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In The Diamond Sutra in Chinese Culture, Venerable Yong You examines the varied history of the Diamond Sutra and its profound effect upon Chinese Buddhism, as well as its wide-ranging impact on Chinese religion, culture, art, literature, folklore, and technology. Beginning from the introduction of the Diamond Sutra in China until the Song dynasty, Venerable Yong You delves deeply into the Dunhuang collections, comprised of the oldest Chinese Buddhist manuscripts in the world, to offer insightful new research and a compelling perspective on the influence of this very important text.

Analayo offers an inspiring biography of the Buddha, focusing on his meditative development and practice, including extracts from the early discourses, with commentary by the author. He conveys not only a focus on the Buddha as a meditator, but also that the book's readers are meditators, that this is a life of the Buddha providing inspiration and guidance for meditators. Each of the twenty-four chapters concludes with suggestions for meditative practice or conduct.

This book is a comparative examination of the main teachings contained in the Sutranga portion of the Pali Samyutta-nikaya (SN) and its counterpart in Chinese canon, a translation of a now lost Sanskrit Samyuktagama (Za-ahan-jing) (SA). The SN and SA are essentially two different versions of the same collection of discourses.This study builds on the work of Yin Shun, which demonstrates the historical importance of SN/SA in the formation of the early Buddhist canon. In particular, it is based on Yin Shun's recognition of the three-anga structure of SN/SA, and of the status of its Sutranga portion as of prime importance in the historical formation of this nikaya/agama, and as containing the most fundamental teachings of Buddha. The aim of this research is to reveal and clarify the similarities and differences between SN and SA, with regard to the principal Buddhist teachings contained in their Sutranga portion.

Challenged by the teaching of Vatican II about the "seeds of the Word" in non-Christian religions, this book investigates the sacred character of the Saddharmapuṇḍarika Sūtra and its relation to the fundamental theological category of scriptural inspiration. In applying the methods of modern exegesis, the Sūtra in its ingenious composition is disclosed as a religious drama about the inspirational experience of the Buddha. The draft of a theology of inspiration along the guide lines of the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum of Vatican II elaborates a 'christology of the Word' as its core, which allows an extension of inspiration in analogical manner to non-Biblical scriptures. The contrast of Christ, the "Word incarnate", and Buddha, the "Inspired One", offers a new contribution to an inter- religious dialogue.

The BuddhistRoad project has been creating a new framework to understand the dynamics of cultural encounter and religious transfer across premodern Eastern Central Asia. This framework includes a new focus on the complex interactions between Buddhism and non-Buddhist traditions and a deepening of the traditional focus on Buddhist doctrines between the 6th and 14th centuries, as Buddhism continued to spread along an ancient, local political-economic-cultural system of exchange, often referred to as the Silk Roads. This volume brings together world renowned experts to discuss these issues including Buddhism and Christianity, Islam, Daoism, Manichaeism, local indigenous traditions, Tantra etc. Contributors include: Daniel Berounský, Michal Biran, Max Deeg, Lewis Doney, Mélodie Doumy, Meghan Howard Masang, Yukiyo Kasai, Diego Loukota†, Carmen Meinert, Sam van Schaik, Henrik H. Sørensen, and Jens Wilkens.

An insightful examination of the end of suffering that draws much-needed attention to two overlooked factors of Nirvana: signlessness and deathlessness. Nirvana is a critical part of the Buddhist path, though it remains a difficult concept to fully understand for Buddhist practitioners. In The Signless and the Deathless: On the Realization of Nirvana, scholar-monk Bhikkhu Analayo breaks new ground, or rediscovers old ground, by showing the reader that realizing Nirvana entails “a complete stepping out of the way the mind usually constructs experience.” With his extraordinary mastery of canonical Buddhist languages, Venerable Analayo first takes the reader through discussions in early Buddhist suttas on signs (Pali nimitta), the characteristic marks of things that signal to us what they are, and on cultivating concentration on signlessness as a meditative practice. Through practicing bare awareness, we can stop defilements that come from grasping at signs—and stop signs from arising in the first place. He then turns to deathlessness. Deftly avoiding the extremes of nihilism and eternalism that often cloud our understanding of Nirvana, Venerable Analayo shows us that deathless as an epithet of Nirvana “stands for the complete transcendence of mental affliction by mortality”—ours or others’—and that it is achievable while still alive. Advanced practitioners and scholars alike will value the work for its meticulous academic expertise and its novel way of explaining the highest of all Buddhist goals—the final end of suffering.