Sacred Writings

Drawn directly from 24 Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese sources, and retold by Thich Nhat Hanh in his inimitably beautiful style, this book traces the Buddha's life....

One of the greatest works created by any culture and overwhelmingly the most significant of all Tibetan Buddhist texts in the West, The Tibetan Book of the Dead has had a number of distinguished translations, but none encompassed the work in its entirety. Now, in one of the year's most important...

The Words of My Perfect Teacher is the classic commentary on the preliminary practices of the Longchen Nyingtig—one of the best-known cycles of teachings and a spiritual treasure of the Nyingmapa school—the oldest Tibetan Buddhist tradition....

Award-winning translator of Chinese poetry and religious texts Red Pine provides a new English translation of The Heart Sutra. This short text covers more of the Buddha’s teachings than any other scripture, and it does so without being superficial or hurried.

A masterful translation of the Diamond Sutra, an essential Zen Buddhist scripture—The Diamond Sutra contains insightful commentary and helpful historical context.

This book offers a complete translation of the Majjhima Nikāya, or Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, one of the major collections of texts in the Pāli Canon, the authorised scriptures of Theravada Buddhism....

The Shōbōgenzō is the recognized spiritual masterpiece by the 13th- century Japanese Sōtō Zen Master Eihei Dōgen. It is comprised of discourses that he gave to his disciples, in person or in writing, at various times between 1231 and his death 22 years later at age 53....

This volume offers a complete translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, the third of the four great collections in the Sutta Pitaka of the Pāli Canon....

Reflections on Silver River consists of a new translation of Tokme Zongpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and a verse-by verse commentary.

The Lankavatara Sutra, dating from the early years of the Common Era, sometime before 443, is one of the most important Mahayana Buddhist texts, not least because of its influence on later Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese Buddhism. One of its possible early translators in the 8th century was...

Clear and illuminating commentary on one of Bodhidharma's most important texts is designed to help Chan practitioners apply timeless and essential advice to their practice....

In this renowned translation of Buddhism’s most widely read scripture, freshly updated for a new generation of listeners, Gil Fronsdal provides extensive explanatory notes and easy-to-understand insight for practice....

The Dalai Lama deftly connects how training the mind in compassion for other beings is directly related to - and in fact a prerequisite for - the very pinnacle of Buddhist meditation....

‘Visuddhimagga’ or ‘The Path of Purity’, is among the most important scholarly works of Theravada Buddhism and, indeed, of the whole Buddhist tradition. It contains a survey of the main teachings of the historical Buddha, while also preserving some of the earliest commentaries on the...

Comprising only 632 Chinese characters, the Heart Sutra is Buddhism in a nutshell....

Life, Death, and Rebirth—Pema Chödrön on The Tibetan Book of the Dead What happens when we die? One of the most treasured resources for understanding this essential question is The Tibetan Book of the Dead. With Embracing the Unknown, Pema Chödrön delves into the teachings of this...

A tour-de-force guide to Zen Master Dogen's most subtle and sophisticated philosophical premises: that being and time are inseparable....

Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching (Chinese Zhengfayanzang) stands as among the greatest classics of Chan (Chinese Zen) Buddhism, combining speeches, stories, dialogues, poems, and commentaries that the influential master Dahui (1089-1163) extracted from Chan lore. Compiled by Dahui's students...

In The Five Ranks of Zen, American Zen teacher Shishin Wick offers an accessible entry point to each of the ranks, which Tozan created in two formulations....

The Khuddaka Nikāya is different from the other four Nikāyas of the Sutta Pitaka in the Theravada Pāli Canon in that rather than being a single work it is, as its customary translation ‘Minor Anthologies’ suggests, a collection of independent works....

The Atthakavagga points to a direct and simple approach for attaining peace without requiring the adherence to doctrine....

Padmasambhava’s text is a core text of the Nyingma tradition because it provides the basis for the system of nine vehicles (three sutra vehicles and six tantra vehicles) that subsequently became the accepted way of classifying the different Buddhist paths in the Nyingma tradition....

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche illuminates how diligence is the inner vigor that sparks enthusiasm despite difficulty, the dynamic armor that protects against laziness, and the inner strength that aims to meet the world with joy and openheartedness

Theravada, Tibetan and Zen may be the most well-known forms of Buddhism in the West, but in many parts of the East it is the Pure Land schools which dominate.

In this recording, Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh lectures on the Heart of the Prajñaparamita Sutra, which is regarded as the essence of Buddhist teachings. To this day, the Heart Sutra is recited daily in Mahayana temples and practice centers throughout the world....