This book represents a comparison of the critique of Buddhism as set forth in the interpretations of Sankara, Madhva, and Ramanuja to the sutras of the second section (adhyaya) of the Brahma-sutras concerned with the refutation of Buddhism, with the positions actually elaborated by the Buddhists in their own texts. An attempt is also made to compare the conflicting interpretations of the three commentators to these particular sutras, in accordance with the philosophical approach unique to each commentator. The book is divided into two parts. The first part consists of an Introductory Background. It includes a brief description of the Brahma-sutras as a text and summarizes the philosophical positions of the three commentators. The second part proceeds sutra by sutra to study the three commentators' interpretations of the particular sutras directed against the Buddhists.

Responding to our modern disillusionment with any claims to absolute truth regarding morality or reality, this book offers a conceptual approach for discussing absolutes without denying either the relevance of divergent religious and philosophical teachings or the evidence supporting postmodern and poststructuralist critiques. Case studies of mysticism within Advaita-Vedānta Hinduism, Mādhyamika Buddhism, and Nicene Christianity demonstrate the value of this approach and offer many fresh insights into the metaphysical presuppositions of these religions as well as into the nature and value of mystical experience. Like Douglas Hofstadter's Gōdel, Escher, Bach, this book finds ultimate reality to be rationally graspable only as an eternal fugue of pattern and paradox. Yet it does not so much counter other philosophical views as provide a conceptual tool for understanding and classifying incommensurable views.

This is the first scholarly treatment of the emergence of American Buddhist Studies as a significant research field. Until now, few investigators have turned their attention to the interpretive challenge posed by the presence of all the traditional lineages of Asian Buddhism in a consciously multicultural society. Nor have scholars considered the place of their own contributions as writers, teachers, and practising Buddhists in this unfolding saga. In thirteen chapters and a critical introduction to the field, the book treats issues such as Asian American Buddhist identity, the new Buddhism, Buddhism and American culture, and the scholar's place in American Buddhist Studies. The volume offers complete lists of dissertations and theses on American Buddhism and North American dissertations and theses on topics related to Buddhism since 1892.

Buddhism is a religion of universal peace and concord. The present book fulfils its aim by placin emphasis on the facts in relation to this aspect of the creed.The book is divided into five sections. Section I is Introductory. It recounts in particular the sacred books of the Buddhists, literature subsidiary to the canon the period of Origin of buddhism and Indian thoughts and ideals contemporaneous with it. Section II deals with the life of Buddha from conception birth the childhood to Parinirvana cremation and partition of the relics.

This book centers on the analysis of pure consciousness as found in Advaita Vedanta, one of the main schools of Indian philosophy. Written lucidly and clearly, this book reveals the depth and implications of Indian metaphysics and argument. It will be of interest to scholars of Indian philosophy and Religious Studies.

In the Buddhist religion, the Dharma concept of the Buddha is not confined to men, but is taught to all kinds of beings, including ghosts and animals. According to a legend Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of mercy, had taken among the birds the form of a cuckoo- an animal which recommends itself to the Buddhist mind by its attitude to family life. The present book constitutes an English translation of the Tibetan original. In his introduction, Dr. Conze not only sketches the background of the story, but gives extracts from another tibetan Work, originating from the Kagyudpa school of Milarepa, which describes the spiritual antecedents of the cuckoo. The book in spite of its deep content makes a plesent and easy reading. As a work of popular interest, it should be welcomed by scholars as well as by general readers interest in Buddhist literature.

This treatise, originally written as part of a study of logic in the Early Schools, contains seventeen fragments attributed to Dinnaga by Vacaspati Misra as also confirmed by the Tibetan version of the Pramana-samuccaya, the authorship of which is also attributed to Dinnaga. The fragments constitute the Sanskrit text transliterated in Roman script, translated and annotated into English. The text deals with the various topics of logic such as Perception, Inference, Valid Testimony, Analogy, Apoha etc. The book covers two appendices: (1) Dinnaga and Prasastapada. (2) Summary of Buddhist logical doctrine. It is documented with Preface, Bibliography, Abbreviations and Index.

Tantra is Tibet consists of three parts published under the auspices of the Dalai Lama:The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra-Part I by Tsong-ka-pa is one of the principal classic texts on tantra. It presents the main features common to all the Buddhist tantra systems as well as the difference between sutra and tantra.

A leading authority on the rainbow body traces its history in the encounter of religions in medieval Central Asia, exploring a previously unimagined connection between early Dzogchen and the resurrection of Jesus Francis V. Tiso, a noted authority on the rainbow body, explores this manifestation of spiritual realization in a wide-ranging and deeply informed study of the transformation of the material body into a body of light. Seeking evidence on the boundary between physical science and deep spirituality that might elucidate the resurrection of Jesus, he investigates the case of Khenpo A Chö, a Buddhist monk who died in eastern Tibet in 1999. Rainbow Body and Resurrection chronicles the dissolution of Khenpo's material body within a week of his death, including eye-witness interviews. Tiso describes the spiritual practices that give rise to the rainbow body and traces their history deep into the encounter of religions in medieval Central Asia. His erudite exploration of the Tibetan phenomenon raises the fascinating question of whether there is a connection between the rainbow body and the dying and rising of Jesus. Drawing on a wealth of recent research, Tiso expands his discussion to include the contemplative geography out of which Dzogchen arose some time in the eighth century along the great Silk Road across Central Asia. The result is an illuminating consideration of previously unimagined relationships between spiritual practices and beliefs in Central Asia.