Buddhism Biography

While many accounts of the Buddha’s life mix legend and history, this compelling new biography discriminates between fact and fiction to reveal Gautama, the remarkable human being behind the myth, and sheds new light on his teachings. Plunging us into the noises, smells and jostling streets of Gautama’s world, Vishvapani Blomfield brings the Buddha to life as a passionate and determined individual - a strikingly modern figure who rejected contemporary beliefs.

Peaks and Lamas is one of the classic early 20th-century accounts of travelling in the Himalayas on the borders of Tibet. It describes two journeys in the 1930s, one physically active and one more of spiritual investigation. It starts as the title suggests, as a mountaineering adventure, when a group of English climbers set out to climb unconquered peaks in the Himalayas. The audiobook ends with a warning of the deleterious effect of Western culture on traditional art and values and an idealistic polemic on education.

Composer John Cage sought the silence of a mind at peace with itself - and found it in Zen Buddhism, a spiritual path that changed both his music and his view of the universe. "Remarkably researched, exquisitely written", Where the Heart Beats weaves together "a great many threads of cultural history" (Maria Popova, Brain Pickings) to illuminate Cage’s struggle to accept himself and his relationship with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Freed to be his own man, Cage originated exciting experiments that set him at the epicenter of a new avant-garde forming in the 1950s.

Dinty Moore set out to explore America's fascination with Buddhism and found himself enthralled. You will be too, as Moore takes you into the world of American-style Buddhism, from a mountain retreat for executives learning to deal with stress to a Tibetan Freedom Concert with the Beastie Boys.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's imprisoned State Councilor Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, mother of two, and devout Buddhist, is one of the most inspiring examples of spiritually infused politics and fearless leadership that the world has ever seen. The Voice of Hope is a rare and intimate journey to the heart of her struggle. Over a period of six months, Alan Clements, the first American ordained as a Buddhist monk in Burma in modern times, met with Aung San Suu Kyi shortly after her release from her first house arrest in July 1995.

With silence increasingly becoming a stranger to us, one man set out to become its intimate: Pablo d'Ors, a Catholic priest whose life was changed by Zen meditation. With disarming honesty and directness, as well as a striking clarity of language, d'Ors shares his struggles as a beginning meditator: the tedium, restlessness, and distraction. But, persevering, the author discovers not only a deep peace and understanding of his true nature, but also that silence, rather than being a retreat from life, offers us an intense engagement with life just as it is.

When His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to New York City in 1999, he spoke simply and powerfully on the everyday Buddhist practice of compassion. An Open Heart lays out this course of meditation, from the simplest to the most challenging, describing the mental training techniques that will enable anyone of any faith to change their minds and open their hearts. Featuring an afterword by Richard Gere.

In Isabel Losada's extraordinary For Tibet with Love, she explores whether it's possible for an ordinary person to change the world, just a little, and if something so serious can be achieved with joy in one's heart. From visits to Nepal and Tibet, to meetings with the Chinese ambassador and Tibetan awareness-raising groups, Isabel single-handedly hatches a stunning PR coup involving Nelson's Column, a 15-meter banner and a base-jumping parachutist that captured headlines worldwide.

The captivating life story of renowned Buddhist activist Sulak Sivaraksa. Matteo Pistono’s deft prose weaves together the story of Sulak Sivaraksa’s years of social-justice work and his tireless campaigns to effect change. As a seminal figure in the world of socially engaged spirituality, Sulak has given us a blueprint for peaceful, nonviolent activism in the 21st century.

கௌதம புத்தரின் நேரடிச் சீடர்கள் பட்டியலில் போதி தர்மரின் பெயர் இல்லை. புத்தர் வாழ்ந்த காலத்தைச் சேர்ந்தவரும் அல்ல. காரணம், இருவருக்கும் இடையேயான கால இடைவெளி சுமார் ஆயிரம் ஆண்டுகள். என்றாலும், போதி தர்மரை இரண்டாவது புத்தர் என்று கொண்டாடுகிறார்கள்; ஆராதிக்கிறார்கள்; பின்பற்றுகிறார்கள். எனில், யார் இந்த போதி தர்மர்?

Rain in the Mountains brings together some of Ruskin Bond’s most beautiful works from his years spent in the foothills of the Himalayas in the town of Mussoorie. Through vivid images and lucid writing, Bond evokes the everyday sights and sounds, and captures the essence of mountain life. The musings on his natural habitat, in both prose and poetry, offer a view of that simple and affable world. Some of his writings featured in the book include: "Once Upon a Mountain Time", "Sounds I Like to Hear", "How Far Is the River" and "After the Monsoon".

Kodo Nishimura ist ein buddhistischer Mönch aus einer langen Linie japanischer Mönche. Und er ist LGBTQ+-Aktivist sowie international bekannter Makeup-Artist. Er verbringt sein Leben zwischen einem Kloster in Tokio und den Fashion-Shows dieser Welt. An einem Tag trägt er traditionelle Mönchsgewänder und am nächsten glitzernde High Heels. Er ist stolz auf seine buddhistischen Wurzeln, seine Sexualität und seine Leidenschaft für Mode und Make-Up. Doch das war nicht immer so. Nishimura versteckt sein wahres Selbst viele Jahre vor seinen Lehrer:innen und Freund:innen.

Has anyone ever asked you what the best days of your life were? When asked this, I closed my eyes and went back in my own past. And I thought of the days when life's most complex choices had a simple solution of Akkad Bakkad Bambey Bo, of the seasons when rains were celebrated by making paper boats, and of the times when waiting at the railway crossing meant counting the bogies of the train passing by. When I opened my eyes, it seems Like it Happened Yesterday! I look back, and it becomes a journey full of adventure.

Completed just four years after his escape from Tibet and four years after completing his religious education, the Dalai Lama's classic text on Buddhist philosophy is a thorough but succinct overview of Buddhist doctrines as they have been practiced in Tibet for a thousand years. This invaluable handbook provides a compendium of Buddhist thought and practice that is both dense and rich - serving at once as a summation of knowledge and as an invitation to further study.

من الرفاه إلى التّأمل والزُهد بملذات الدُنيا، هكذا عاش بوذا، كان ابن ملك ثم اختار الزهد بكل ما يملك والتفكر بعيدًا عن أهله واصحابه وكل معارفه. فشغلته أفكاره عن الإنسان والحياة فأنشأ فلسفته الروحية الخاصة التي أحالها أتباعه إلى ديانة يتبعها الملايين حول العالم وخصوصًا في قارة آسيا.

This audiobook reveals the main facts about the magical childhood and teenage years of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the youngest son of a humble farmer, born in a remote Tibetan village, who became the political and spiritual leader of his homeland when he was only a kid. Its surprising content sheds light on the main facts and events that shaped his amazing early life, including: the Tibetan prophecy that announced his reincarnation; the magic lake that described the place where he was born; how the high lamas found him in a small farming village when he was two; and more!