A translation of Jigme Lingpa’s eighteenth-century Tibetan Buddhist aspiration prayer for taking rebirth in the pure land Copper-Colored Mountain, accompanied by a commentary and analysis by the translators. While Pure Land Buddhism is generally thought of as an East Asian tradition with an Indian origin, the Copper-Colored Mountain is in fact the first and only pure land with scriptural origins entirely in the Tibetan tradition. It represents Tibetan culture’s fascinating intersection of traditional history with liturgical tantric practice. The Copper-Colored Mountain is understood to be the current abode of Padmasambhava, the Indian master credited with first bringing Buddhism to Tibet and founding Tibet’s first monastery, Samye. After leaving Tibet, it is said that Padmasambhava set up residence on Cāmara, one of the two islands on either side of the continent of Jambudvipa, our world according to Buddhist cosmology. After taming the resident ogres of Cāmara and converting them to Buddhism, he then built an octagonal palace where Buddhist practitioners may be transported in visions and dreams or reborn through aspiration prayers. This work is a translation and analysis of one such aspiration prayer. This prayer was composed by Jigme Lingpa, a treasure revealer of the Nyingma tradition in the eighteenth century and remains the most important prayer to this pure land in Tibetan Buddhism. Merging academic precision in representing the Tibetan texts and devotion to the principles of tantric Buddhism, translators Georgios T. Halkias and Christina Partsalaki enable a wider appreciation of the history and impact of this prayer in Tibetan Buddhist literature while elucidating its meaning for Buddhist practitioners.

A modern classic unparalleled in scope, this sweeping history unfolds the story of Buddhism’s spread to the West. How the Swans Came to the Lake opens with the story of Asian Buddhism, including the life of the Buddha and the spread of his teachings from India to Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and elsewhere. Coming to the modern era, the book tracks how Western colonialism in Asia served as the catalyst for the first large-scale interactions between Buddhists and Westerners. Author Rick Fields discusses the development of Buddhism in the West through key moments such as Transcendentalist fascination with Eastern religions; immigration of Chinese and Japanese people to the United States; the writings of D. T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, and members of the Beat movement; the publication of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki; the arrival of Tibetan lamas in America and Europe; and the influence of Western feminist and social justice movements on Buddhist practice. This fortieth anniversary edition features both new and enhanced photographs as well as a new introduction by Fields’s nephew, Buddhist Studies scholar Benjamin Bogin, who reflects on the impact of this book since its initial publication and addresses the significant changes in Western Buddhist practice in recent decades.

A Time Magazine 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time selection!​ A Reader’s Digest Best Children’s Book of All Time​! This stunning fantasy inspired by Chinese folklore is a companion novel to Starry River of the Sky and the New York Times bestselling and National Book Award finalist When the Sea Turned to Silver In the valley of Fruitless mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man on the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life's questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man on the Moon to ask him how she can change her family's fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest for the ultimate answer. Grace Lin, author of the beloved Year of the Dog and Year of the Rat returns with a wondrous story of adventure, faith, and friendship. A fantasy crossed with Chinese folklore, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a timeless story reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz and Kelly Barnhill's The Girl Who Drank the Moon. Her beautiful illustrations, printed in full-color, accompany the text throughout. Once again, she has created a charming, engaging book for young readers.

This small collection of commentaries and verse by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one of the greatest spiritual leaders of the twentieth century, contains exposition on different stages of the Buddhist path from the perspective of meditative experience and actually putting the teachings into practice. Originally given orally to Western students, the texts afford a rare glimpse into the direct transmissions of a master teacher. The commentaries are on ? • The Wheel of Investigation and Meditation That Thoroughly Purifies Mental Activity by Jamgön Mipham • The Lamp That Dispels Darkness by Jamgön Mipham • A Wondrous Ocean of Advice for the Practice of Retreat in Solitude by Jigme Lingpa. These, along with the five selected poems in the final section, provide an introduction to the wisdom and compassion of Khyentse Rinpoche.

A translation of Jigme Lingpa’s eighteenth-century Tibetan Buddhist aspiration prayer for taking rebirth in the pure land Copper-Colored Mountain, accompanied by a commentary and analysis by the translators. While Pure Land Buddhism is generally thought of as an East Asian tradition with an Indian origin, the Copper-Colored Mountain is in fact the first and only pure land with scriptural origins entirely in the Tibetan tradition. It represents Tibetan culture’s fascinating intersection of traditional history with liturgical tantric practice. The Copper-Colored Mountain is understood to be the current abode of Padmasambhava, the Indian master credited with first bringing Buddhism to Tibet and founding Tibet’s first monastery, Samye. After leaving Tibet, it is said that Padmasambhava set up residence on Cāmara, one of the two islands on either side of the continent of Jambudvipa, our world according to Buddhist cosmology. After taming the resident ogres of Cāmara and converting them to Buddhism, he then built an octagonal palace where Buddhist practitioners may be transported in visions and dreams or reborn through aspiration prayers. This work is a translation and analysis of one such aspiration prayer. This prayer was composed by Jigme Lingpa, a treasure revealer of the Nyingma tradition in the eighteenth century and remains the most important prayer to this pure land in Tibetan Buddhism. Merging academic precision in representing the Tibetan texts and devotion to the principles of tantric Buddhism, translators Georgios T. Halkias and Christina Partsalaki enable a wider appreciation of the history and impact of this prayer in Tibetan Buddhist literature while elucidating its meaning for Buddhist practitioners.

This diverse anthology of original Buddhist texts in translation provides a historical and conceptual framework that will transform contemporary scholarship on Pure Land Buddhism and instigate its recognition as an essential field of Buddhist studies. Traditional and contemporary primary sources carefully selected from Buddhist cultures across historical, geopolitical, and literary boundaries are organized by genre rather than chronologically, geographically, or by religious lineage—a novel juxtaposition that reveals their wider importance in fresh contexts. Together these fundamental texts from different Asian traditions, expertly translated by eminent and up-and-coming scholars, illustrate that the Buddhism of pure lands is not just an East Asian cult or a marginal type of Buddhism, but a pan-Asian and deeply entrenched religious phenomenon. The volume is organized into six parts: Ritual Practices, Contemplative Visualizations, Doctrinal Expositions, Life Writing and Poetry, Ethical and Aesthetic Explications, and Worlds beyond Sukhāvatī. Each part is introduced and summarized, and each translated piece is prefaced by its translator to supply historical and sectarian context as well as insight into the significance of the work. Common and less-common issues of practice, doctrine, and intra-religious transfer are explored, and deeper understandings of the meaning of “pure lands” are gained through the study of the celestial, cosmological, internal, and earthly pure lands associated with various buddhas, bodhisattvas, and devotional figures. The introduction by the volume editors ties the diverse themes of the book together and provides a historical background to Pure Land Buddhist studies. Scholars of Buddhism and Asian religion, including graduate and post-graduate students, as well as Buddhist practitioners, will appreciate the range of translated materials and accompanied discussions made accessible in one essential collection, the first of its kind to center on the formerly-neglected topic of Buddhist pure lands.

In the face of loss--past, present, and future--C.D. Wright's final work demonstrates the power of words to conserve, preserve, and witness.