MU Libraries New Books: Buddhism

About the new book list

11/18/2009

The RSS feeds for the new books list is updated every Wednesday and contains a list of books added to the Ellis Library collection for the last six weeks. The titles are grouped by call number classification, and are listed by week and alphabetically by title.

Books for the most recent weeks are currently on the New Books Shelves inside the north entrance of Ellis Library. They can be checked out.

Rediscovering the Buddha : legends of the Buddha and their interpretation / Hans H. Penner. (11/4/2009)

11/4/2009

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Product Description

Hans Penner takes a new look at the classic stories of the life of the Buddha. In the first part of the book, he presents a full account of these stories, drawn from various texts of Theravada Buddhism, the Buddhism of South and Southeast Asia. Penner allots one chapter to each of the major milestones in Buddha's life, with titles such as: Birth and Early Life, Flight from the Palace, Enlightenment and Liberation, Last Watch and Funeral. In the process, he brings to the fore dimensions of the myth that have been largely ignored by western scholarship. In Part II, Penner offers his own original interpretations of the legends. He takes issue with Max Weber's assertion that "Buddhism is an other-worldly ascetic religion," a point of view that remains dominant in the received tradition and in most contemporary studies of Buddhism. His central thesis is that the "householder" is a necessary element in Buddhism and that the giving of gifts, which creates merit and presupposes the doctrine of karma, mediates the relation between the householder and the monk. Penner argues that the omission of the householder - in his view one-half of what constitutes Buddhism as a religion - is fatal for any understanding of Buddha's life or of the Buddhist tradition. This boldly revisionist and deeply learned work will be of interest to a wide range of scholarly and lay readers.

Call #: BQ882 .P46 2009

Buddhism and transgression : the appropriation of Buddhism in the contemporary West / by Adrian Konik. (10/28/2009)

10/28/2009

Call #: BQ704 .K66 2009

Buddhism and empire : the political and religious culture of early Tibet / by Michael L. Walter. (10/21/2009)

10/21/2009

Call #: BQ7580 .W35 2009

Awareness bound and unbound : Buddhist essays / David R. Loy. (10/7/2009)

10/7/2009

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Product Description
Essays from the singular experience of Buddhist social critic and philosopher David R. Loy on classic and contemporary concerns.

From the Back Cover
What do we need to do to become truly comfortable--at one--with our lives here and now? In these essays, Buddhist social critic and philosopher David R. Loy discusses liberation not from the world, but into it. Loy's lens is a wide one, encompassing the classic and the contemporary, the Asian, the Western, and the comparative. Loy seeks to distinguish what is vital from what is culturally conditioned and perhaps outdated in Buddhism and also to bring fresh worldviews to a Western world in crisis. Some basic Buddhist teachings are reconsidered and thinkers such as Nagarjuna, Dogen, Eckhart, Swedenborg, and Zhuangzi are discussed. Particularly contemporary concerns include the effects of a computerized society, the notion of karma and the position of women, terrorism and the failure of secular modernity, and a Buddhist response to the notion of a clash of civilizations. With his unique mix of Buddhist philosophical insight and passion for social justice, Loy asks us to consider when our awareness, or attention, is bound in delusion and when it is unbound and awakened.

"These essays, each one in its own right, are extremely thought-provoking. The various topics addressed are indeed significant, timely, and crucial toward understanding events and situations in our contemporary global scene." -- Ruben L. F. Habito, author of Experiencing Buddhism: Ways of Wisdom and Compassion

About the Author
David R. Loy is Besl Family Chair Professor of Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University. He is the author of several books, including A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack, also published by SUNY Press, and Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution.

Call #: BQ4165 .L68 2009

Chöd practice in the Bön tradition : tracing the origins of chöd (gcod) in the Bön tradition, a dialogic approach cutting through sectarian boundaries / Alejandro Chaoul forewords by Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. (10/7/2009)

10/7/2009

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Review
"fascinating subject .... documents the unique combination of meditation and shamanic rites that go beyond ego and literally invite our most fearful aspects to the light of day ... This is a valuable addition to the Tibetan Buddhist library." - Thomas Peter von Bahr, New Age Retailer -- Thomas Peter von Bahr, New Age Retailer, August 2009

Product Description
This book is the first to trace the history of Chod practice in Tibet's indigenous Bon tradition. Chod (cutting through) is a meditative practice in which the practitioner imagines offering his or her body in sacrifice through elaborate contemplative visualization. Although a meditative practice, Chod is not done sitting comfortably on a cushion in a shrine room, but instead is often practiced in terrifying places like cemeteries or charnal grounds. The feelings of fear that result are used by the Chod practitioner to cut through his or her own ego. Chod contains elements of early shamanism, of sutric and tantric teachings also found in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, and of the Tibetan highest school of Dzogchen.

Call #: BQ7982.3 .C43 2009

The material culture of death in medieval Japan / Karen M. Gerhart. (9/23/2009)

9/23/2009

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Call #: BQ5020 .G47 2009