Book Suggestions?

[Jundo]

There's also a discussion forum there--Bhante Sujato is quite approachable and easy to talk to. So, maybe my bias, but I know I look to that EBT movement within Theravada for the best source of learning on what the Buddha Taught.

I find Bhante Sujato and Bhikkhu Analayo, who has the language skills to read/translate both the Pali Canon and Chinese Agamas in their original languages, have been the best sources for coming as close as possible with the surviving texts to what the Buddha most likely taught. Also, Bhikkhu Bodhi - as someone mentioned - has an excellent book, In The Buddha's Words.

I am going to say something perhaps a little shocking (again, not the first time this week ), but I am not overly concerned with what "the Buddha most likely taught" ... no more than I would be concerned about what the Wright Brothers had to say about modern jet aviation, or Newton about Black Holes.

Each was a genius in their own day and culture, but even Buddhism has moved on, developed, learned some things about how the world and human mind actually work that have moved on from those times, expanded our vision, and sometimes shown some of the early beliefs as likely downright wrong. Buddha was still a man of Iron Age India, some 2500 years ago, and is not the final word on this beginningless endless timeless path.

It is not simply a matter that we cannot truly know what he said, and need to extrapolate from later texts, even if we do assume that there was one actual man at all who was the "historical Buddha" (even most of the biographical story about leaving the palace, beginning his ministry, etc., is a story which only appeared and was then greatly embellished, centuries after his reported time of life), but that we now fly 777s (not that they don't have their own problem! ) while he was flying a glider.

Still, so much wisdom, so much beauty there. We should learn from the Founders, honor the early Teachings. And we all fly the very same air, and experience the very same gravity.

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

[Shokai]

[GrasshopperMan17]

Thank you all for the advice! Naiko, i will take your advice and read them in the order I've listed, and Jundo, thank you so much for suggesting these books and the others on the list! I'm glad that this thread is helping people with their studies as well, too Perhaps we can continue this thread for discussions of recommended books in and outside of Jundo's list? Sorry for going on a bit long.

Gassho, John
ST/LAH

[gaurdianaq]

How to Cook Your Life by Uchiyama Roshi was great, as was Bringing the Sacred to Life by John Daido Loori... This next book isn't specifically Buddhist but I still highly recommend it, No Self, No Problem by Chris Niebauer.


Evan,
Sat today, lah

[JimInBC]

I am going to say something perhaps a little shocking (again, not the first time this week [emoji14] ), but I am not overly concerned with what "the Buddha most likely taught" ... no more than I would be concerned about what the Wright Brothers had to say about modern jet aviation, or Newton about Black Holes.

Might as well skip Dogen as well if being recent is what's important. Only read things written since the advent of brain scans. [emoji1787]

More seriously, not worrying about trying to work out what the Buddha most likely taught actually isn't shocking - I find it a standard position for many Buddhists nowadays. But, as I said, there is a small Early Buddhist Text movement within the Theravada tradition and within the academic world trying to bring scholarship to bear on answering that question of what the Buddha taught, to the extent possible. I am going to keep studying those developments, because maybe airplanes aren't a good analogy. Maybe all airplanes now are better than the Wright Brother's airplane. But maybe, just maybe, all Buddhist teachers now aren't better than the Buddha. [emoji6]

Gassho, Jim
ST/LaH

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[Rousei]

I can't recommend "Hoofprint of the Ox" by Sheng-Yen enough! I have read quite a few 'Introductory' books, if that is what we can call them. Such as Opening the hand of thought, Zen mind, Beginers Mind, What is Zen etc and I personally found Hoofprint of the Ox to give me the most useful overview of things.

So this is my personal recomendation for the thread!

Gassho
Mark
ST/LAH

[Jundo]

I can't recommend "Hoofprint of the Ox" by Sheng-Yen enough! I have read quite a few 'Introductory' books, if that is what we can call them. Such as Opening the hand of thought, Zen mind, Beginers Mind, What is Zen etc and I personally found Hoofprint of the Ox to give me the most useful overview of things.

So this is my personal recomendation for the thread!

Gassho
Mark
ST/LAH

But quite a different approach, in subtle but important ways, from Shikantaza and Soto Zen.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Tai Shi]

I am just entering Yasunari Kawabata the Snow County where the author vanquished the ancient Japanese ideas of male subjugation of superior women with the story of as a Geisha woman in isolation away from humanely relevant culture where women someday can outwit men and there in Japan’s wilderness isolation where Japanese business men from outside different from women and taking advantage of the nature of wilderness demand for money women who are captive to sex and these men who cannot break free of life in prison of subjugation of these women. Kawtaba’s masterpiece makes use of the ancient Haiku in structure and form to reveal the ultimate beauty in these women as one women vows to live for another woman. Women are yet slaves to control and violence as men still in a single moment of love turn back to dishonest violence in neglect so subtle.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
I find it better to sit in Sangha


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[aprapti]

But quite a different approach, in subtle but important ways, from Shikantaza and Soto Zen.

i think you wrote about that, where can i find that?



aprapti

std

[Jundo]

i think you wrote about that, where can i find that?

Sounds like a Koan?

Gassho, J

STLah

[aprapti]

Sounds like a Koan?

excuse me.. i was talking about the difference between the teaching of m.Sheng Yen and shikantaza..



aprapti

sat

[Jundo]

excuse me.. i was talking about the difference between the teaching of m.Sheng Yen and shikantaza..



aprapti

sat

You can find that on the Zafu and in one's own heart.

(But you can also find some information on what I meant here. Sheng Yen's ways are beautiful and powerful, but they really are rather unlike Shikantaza. His books are not always so clear on that point):

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?17976-You-Are-Already-Enlightened&p=266190&viewfull=1#post266190

It is a lovely way, but just not the same ... like Karate and Judo are both lovely, but not the same. Same yet not the same.

Gassho, J

STLah

[aprapti]

You can find that on the Zafu and in one's own heart.

(But you can also find some information on what I meant here. Sheng Yen's ways are beautiful and powerful, but they really are rather unlike Shikantaza. His books are not always so clear on that point):

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?17976-You-Are-Already-Enlightened&p=266190&viewfull=1#post266190

It is a lovely way, but just not the same ... like Karate and Judo are both lovely, but not the same. Same yet not the same.

Gassho, J

STLah

thank you, Jundo. i'll search my heart and keep sitting.. but i'll read the two articles too..



aprapti

sat