A compact summary like Probing the Sutras has been sorely needed for some time, as more and more Westerners have dipped into meditation without any understanding of its predominantly Buddhist scriptural underpinning. This concise, well-informed introduction to the history and contents of eleven seminal Buddhist sutras also provides suggestions for reflection, meditation, and practical applications related to the key teachings of each scripture. Readers of Probing the Sutras will be able to develop a framework for understanding Buddhist doctrines--and see the unique pearls of wisdom contained within each sutra.

A collection of the most prominent sutras given by Buddha Gautama from the Mahayana tradition. VOLUME I includes the following sutras: 1. AMITAYUS SUTRA(Sanskrit: Amitāyurbuddhānusmṛti-sūtra) is often called the Meditation Sutra and revered as canonical by all Pure Land Buddhists, being one of the Three Sutras of Pure Land Buddhism. This Mahayana Buddhist text focuses mainly on meditations involving complex visualizations. 2. SUTRA OF COMPLETE ENLIGHTENMENT(sanskrit: Mahāvaipulya pūrṇabuddha-sūtra) is a Buddhist text highly esteemed by both the Huayan and Zen schools. The earliest records of this sutra are in Chinese and the teachings are dealing with issues such as the meaning and origin of ignorance, sudden and gradual enlightenment, and Buddhahood. 3. THE LANKAVATARA SUTRA(sanskrit: Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra) is a prominent Mahayana Buddhist text that recounts a teaching primarily between Buddha Gautama and a bodhisattva Mahamati. The name of this sutra roughly translates as 'scripture of the Descent into Lanka' and takes place in Lanka, the island fortress capital of Ravana (the king of rakshasa demons). This text asserts that objects of the material world are merely manifestations of the mind through contemplation on the topics of consciousness, reality and individual awareness. 4. THE COMPASSIONATE LOTUS SUTRA(sanskrit: Karuṇā-puṇḍarīka-sūtra) is a Mahayana Buddhist text describing how Buddha Gautama first became bodhichitta in his previous life as the brahmana. 5. SUTRA OF TRANSCENDENTAL WISDOM(sanskirt: Mahā-prajñāpāramitā-hridaya-sūtra) is one of the shortest of all Mahayana Buddhist sutras. It is often is memorized and recited by Buddhist monks and nuns as part of the daily ritual.

The Braha Sutras is the culmination of James Braha’s forty years of astrological experience. In his most comprehensive book yet, James clarifies 216 of the most challenging birth chart issues for astrologers. With the remarkable clarity and insight for which he is known, James shares everything he has gained from his practice, having analyzed over 10,000 horoscopes. This 500 page reference is comprised of seven chapters: The Being, The Doing, The Predictions, The Nodes, The Clients, The Upayas (gems, mantras, and yagyas), and The Odds and Ends. It is invaluable for students of both Hindu and Western astrology at all levels of experience.

This book is part of an initiative in cooperation with renowned Chinese publishers to make fundamental, formative, and influential Chinese thinkers available to a western readership, providing absorbing insights into Chinese reflections of late, and offering a chance to grasp today’s China. In their influential book Handbook of the History of Religions in China, Zhongjian Mou and Jian Zhang present a panorama of the religions existing in China through time. In their fascinating History, they delineate the emergence and development of Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, and Christianity and explore the roles they played in Chinese society and the interrelations between them. In China, also due to the encompassing Confucian idea of “living together harmoniously while maintaining differences,” religions—including newly arrived ones—came closer together than anywhere else in the world and reached a unique level of peaceful societal coexistence. Despite many frictions and conflicts, communication and reconciliation were indisputably predominant in China throughout history. Buddhism was peacefully introduced into China and, later on, a harmonious, symbiotic syncretism of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism developed—an exemplary process of how a diverse set of different religions can complement each other and contribute to a better life.

Originally published in 1971. Long regarded as a classic, this volume is one of the most systematic treatments of Hwa Yen to have appeared in the English language. With excellently translated selections of Hwa Yen readings, factual information and discussion, it is highly recommended to readers whose interests in Buddhism incline toward the metaphysical and phenomenological.

Cross-Cultural Issues in Art provides an engaging introduction to aesthetic concepts, expanding the discussion beyond the usual Western theorists and Western examples. Steven Leuthold discusses both contemporary and historical issues and examples, incorporating a range of detailed case studies from African, Asian, European, Latin American, Middle Eastern and Native American art. Individual chapters address broad intercultural issues in art, including Art and Culture, Primitivism and Otherness, Colonialism, Nationalism, Art and Religion, Symbolism and Interpretation, Style and Ethnicity, A Sense of Place, Art and Social Order, Gender, and the Self, considering these themes as constructs that frame our understanding of art. Cross-Cultural Issues in Art draws upon ideas and case studies from cultural and critical studies, art history, ethno-aesthetics and area studies, visual anthropology, and philosophy, and will be useful for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in these fields.

In a demonstration of the value of interdisciplinary, culture-based approaches, this collection of essays on "later" Chinese Buddhism takes us beyond the bedrock subjects of traditional Buddhist historiography--scriptures and commentaries, sectarian developments, lives of notable monks--to examine a wide range of extracanonical materials that illuminate cultural manifestations of Buddhism from the Song dynasty (960-1279) through the modern period. Straying from well-trodden paths, the authors often transgress the boundaries of their own disciplines: historians address architecture; art historians look to politics; a specialist in literature treats poetry that offers gendered insights into Buddhist lives. The broad-based cultural orientation of this volume is predicated on the recognition that art and religion are not closed systems requiring only minimal cross-indexing with other social or aesthetic phenomena but constituent elements in interlocking networks of practice and belief. Contributors: Terese Tse Bartholomew, Patricia Berger, T. Griffith Foulk, Beata Grant, Kenneth Hammond, Amy McNair, Daniel B. Stevenson, Marsha Weidner.