John S. Strong unravels the storm of influences shaping the received narratives of two iconic sacred objects. Bodily relics such as hairs, teeth, fingernails, pieces of bone—supposedly from the Buddha himself—have long served as objects of veneration for many Buddhists. Unsurprisingly, when Western colonial powers subjugated populations in South Asia, they used, manipulated, redefined, and even destroyed these objects to exert control. In The Buddha’s Tooth, John S. Strong examines Western stories, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, surrounding two significant Sri Lankan sacred objects to illuminate and concretize colonial attitudes toward Asian religions. First, he analyzes a tale about the Portuguese capture and public destruction, in the mid-sixteenth century, of a tooth later identified as a relic of the Buddha. Second, he switches gears to look at the nineteenth-century saga of British dealings with another tooth relic of the Buddha—the famous Daḷadā enshrined in a temple in Kandy—from 1815, when it was taken over by English forces, to 1954, when it was visited by Queen Elizabeth II. As Strong reveals, the stories of both the Portuguese tooth and the Kandyan tooth reflect nascent and developing Western understandings of Buddhism, realizations of the cosmopolitan nature of the tooth, and tensions between secular and religious interests.

Part One: The Portuguese and the Tooth Relic -- Chapter One: The Tale of the Portuguese Tooth and Its Sources -- Chapter Two: Where the Tooth Was Found: Traditions about the Location of the Relic in Sri -- Lanka -- Chapter Three: Whose Tooth Was It? Traditions about the Identity of the Relic -- Chapter Four: The Trial of the Tooth -- Chapter Five: The Destruction of the Tooth -- Conspectus of Part One: The Storical Evolution of the Tales of the Portuguese Tooth -- Part Two: The British and the Tooth Relic -- Chapter Six: The Cosmopolitan Tooth: The Relic in Kandy before the British Became Aware of -- It -- Chapter Seven: The British Takeover of 1815 and the Kandyan Convention -- Chapter Eight: The Relic Returns: The Tooth and Its Properties Restored to the Temple -- Chapter Nine: The Relic Lost and Recaptured: The Tooth and the Rebellion of 1817- -- Chapter Ten: The Relic Disestablished: Missionary Oppositions to the Tooth -- Chapter Eleven: Showings of the Tooth: The Story of the King of Siam's Visit (1897) -- Chapter Twelve: Showings of the Tooth: The Story of Queen Elizabeth's Shoes (1954).

Can enlightenment be found at the office? From the co-author of Buddha's Diet comes another book that shows how the wisdom of Buddha can apply to our modern lives -- this time exploring how Buddha's guidance can help us navigate the perils of work life. Without setting foot in an office, Buddha knew that helping people work right was essential to helping them find their path to awakening. Now more than ever, we need Buddha's guidance. Too many of us are working long hours, dealing with difficult bosses, high-maintenance coworkers, and non-stop stress. We need someone to help remind us that there is a better way. With Buddha's wisdom at the core of every chapter, Buddha's Office will help you learn how to stop taking shortcuts and pay more attention, care for yourself and others, deal with distractions, and incorporate Buddha's ageless instructions into our modern working life. It's time to wake up and start working in a more enlightened way. One that is right for you, right for our health, right for your sanity, and right for the world.

Buddhist chronicles have long been had a central place in the study of Buddhism. Scholars, however, have relied almost exclusively on Pali works that were composed by elites for learned audiences, to the neglect of a large number of Buddhist histories written in local languages for popular consumption. The Sinhala Thupavamsa, composed by Parakama Pandita in thirteenth-century Sri Lanka, is an important example of a Buddhist chronicle written in the vernacular Sinhala language. Furthermore, it is among those works that inform public discussion and debate over the place of Buddhism in the Sri Lankan nation state and the role of Buddhist monks in contemporary politics.In this book Stephen Berkwitz offers the first complete English translation of the Sinhala Thupavamsa. Composed in a literary dialect of Sinhala, it contains a richly descriptive account of how Buddhism spread outside of India, replete with poetic embellishments and interpolations not found in other accounts of those events. Aside from being an important literary work, the Sinhala Thupavamsa. is a text of considerable historical and religious significance. It comprises several narrative strands that relate the life story of the Buddha and the manner in which Buddhist teachings and institutions were established on the island of Sri Lanka in ancient times. The central focus of this work concerns the variety of relics associated with the historical Buddha, particularly how the relics were acquired and the presumed benefits of venerating them. The text also relates the mythological history of the Buddha's previous lives as a bodhisattva and concludes with a prediction about the future Buddha Maitreya. Reflection on Buddhist ethics and instruction on the Dharma, or the Buddha's teaching, are found throughout the work, indicating that this historical narrative was meant both to recall the past and give rise to religious practice among contemporary readers and listeners.This new translation makes a significant work more widely accessible in the West and adds to our knowledge of how local Buddhist communities imagined and represented their religious and cultural heritages in written works.

Buddhism is popularly seen as a religion stressing the truth of impermanence. How, then, to account for the long-standing veneration, in Asian Buddhist communities, of bone fragments, hair, teeth, and other bodily bits said to come from the historic Buddha? Early European and American scholars of religion, influenced by a characteristic Protestant bias against relic worship, declared such practices to be superstitious and fraudulent, and far from the true essence of Buddhism. John Strong's book, by contrast, argues that relic veneration has played a serious and integral role in Buddhist traditions in South and Southeast Asia-and that it is in no way foreign to Buddhism. The book is structured around the life story of the Buddha, starting with traditions about relics of previous buddhas and relics from the past lives of the Buddha Sakyamuni. It then considers the death of the Buddha, the collection of his bodily relics after his cremation, and stories of their spread to different parts of Asia. The book ends with a consideration of the legend of the future parinirvana (extinction) of the relics prior to the advent of the next Buddha, Maitreya. Throughout, the author does not hesitate to explore the many versions of these legends and to relate them to their ritual, doctrinal, artistic, and social contexts.

Two issues central to the transition from the Koryo to the Choson dynasty in fourteenth-century Korea were social differences in ruling elites and the decline of Buddhism, which had been the state religion. In this revisionist history, Juhn Ahn challenges the long-accepted Confucian critique that Buddhism had become so powerful and corrupt that the state had to suppress it. When newly rising elites (many with strong ties to the Mongols) used lavish donations to Buddhist institutions to enhance their status, older elites defended their own adherence to this time-honored system by arguing that their donations were linked to virtue. This emphasis on virtue and the consequent separation of religion from wealth facilitated the Confucianization of Korea and the relegation of Buddhism to the margins of public authority during the Choson dynasty.

THE FIRST EXTENSIVE COMMENTARY TO BE GENERATED IN ENGLISH ON A TEACHING DELIVERED BY MANJUSHRI TO TSONGKHAPA For generations, The Four Mindfulnesses—of guru, bodhimind, divine body and emptiness—were taught only orally. The First Panchen Lama and Seventh Dalai Lama provided written texts, on which both of them Gelek Rimpoche has taught. The result is a rare combination that illuminates topics so central to practice. Born in Lhasa, Tibet, in 1939, bestselling author and internationally renowned Tibetan Lama Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche brings his traditional Buddhist training into strong dialogue with science, psychology, medicine, metaphysics, politics and the arts; he skillfully addresses the dilemma of living a spiritual life in a material world. His collected works now include over 30 transcripts of his teachings, numerous articles as well as the national bestseller Good Life, Good Death (Riverhead Books, 2001) and The Tara Box: Rituals for Protection and Healing from the Female Buddha (New World Library, 2004). Rimpoche is a U.S. citizen and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1988, Rimpoche founded Jewel Heart, a Tibetan Buddhist Center with chapters in the US, Europe and Asia. Jewel Heart offers a multi-layered program for spiritual development, including weekly webcasts, annual retreats and special events. The organization also supports senior lamas and the training of young monks, a children’s school and orphanage, and Buddhist performing arts tours. Sales from the Jewel Heart Store support Tibetan refugees and monasteries in India and Nepal. Gelek Rimpoche has consistently shown resiliency and flexibility of character and sound understanding of selflessness. He can be an elegant lama in a formal setting . . . a wise advisor in another setting . . . a loyal and creative colleague in the endless work of seeing to the continuing usefulness of the Dharma. —Robert A.F. Thurman Gelek Rimpoche’s mix of astute psychological insight, extraordinary intellect, and great compassion—plus delightful wit—makes him a wonderful, wise spiritual friend and guide. —Daniel Goleman Gelek Rimpoche constantly shows wisdom, gentleness, depth, rascality, humor, spaciousness, and the spiritual side to everyday life. —Ram Dass