Explaining the psychology of Bodhisattva practice, imagery, and imagination, Bodhisattva Archetypes identifies a number of archetypal figures - beings dedicated to the universal awakening or enlightenment of everyone. With entertaining folklore of the Bodhisattva tradition - and numerous depictions of its iconography and sacred sites - Taigen Daniel Leighton introduces readers to recognizable Bodhisattva archetypes like Maitreya the future Buddha or Avalokiteshvara (often depicted as Guanyin, the Chinese "Goddess of Mercy"), as well as contemporary figures who exemplify Bodhisattva ideals, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Henry David Thoreau.

Can religious individuals and communities learn from each other in ways that will lead them to collaborate in addressing the great ethical challenges of our time, including climate change and endless warfare? This is the central question underlying The Prophet and the Bodhisattva. It juxtaposes two figures emblematic of an ideal moral life: the prophet as it evolved in ancient Israel and the bodhisattva as it flowered in Mahayana Buddhism. In particular, The Prophet and the Bodhisattva focuses on Daniel Berrigan and Thich Nhat Hanh, who in their lives embody and in their writings reflect upon their respective moral type. Berrigan, a Jesuit priest, pacifist, and poet, is best known for burning draft files in 1968 and for hammering and pouring blood on a nuclear warhead in 1980. His extensive writings on the Hebrew prophets reflect his life of nonviolent activism. Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk, Vietnamese exile, and poet struggled to end the conflict during the Vietnam War. Since then he has led the global movement that he named Engaged Buddhism and has written many commentaries on Mahayana scriptures. For fifty years both have been teaching us how to pursue peace and justice, a legacy we can draw upon to build a social ethics for our time.

Formerly published as Bodhisattva archetypes: classic Buddhist guides to awakening and the modern expression.

Santideva's 8th century Mahayana Buddhist classic, the Guide to the Practices of Awakening (Bodhicaryavatara), has been a source of philosophical inspiration in the Indian and Tibetan traditions for over a thousand years. Stephen Harris guides us through a philosophical exploration of Santideva's masterpiece, introducing us to his understanding of the compassionate bodhisattva, who vows to liberate the entire universe from suffering. Individual chapters provide studies of the bodhisattva virtues of generosity, patience, compassion, and wisdom, illustrating the role each plays in Santideva's account of well-being and moral development. Harris also provides in-depth analysis of many of Santideva's most influential arguments, demonstrating how he employs reasoning as a method to cultivate moral character. As the first book-length English language philosophical study of Santideva's most influential text, this will be essential reading for students and scholars of Buddhist ethics, as well as for anyone interested in intercultural ethics and the philosophy of well-being.

'Wise and perceptive. [It] teaches self-compassion and the consolations of kindness. I recommend it.' SALLY BRAMPTON, author of Shoot the Damn Dog DEVELOP YOUR FEELINGS OF COMPASSION AND INCREASE YOUR SENSE OF WELL-BEING In societies that encourage us to compete with each other, compassion is often seen as a weakness. Striving to get ahead, self-criticism, fear, and hostility towards others seem to come more naturally to us. The Compassionate Mind explains the evolutionary and social reasons why our brains react so readily to threats - and reveals how our brains are also hardwired to respond to kindness and compassion. Research has found that developing kindness and compassion for ourselves and others builds our confidence, helps us create meaningful, caring relationships and promotes physical and mental health. Far from fostering emotional weakness, practical exercises focusing on developing compassion have been found to subdue our anger and increase our courage and resilience to depression and anxiety. 'As one of Britain's most insightful psychologists, Gilbert illuminates the power of compassion in our lives.' OLIVER JAMES, AUTHOR OF AFFLUENZA

St Francis of Assisi, one of the most acclaimed and enduring of saints, is particularly significant when reflecting upon the COVID pandemic. Francis lived, and ministered, amid a leprosy pandemic. How he lived in relation to that pandemic makes him a source of insight to as well as a potential critic of contemporary responses to COVID. In turn, one can use COVID to question Francis. Did he exhibit a harmful form of religious devotion, perhaps fanaticism, by exposing himself and others to a lethal pathogen? This edited collection examines a highly visible and impactful religious figure with the intent of bringing him into conversation with one of the defining issues of the early 21st Century.

Eihei Dogen, the thirteenth-century Zen master who founded the Japanese Soto School of Zen, is renowned as one of the world's most remarkable religious thinkers. As Shakespeare does with English, Dogen utterly transforms the language of Zen, using it in novel and extraordinarily beautiful ways to point to everything important in the religious life. He is known for two major works. The first work, the massive Shobogenzo (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye), represents his early teachings and exists in myriad English translations; the second work, the Eihei Koroku, is a collection of all his later teachings, including short formal discourses to the monks training at his temple, longer informal talks, and koans with his commentaries, as well as short appreciatory verses on various topics. The Shobogenzo has received enormous attention in Western Zen and Western Zen literature, and with the publication of this watershed volume, the Eihei Koroku will surely rise to commensurate stature. Dogen's Extensive Record is the first-ever complete and scholarly translation of this monumental work into English and this edition is the first time it has been available in paperback. This edition contains extensive and detailed research and annotation by scholars, translators and Zen teachers Taigen Dan Leighton and Shohaku Okumura, as well as forewords by the eighteenth-century poet-monk Ryokan and Tenshin Reb Anderson, former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center - plus introductory essays from Dogen scholar Steven Heine, and the prominent, late American Zen master John Daido Loori.

Many Western visitors to Japan have been struck by the numerous cemeteries for aborted fetuses, which are characterized by throngs of images of the Bodhisattva Jizo, usually dressed in red baby aprons or other baby garments, and each dedicated to an individual fetus. Abortion is common in Japan and as a consequence one of the frequently performed rituals in Japanese Buddhism is mizuko-kuyo, a ceremony for aborted and miscarried fetuses. Over the past forty years, mizuko-kuyo has gradually come to America, where it has been appropriated by non-Buddhists as well as Buddhist practitioners. In this book, Jeff Wilson examines how and why Americans of different backgrounds have brought knowledge and performance of this Japanese ceremony to the United States. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork in Japan and the U.S., as well as the literature in both Japanese and English, Wilson shows that the meaning and purpose of the ritual have changed greatly in the American context. In Japan, mizuko-kuyo is performed to placate the potentially dangerous spirit of the angry fetus. In America, however, it has come to be seen as a way for the mother to mourn and receive solace for her loss. Many American women who learn about mizuko-kuyo are struck by the lack of such a ceremony and see it as filling a very important need. Ceremonies are now performed even for losses that took place many years ago. Wilson's well-written study not only contributes to the growing literature on American Buddhism, but sheds light on a range of significant issues in Buddhist studies, interreligious contact, women's studies, and even bioethics.

When Buddhism came to the West in the 1960s, many were eager to adapt it straightaway to the prevailing social and intellectual currents of its new home. One of those adaptations was the creation of a “socially engaged” Buddhism that could stand alongside similar developments in Christian and Jewish thought. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Beginning with what the tradition calls the path of “the holy life,” a life free of every attachment to self and the delusions to which it gives rise, Geiman draws attention to the unique contribution the Dharma makes to one’s understanding of the world, one’s place within it, and the nature of wise and compassionate action in the face of human hardship. Along the way, he shows the limits of using the teaching of the Buddha and the Dharma Ancestors as support for social and political agendas of any kind. What emerges is a description of a noble life free of pretense and guile, which fearlessly and unshakably bears witness to the truth of our conditioned nature in the midst of human hardship—a life best described as standing alone in a world of wounds.

An exciting, inventive, and multifaceted collection that includes everything from visionary shot-shorts to fictionalized personal memoirs.