciphered by Tsugunari Kubo and Akira Yuyama from the fifth-century Chinese form by the researcher priest Kumarajiva, is one of the most significant and venerated messages in East Asian Buddhism.
With its striking portrayals of enormous occasions and huge cast of characters, the Saddharmapundarika (Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Fine Dharma) unfurls like a brilliant drama.
Its 28 parts offer a blend of convention, lessons, stories and illustrations, reverential practices, and representations of the numerous Buddhas and bodhisattvas that possess the universe of the Lotus Sutra.
This text presents a rising Mahayana vision that attests the chance of edification for all. [Ch: Miao-fa-lien-hua-ching] [Jpn: Myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo]
The Poetry of Zen by Sam Hamill
A Zen sonnet isn’t anything other than a declaration of the illuminated psyche, a small bunch of straightforward words that vanish underneath the snapshot of understanding to which it takes the stand.
Poetry has been a basic guide to Zen Buddhist practice from the beginning of Zen—and Zen has likewise affected the common verse of the nations wherein it has flourished.
Here, two of America’s most famous writers and interpreters give an outline of Zen verse from China and Japan in the entirety of its rich assortment, from the soonest days to the 20th century.
Included are works by Lao Tzu, Han Shan, Li Po, Dogen Kigen, Saigyo, Basho, Chiao Jan, Yuan Mei, Ryokan, and numerous others.
Hamill and Seaton give enlightening acquaintances with the Chinese and Japanese segments that set the writers and their work in chronicled and philosophical setting. Short accounts of the writers are additionally included.
The Sound of Silence by Ajahn Sumedho
The sound of quiet resembles a nuance behind all that you stir to; you don’t see it in case you’re looking for the boundaries.
Yet as we begin to turn out to be more ready, more present, completely open of this second has to bring to the table, we begin to encounter it clearly and tuning in to it can draw us ever- – more profound into the puzzles of now.
The Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau Roshi
Through investigations of the three mainstays of Zen- – instructing, practice, and illumination – Roshi Philip Kapleau presents an extensive review of the set of experiences and control of Zen Buddhism.
An set up exemplary, this 35th commemoration version includes new delineations and photos, just as another afterword by Sensei Bodhin Kjolhede, who has succeeded Philip Kapleau as profound head of the Rochester Zen Center, one of the most established and most persuasive Zen habitats in the United States.
Turning Confusion Into Clarity by Helen Tworkov and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Advice and consolation from a main otherworldly instructor and famous creator on the best way to approach the basic acts of Tibetan Buddhism.
For anybody keen on Buddhist practice and theory, this book offers nitty gritty guidance and well disposed and motivating guidance for those setting out on the Tibetan Buddhist way in earnest.
By offering direction on the best way to move toward the cycle and giving guidance for explicit reflection and thought procedures, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche gives delicate yet intensive editorial, friendship, and motivation for focusing on the Buddhist path.
What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula
This imperative volume is a clear and loyal record of the Buddha’s lessons. For years,” says the Journal of the Buddhist Society, the newcomer to Buddhism has come up short on a basic and solid prologue to the complexities of the subject.
Dr. Rahula’s What the Buddha Taught fills the need as just should be possible by one having a strong handle of the immense material to be filtered.
It is a model of what a book ought to be that is tended to most importantly to the taught and insightful peruser.’ Authoritative and clear, intelligent and calm, this investigation is as complete as it is masterly.”
When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön
The lovely reasonableness of her instructing has made Pema Chödrön one of the most darling of contemporary American otherworldly creators among Buddhists and non-Buddhists the same.
A assortment of talks she gave somewhere in the range of 1987 and 1994, the book is a depository of intelligence for continuing living when we are overwhelmed by agony and troubles. Chödrön discusses:
• Using difficult feelings to develop intelligence, empathy, and courage
• Communicating in order to urge others to open up as opposed to close down
• Practices for switching ongoing patterns
• Methods for working with turbulent situations
• Ways for making compelling social action
Words of My Perfect Teacher by Patrul Rinpoche
Highlighting an introduction by Dalai Lama, an exemplary handbook written in the nineteenth century plots the profound practices normal to all Tibetan Buddhist conventions and makes them open through models from day by day life. Unique. 10,000 first printing.
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones is a book that offers an assortment of available, essential Zen sources so perusers can battle over the importance of Zen for themselves.
It incorporates 101 Zen Stories, an assortment of stories that describe genuine encounters of Chinese and Japanese Zen instructors over a time of over five centuries; The Gateless Gate, the renowned thirteenth-century assortment of Zen koans; Ten Bulls, a twelfth century analysis on the phases of mindfulness prompting illumination; and Centering, a long term old educating from India that some consider to be the underlying foundations of Zen.
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind is a book of lessons by the late Shunryu Suzuki, an accumulation of talks given to his satellite Zen place in Los Altos, California.
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