General Buddhism
Founded in India by Siddhartha Gautama, Buddhism has thrived in the East for more than 2,500 years—and has been steadily gaining adherents in the West in the last century or so. While our catalog offers many dharma books that spring from specific lineages, such as Tibetan Kagyu or Japanese Soto Zen, the books you’ll find below offer a more general approach to the Buddhist view.
Interested, but not sure where to start? Visit our Expert Picks, where author and noted blogger Reverend Danny Fisher offers some recommendations.
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Bringing Home the Dharma
Awakening Right Where You Are
If you want to find inner peace and wisdom, you don't need to move to an ashram or monastery. Your life, just as it is, is the perfect place to be. Jack Kornfield, one of America's most respected Buddhist teachers, shares this and other key lessons gleaned from more than forty years of committed study and practice. Topics include: How to… Read More
Hardcover$24.95+ Add to Bag -
Buddhist Animal Wisdom Stories
Around the beginning of the common era, Indian Buddhists began to collect fables, or jataka tales, illuminating various human virtues and foibles—from kindness, cooperation, loyalty and self-discipline on the one hand to greed, pride, foolishness, and treachery on the other. Instead of populating these stories with people, they cast the animals of their immediate environment in the leading roles—which may have given the tales a universal appeal that helped them… Read More
Hardcover$19.95+ Add to Bag -
The Courage to Be Present
Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Awakening of Natural Wisdom
The quality of presence a psychotherapist or counselor brings to the therapeutic relationship makes all the difference in effective treatment. With this groundbreaking new application of Buddhist practice to psychotherapy, Karen Kissel Wegela offers mental heath professionals a Buddhist’s perspective on bringing compassion, patience, generosity, and equanimity to their work with clients. She presents as a model the Buddhist ideal of the bodhisattva, the archetypal being whose life is radically… Read More
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The Dhammapada
Teachings of the Buddha
The Dhammapada is the most widely read Buddhist scripture in existence, enjoyed by both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. This classic text of teaching verses from the earliest period of Buddhism in India conveys the philosophical and practical foundations of the Buddhist tradition. The text presents two distinct goals for leading a spiritual life: the first is attaining happiness in this life (or in future lives); the second goal is… Read More
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The Heart Is Noble
Changing the World from the Inside Out
If you are inspired to take up his challenge, the Karmapa offers a path for participating in a global community that is based on compassion. In these chapters, he shares his vision for bringing social action into daily life, on a scale we can realistically manage through the choices we make every day—what to buy, what to eat, and how to relate honestly and bravely with our friends and family… Read More
Hardcover$21.95+ Add to Bag -
Impermanence
Embracing Change
What does it mean that we are constantly changing? How do people confront ideas like death and change? Asked to contribute to an exhibit celebrating the work of the Dalai Lama, multimedia artists David and Hi-Jin Hodge interviewed over a hundred people about impermanence and change in their lives. Their subjects ranged from philosophers, gardeners, economists, spiritual leaders, doctors, and patients. The result was incredibly moving. The Hodges's installation… Read More
Hardcover$29.95+ Add to Bag -
A Little Book of Love
Heart Advice on Bringing Happiness to Ourselves and Our World
In the Buddhist tradition, love is not just a feeling but a way of being present with ourselves and others. This book offers practical advice on how to cultivate love, how to deepen it, and how to let it flower in our lives. We may feel great love for our partners, our children, and our friends, but how do we put that love into action so that others are… Read More
Hardcover$15.95+ Add to Bag -
Living Beautifully
with Uncertainty and Change
We live in difficult times. Life sometimes seems like a roiling and turbulent river threatening to drown us and destroy the world. Why, then, shouldn’t we cling to the certainty of the shore—to our familiar patterns and habits? Because, Pema Chödrön teaches, that kind of fear-based clinging keeps us from the infinitely more satisfying experience of being fully alive. The teachings she presents here—known as the “Three Commitments”—provide a wealth… Read More
Hardcover$22.95+ Add to Bag -
Taking the Leap
Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears
In this pithy, inspiring book, Pema Chödrön presents the Buddhist concept of shenpa, which can be translated as "getting stuck" or "getting hooked." Shenpa arises in that moment when life suddenly becomes disappointing, difficult, or painful. Perhaps someone criticizes your work, your appearance, or your child. Something within you tightens, shuts down. That's shenpa. After we tighten, we instinctively start to blame ourselves or others. We might get angry and… Read More
Hardcover$18.95+ Add to Bag -
Teachings of the Buddha
- edited by
- Jack Kornfield
This treasury of essential Buddhist writings draws from the most popular Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese sources. Among the selections are some of the earliest recorded sayings of the Buddha on the practice of freedom, passages from later Indian scriptures on the perfection of wisdom, verses from Tibetan masters on the enlightened mind, and songs in praise of meditation by Zen teachers. The book also includes traditional instruction on how… Read More
Hardcover$18.95+ Add to Bag
