On Tue, 1 Oct 2002, Deborah Harrell wrote: > I'd like to learn more about the Buddhist approach as > well - anyone have books to recommend? (Someone > mentioned one in an earlier post, but I don't think > the author's name was given.)
The best book describing Buddhist practice and goals with an absolute minimum of ritual and metaphysics that I know of is, "Mindfulness in Plain English" by Henepola Gunaratana. There are of course lots of books about Zen Buddhism by DT Suzuki and other authors, and boatloads of books about Tibetan Buddhism by the Dalai Lama and others. (I suspect that Tibetan Buddhism is not especially representative of Buddhism in general, though, because of its unique history and situation.) An author I've heard good things about but not read is Thich Nhat Hanh. Two good websites are: www.vipassana.com www.buddhanet.net I think it's worth noting that almost everything about Buddhism appears to be open to some degree of debate depending on what sect you're dealing with, but what I've read suggests there's a fair amount on conformity on the basics overall. Another good book is "Thank you and OK! An American Zen Failure in Japan" by David Chadwick. This is a memoir that gives a fun and touching account of being a Zen monk and also a lay Buddhist in Japan. It's interesting to observe how the lines of Buddhism as such and ornery Japanese-ness and ornery American-ness all get blurred. Suffering (i.e. hilarity) ensues. :-) Marvin Long Austin, Texas Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, & Ashcroft, LLP (Formerly the USA) "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a peso. If you're for Zorro, stand up and say so!" _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
