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This book offers a new interpretation of the relationship between 'insight practice' (satipatthana) and the attainment of the four jhànas (i.e., right samàdhi), a key problem in the study of Buddhist meditation. The author challenges the traditional Buddhist understanding of the four jhànas as states of absorption, and shows how these states are the actualization and embodiment of insight (vipassanà). It proposes that the four jhànas and what we call 'vipassanà' are integral dimensions of a single process that leads to awakening. Current literature on the phenomenology of the four jhànas and their relationship with the 'practice of insight' has mostly repeated traditional Theravàda i...
An introduction to the basic Buddhist teachings of mettā, loving-kindness, and its application in today's world. The book is a compilation of lectures given by the author, Ms Sujin Boriharnwanaket, in the Boranives Temple, Bangkok, for mixed groups of scholars, monks and lay people. Part of the book features questions and answers raised during the lectures. Although some Buddhist background is assumed, the complete beginner would appreciate much of the text.
Understanding and assessing the New Testament writings from Asian viewpoints provides a unique and original outlook for interpretation of the Christian Scriptures. To that end, An Asian Introduction to the New Testament is the first book of its kind to take full account of the multireligious, multiethnic, multilingual, multicultural, and pluralistic contexts in which Asian Christians find themselves. Into this already complex world, issues of poverty, casteism, class structure, honor and shame aspects, colonial realities, discrimination against women, natural calamities and ecological crises, and others add more layers of complexity. Perceiving the New Testament in light of these realities enables the reader to see them in a fresh way while understanding that the Jesus Movement emerged from similar social situations. Readers will find able guides in an impressive array of more than twenty scholars from across Asia. Working with volume editor Johnson Thomaskutty, the authors make a clear case: the kernels of Christianity sprouted from Asian roots, and we must read the New Testament considering those roots in order to understand it afresh today.
Long before people in the West started to study the workings of the human mind, Buddhism was trying to understand body and mind through introspection and meditation. This knowledge has grown to be a very thorough and detailed classification and analysis of mental and physical phenomena. This refined study is known as the Abhidhamma (literally: ‘Higher Teachings’). In Southeast Asia students normally spend more than seven years studying these teachings. Frits Koster has lived as a Buddhist monk in Thailand and Burma, where he had the privilege to study parts of the Abhidhamma. In The Web of Buddhist Wisdom he explains important themes such as consciousness, mental concomitants, physicalit...
This book on the Perfections is a study of the ten good qualities leading to Enlightenment: generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, loving-kindness, and equanimity. It shows when they are considered perfections and what hinders them. It shows the importance of developing them in daily life and how their cultivation is essential for the complete eradication of all defilements. Many quotes are used from the the original scriptures of Theravada Buddhism and for precision of understanding some Pali terms are used. The author is a prolific writer and broadcaster of Buddhist scriptures and has had several books published worldwide.
A Survey of Paramattha Dhammas is a guide to the development of the Buddha's path of wisdom, covering all aspects of human life and human behaviour, good and bad. This study explains that right understanding is indispensable for mental development, the development of calm as well as the development of insight The author describes in detail all mental phenomena (citta and cetasika), and physical phenomena (rupa) and explains the processes of mental phenomena that experience objects through the sense-doors and the mind-door. The last chapters are in the form of questions and answers and deal with the problems one may face in the development of insight. For precision many Pali terms are used but nevertheless the book could be appreciated by both beginners and as well as those who have more background knowledge.
The Buddhist monk Buddhasdasa Bhikku (1906-1993) injected fresh life into Thai Buddhism by exploring and teaching little known transcendent aspects of the religion. His investigations excited both monks and lay people, and gave rise to the vigourous discussion in shops, temple yards and newly founded Buddhist associations. Moreover, he was a prolific author, who produced a rich array of publications that are indicative of his popularity and the impact of his teachings. While these discussions included serious exchanges on doctrine and practice, they also included jokes and light humor, criticisms of weak evidence for certain positions, and a defamation campaign arising from rumors that Buddh...