In Defense of Dharma: Just-War Ideology in Buddhist Sri Lanka
Tessa Bartholomeusz
Florida State University
Sri Lankan Buddhists avail themselves of a variety of Buddhist stories, canonical and post-canonical, to support their point of view regarding war. And because there are no pronouncements in the stories attributed to the Buddha or in those stories told about him that declare unequivocally and directly that war is wrong, the military metaphors of the stories allow for a variety of interpretations. Some Buddhists argue that the stories directly or indirectly permit war under certain circumstances, while others argue that war is never acceptable. Whether they justify war or not, these Buddhists engage the stories, sometimes the very same ones, to argue their points of view.
Changing the Way Society Changes: Transposing Social Activism into a Dramatic Key
Peter D. Hershock
East-West Center
Asian Studies Development Program
While many Buddhists are rightly committed to working in the public sphere for the resolution of suffering, there are very real incompatibilities between the axiomatic concepts and strategic biases of (the dominant strands of) both current human rights discourse and social activism and such core Buddhist practices as seeing all things as interdependent, impermanent, empty, and karmically configured. Indeed, the almost startling successes of social activism have been ironic, hinging on its strategic and conceptual indebtedness to core values shared with the technological and ideological forces that have sponsored its own necessity. The above-mentioned Buddhist practices provide a way around the critical blind spot instituted by the marriage of Western rationalism, a technological bias toward control, and the axiomatic status of individual human being, displaying the limits of social activism’s institutional approach to change and opening concrete possibilities for a dramatically Buddhist approach to changing the way societies change.
A Buddhist View of Women: A Comparative Study of the Rules for Bhikṣuṇīs and Bhikṣus Based on the Chinese Prātimokṣa
In Young Chung
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley
A generalized view of women in Buddhism is imposed by almost one hundred additional rules and the “Eight Rules” upon nuns. Some scholars, writers, and practitioners have asserted that the rules in the Prātimokṣa subordinate nuns to monks. However, I argue that the additional pārājikas for nuns treat sexual matters seriously because of the fertility of females. Some sa.mghĀva”seṣas for nuns provide safeguards against falling victim to lustful men. Some ni.hsargika-pāyantikas for monks forbid them from taking advantage of nuns. Two aniyatas for monks show a landmark in trust in women. Furthermore, seven adhikara.na”samathas provide evidence of the equality of men and women. Many of the additional pāyantikas for nuns originated because of nuns’ living situations and social conditions in ancient India. Finally, the totally different tone and discrepancies in penalties for the same offenses between the pāyantikas and the “Eight Rules” suggest that the “Eight Rules” were appended later.
Attitudes to Euthanasia in the Vinaya and Commentary
Damien Keown
Goldsmiths College, University of London
The prohibition on taking human life is one of the cornerstones of Buddhist ethics, but there is often confusion about the interpretation of this prohibition in different contexts. In his commentary on the third pārājika in the Samantapāsādikā, Buddhaghosa sets out to clarify the legal provisions of the monastic precept against taking life. The root text and his comments on it are relevant to the contemporary debate on euthanasia, and this paper considers what light Buddhist jurisprudence can shed on this moral dilemma.
Damming the Dhamma: Problems with Bhikkhunīs in the Pali Vinaya
Kate Blackstone
University of Manitoba
Why should one of the contesting voices insist on the decline of saddhamma? How can women’s subordination help preserve the dhamma? This paper poses a possible answer. The Vinaya represents a very formalized statement of both the individual and communal dimensions of monastic life. It prescribes the activities, appearance, decorum, and lifestyle of individual bhikkhus and bhikkhunīs. It also specifies the procedures and protocol for the administration of the sangha. In so doing, the Vinaya authorizes and delimits the mandate of the monastic community over its members and in relation to its supporting community. In the terms of my analysis, it articulates a model of self-identity and a set of guidelines for the expression of that identity.
Vinaya Principles for Assigning Degrees of Culpability
Peter Harvey
University of Sunderland
The Buddhist literature that goes into most explicit detail on factors affecting degree of culpability in wrong actions is the Vinaya. While this includes material that goes beyond the scope of ethics per se, it contains much of relevance to ethics. Focusing on overt physical and verbal actions, it also has much to say on states of mind which affect the moral assessment of actions: knowledge, perception, doubt, intention, carelessness, remorse, etc. These factors interact in sometimes complex and subtle ways, and their relevance varies according to the type of action being assessed, rather than being applied in an indiscriminate blanket fashion. The sources used for the article are primarily the Pāli Vinaya and its commentary, with some reference to the Milindapañha, Kathvātthu, and Abhidharma-kośa-bhāṣya when they discuss Vinaya-related matters.
Buddhist Case Law on Theft: the Vinītavatthu on the Second Pārājika
Andrew Huxley
University of London Law Department
School of Oriental and African Studies
Of the twenty-eight pages of the vinayapāli devoted to theft, fifteen contain case law. They are the object of this study. The vinayapāli (which was collated and reduced to writing in the first century BCE) consists of oral memorized texts and jottings of various kinds from the prior Buddhist centuries, the core of which must have been fixed by the reign of King Aśoka (circa 273-232 BCE) The four most dramatic offences known to the vinayapāli are the pārājika, the conditions of defeat, dealt with in the first of its six volumes. The second pārājika, identified by a Pāli abstract noun that means taking things which have not properly been offered to you, is what we call theft.
Altruism and Reality: Studies in the Philosophy of the Bodhicaryāvatāra. By Paul Williams. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1998, ISBN 0700710310, cloth, £40.00, $48.00.
The Early Buddhist Tradition and Ecological Ethics
Lambert Schmithausen
University of Hamburg
This paper is concerned with ecological ethics, and examines the contemporary ecological crisis from the perspective of early Buddhism.
Through an examination of early texts (mainly the Pāli Canon) it asks to what extent ecological ethics has formed part of the teachings of Buddhism and whether contemporary ecological concerns can be integrated into this tradition. A range of divergent opinions held by modern authors are critically reviewed in the first section, followed in section two by a discussion of nature in the light of the Buddhist evaluation of existence. Section three considers the adequacy of the doctrine of Origination in Dependence as a basis for ecological thics, and section four discusses early Buddhist spirituality and ethics in the context of ecological concerns. Section five is devoted to evaluations of nature versus civilization and section six discusses the status of animals. The conclusion is that early Buddhism was impressed not so much by the beauty of nature as by its sombre aspects. It seeks not to transform or subjugate nature but to transcend it spiritually through detachment. However, although Buddhism does not romanticize nature it does not mean it is altogether impossible to establish an ecological ethics on the basis of the early tradition.
Teleologized “Virtue” or Mere Religious “Character”? A Critique of Buddhist Ethics From the Shin Buddhist Point of View
Stephen J. Lewis and Galen Amstutz
When comparative ethicists consider the question of ethics in Buddhism, they are tempted to implicate conceptions of teleology and virtue from Western philosophy. Such implications cannot apply to Mahāyāna exemplified in the Japanese Shin tradition. Shin is characterized not only by emptiness philosophy but also by its emphasis on spontaneous (tariki) enlightenment; both of these features undercut the notion that Buddhism can ultimately concern an intentional goal. But a teleological or virtue-oriented sensibility is not needed for the purposes of ordinary life. On the contrary, Shin social history has demonstrated that a powerful tradition of practical life based on Buddhist teaching can exist perfectly well without it. Such wisdom manifests itself both socially and at the individual level as a kind of character, if not ethics in the usual sense.
The General and the Particular in Theravāda Ethics: A Response to Charles Hallisey
Kevin Schilbrack
Wesleyan College
In the most recent issue of JBE (volume 3, 1996), Charles Hallisey calls into question what he sees as a pernicious assumption at work in the study of Theravāda ethics. The problem, according to Hallisey, is that many scholars who study Theravāda ethics assume that the Theravāda tradition has only a single moral theory, and they therefore try to reduce the plurality of the tradition to fit their single-theory view. Hallisey recommends that scholars see the Theravāda ethical tradition as an instance of ethical particularism, a position he describes both as pluralistically including many theories and as having no theory at all. For this reason, Hallisey recommends that scholars abandon the abstract search for the nature of Buddhist ethics in general. After clarifying Hallisey’s recommendation, I argue that it is wrong. Although the Theravāda tradition, like any religious tradition, includes more than one ethical theory, there is no good reason not to inquire into its general or formal features. With Russell Sizemore, I recommend an inclusive understanding of comparative religious ethics that sees a place for both for the historical study of the particular and the philosophical study of the general.
As the discourse in the West comes to focus more upon social issues, any form of understanding that is to remain alive must be able to respond to such concerns. If Western Buddhism is to survive it must illustrate how it can address these issues. I will argue that Abe recognizes that this has been an area in which Buddhism has been traditionally deficient, but that by reinterpreting several key Buddhist concepts Abe offers a new paradigm of Buddhism that does allow for the possibility of social critique while still retaining the essential insights of traditional Zen Buddhism. In the first section of the paper I will develop the specific nature of the criticisms in relation to the traditional understanding of Buddhist doctrine. In the second section I will show how Abe’s transvaluation of Zen Buddhism in light of his dialogical hermeneutic takes account of these criticisms and develops the resources within Zen thought to deal with them.
The Dharma Has Come West: A Survey of Recent Studies and Sources
Martin Baumann
University of Hannover
This survey article will point out and discuss existing studies and sources that provide historical information of Buddhist developments in Western, industrialized countries. The aspect of Buddhist influences on European philosophy and psychology as well as results of East-West interaction cannot, unfortunately, be dealt with here. The survey will begin by mentioning the few general overviews, followed by a stock-taking of the respective regional studies.
Scholars identify the Theravāda form of Buddhism that grew in Sri Lanka as Sinhala Buddhism. The adjective Sinhala is both a reference to an ethnic group—Sinhala people, the majority population in Sri Lanka—and to an Indo-European language—Sinhala, spoken by the Sinhala public. Thus, Sinhala Buddhism has two meanings—Buddhism in the Sinhala language and Buddhism practiced by the Sinhala people.
Hōjōki: Visions of a Torn World by Kamo-no-Chōmei. Translated By Yasuhiko Moriguchi and David Jenkins, with illustrations by Michael Hofmann. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 1996, 93 pages, ISBN 1-8806-5622-1 (paperback), $9.95.
Buddhism in Taiwan: Religion and the State, 1660-1990. By Charles Brewer Jones. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999, xvii + 259 pages, ISBN 0-8248-2061-4, US $46.00.
The Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness and Nirvāṇa in Early Buddhism. By Peter Harvey. London: Curzon Press, 1995, viii, 293 pages, 0-7007-0337-3 (paperback), £14.99; ISBN 0-7007-0338-1 (cloth).
Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism Under Colonialism. Edited by Donald. S. Lopez, Jr. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1995, 298 pages, ISBN 0-2264-9309-1 (paperback), $16.95.
Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism. By Miranda Shaw. Princeton University Press, 1994, xv, 291 pages, ISBN 0-691-01090-0, $14.95 (paperback).
Being Good: Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life. By Master Hsing Yun; translated by Tom Graham. New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1999, 176 pages, ISBN 0-8348-0458-1, US $14.95.
Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America. By Charles S. Prebish. University of California Press, 1999, xi + 334 pages, ISBN: 0-520-21696-2 (cloth), 0-520-21697-0 (paper), US $45.00 (cloth), $18.95 (paper).
Bouddhisme et Occident: La diffusion du bouddhisme tibétain en France. By Lionel Obadia. Paris: Éditions L’Harmattan (Collection Religion & Sciences Humaines), 1999, 272 pages, ISBN 2-7384-7570-1.
Die Vorschriften für die Buddhistische Nonnengemeinde im Vinaya-Piṭaka der Theravādin. By Ute Hüsken. (Monographien zur Indischen Archäologie, Kunst und Philologie. Edited By Marianne Yaldiz, Vol. 11.) Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1997, 519 pages, ISBN 2-496-02632-4, DM 148.00.
Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities: Utopias of the Pali imaginaire. By Steven Collins. Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions, No. 12. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, xxiv + 684 pages, ISBN 0-521-57054-9, (cloth), US$85.00.
Emptiness in the Mind-Only School of Buddhism: Dynamic Responses to Dzong-ka-ba’s The Essence of Eloquence: I. By Jeffrey Hopkins. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, xiv + 528 pages, ISBN: 0-520-21119-7 (cloth), US$45.00.
Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography. By Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998, 227 pages plus 22 color plates and 104 black-and-white illustrations, ISBN: 0-8248-2000-2, US $52.00 (cloth), ISBN: 0-8248-2081-9, US $29.25 (paper).
Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions. Edited by Daniel L. Smith-Christopher. Boston: Boston Research Center for the 21st Century, 1998, 177 pages, ISBN 1-887917-02-0 (paper), US $10.00.
Absence of the Buddha Image in Early Buddhist Art: Towards its Significance in Comparative Religion. By Kanoko Tanaka. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld (P) Ltd, 1998 [Emerging Perceptions in Buddhist Studies, No. 8], 148 pages, plus illustrations, ISBN 8124600902, US $66.70.
Interpreting Amida: History and Orientalism in the Study of Pure Land Buddhism. By Galen Amstutz (SUNY Series in Buddhist Studies). Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997, 248 pages, ISBN: 0791433099, US $65.00 (hardcover); ISBN 0791433102, US $21.95 (paperback).
The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947. By Tsering Shakya. London: Pimlico Original, 1999, xxi + 571 pages, ISBN: 0-71266-533-1, £12.50 (paper).
American Buddhism. Methods and Findings in Recent Scholarship. Edited By Duncan Ryuken Williams and Christopher S. Queen. Richmond: Curzon Press, 1999, xxxvii + 329 pages pages, ISBN 0-7007-1081-7, £40,00 (cloth).
Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. By Donald Lopez, Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998, Hardcover 272 pages, ISBN 0226493105, US $25.00; Paperback 284 pages, ISBN 0226493113, US $14.00.
The Faces of Buddhism in America. Edited By Charles S. Prebish and Kenneth K. Tanaka. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, viii + 370 pages, ISBN 0-520-21301-7, US $50 (cloth), $22 (paper).
Compassion and Benevolence: A Comparative Study of Early Buddhist and Classical Confucian Ethics. By Ok-Sun An. Asian Thought and Culture, vol. 31, General Editor Sandra Wawrytko. New York: Peter Lang, 1998, ISBN 0-8204-3801-4, £26.
The Snow Lion and the Dragon: Tibet, China and the Dalai Lama. By Melvyn C. Goldstein. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997, xiii + 152 pages, : 0-520-21254-1, US$19.95.
Land of No Buddha: Reflections of a Sceptical Buddhist. By Richard P. Hayes. Birmingham: Windhorse Publications, 1998, ix + 276 pages, ISBN 1-899579-12-5.
Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority Identities in Sri Lanka. Edited By Tessa J. Bartholomeusz and Chandra R. de Silva. New York: State University of New York Press, 1998, 320 pages, ISBN 0-7914-3834-1, US $19.95.
Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity. Edited By Melvyn C. Goldstein and Matthew T. Kapstein. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, 235 pages, paperback ISBN: 0520211316, US $15.95, cloth ISBN: 0520211308, US$40.00.
A Brief History of Buddhist Studies in Europe and America. By J. W. de Jong. Tokyo: Koosei Publishing Company, 1997, 184 pages, ISBN: 4333017629, US $19.95.
Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therigatha. By Kathryn R. Blackstone, Curzon Critical Studies in Buddhism, The Curzon Press, 1998, xiii + 185 pages, ISBN: 0-7007-0962-2.
Tibetan Lives. Three Himalayan Autobiographies. Edited By Peter Richardus. Richmond: Curzon Press, 1998, xxviii + 223 pages, ISBN 0-7007-1023-X (cloth), UK £40.00.
In the Presence of My Enemies. Memoirs of Tibetan Nobleman Tsipon Shuguba. By Sumner Carnahan & Lama Kunga Rinpoche. Santa Fe: Clear Light Press, 1995, xvii + 238 pages, ISBN 0-9406-6662-6 (paper), US $14.95.
The Zen Poetry Of Dōgen: Verses from the Mountain of Eternal Peace. By Steven Heine. Boston: Charles E. Tuttle Co. Inc., 1997, viii + 183 pages, ISBN: 0-8048-3107-6, US $14.95.
Zen in Medieval Vietnam: A Study and Translation of the Thien Uyen Tap Anh. By Cuong Tu Nguyen. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997, 488 pages, ISBN 0-8248-1948-9, US$55.00.
Toward An Environmental Ethic in Southeast Asia. Edited by Peter Gyallay-Pap and Ruth Bottomley. Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia: The Buddhist Institute, 1998, 183 pages, US$20.00.
The Buddhist Doctrine of Momentariness: A Survey of the Origins and Early Phase of This Doctrine Up to Vasubandhu, Alt- und Neu-Indische Studien Nr. 47. By Alexander von Rospatt. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1995, 285 pages, ISBN 3-515-06528-8.
Geistige Heimat im Buddhismus aus Tibet: Eine empirische Studie am Beispiel der Kagyuepas in Deutschland. By Eva Sabine Saalfrank. Ulm: Fabri Verlag, 1997, viii + 529 + xxx pages, ISBN 3-931997-05-7, DM/SFr 34.
Big Sky Mind: Buddhism and the Beat Generation. Edited by Carole Tonkinson, with Introduction by Stephen Prothero. New York: Riverhead Books, 1995, 387 pages, ISBN: 1-5732-2501-0, US $15.00.
A History of Tibetan Painting: The Great Tibetan Painters and Their Traditions,Beiträge zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens Nr. 15. By David Jackson. Wein: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996, 432 pages, includes 70 color plates, 210 line drawings, and a black and white fold-out map, ISBN 3-7001-2224-1, US $140.00.
Popular Buddhism in Japan: Shin Buddhist Religion and Culture. By Esben Andreasen. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998, 199 pages, ISBN: 0-8248-2027-4 (cloth), US$39.00, ISBN: 0-8248-2028-2 (paperback), US$22.95.
Tibetan Art: Towards a Definition of Style. Edited By Jane Casey Singer and Philip Denwood. London: Laurence King, 1997, 319 pages, ISBN: 1-8566-9099-7, £65 (cloth).
Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds. By Mary Evelyn Tucker and Duncan Williams. Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, 1997, xlii + 467 pages, ISBN: 0-945454-13-9 (cloth, US$29.95), ISBN: 0-945454-14-7 (paper, US$19.95).
Hōnens Buddhismus des Reinen Landes: Reform, Reformation oder Häresie?. By Christoph Kleine. Bern, Berlin, et al.: Peter Lang, 1996, xiii + 427 pages pages, ISBN 3-631-49852-7, DM 108.
Forest Recollections: Wandering Monks in Twentieth-Century Thailand. By Kamala Tiyavanich. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997, xxi + 410 pages, ISBN 0-8248-1781-8, US$29.95.
Buddhism and Human Rights. Edited By Damien V. Keown, Charles S. Prebish, and Wayne R. Husted. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1998, xxi + 239 pages pages, ISBN: 0-7007-0954-1, US $40.00.
Lack and Transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism. By David Loy. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press International, 1996, 248 pages, ASIN 0391038605, US $49.95.
Tibetan Culture in the Diaspora, Papers Presented at a Panel of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995. Edited By Frank J. Korom. Vienna: Verlag derÖsterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997, 119 pages, ISBN 3-7001-2659-X, $56.80.
Consecration of Images and Stūpas in Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. By Yael Bentor. Brill’s Indological Library Vol. 11. Edited By Johannes Bronkhorst. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996, xxii + 415 pages, ISBN 90-04-10541-7.
Buddhism in America: Proceedings of the First Buddhism in America Conference. Compiled By Al Rapaport. Edited By Brian D. Hotchkiss. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc., 1998, xv + 568 pages, ISBN 0-8048-3152-1, $29.95.
Sisters in Solitude: Two Traditions of Buddhist Monastic Ethics for Women. By Karma Lekshe Tsomo. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1996, xii + 198 pages, ISBN 0-7914-3089-8 (Cloth). $59.50, 0-7914-3090-1 (Paper), $19.95.
The Heart of Being: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen Buddhism. By John Daido Loori. Boston: Charles E.Tuttle, 1996, 267 pages, ISBN0-8048-3078-9, $16.95.
Buddhism in Bath: Adaptation and Authority. By Helen Waterhouse. Leeds: Monograph Series, Community Religions Project, University of Leeds, 1997, 251 pages, ISBN 1-871363-05, £9.
Relics, Ritual and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Theravada Tradition. By Kevin Trainor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xiv + 223 pages, ISBN 0-521-5820-6, $60.00.
The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions. By Andrew Rawlinson. Chicago and La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1997, 650 pages, ISBN 0-8126-9310-8.
Bauddhavidyāsudhkaraḥ. Studies in Honour of Heinz Bechert on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. Edited By P.Kieffer-Puelz & J.U.Hartmann. Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 1997 (Indica et Tibetica 30), 758 pages, ISBN 3-923776-30-6, DM 128.
The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography. By John Kieschnick. Honolulu: University of Hawaii / Kuroda Institute (Studies in East Asian Buddhism 10), 1997, vii + 218 pages, ISBN 0-8248-1841-5, $27.00.
Pali Buddhism (Curzon Studies in Asian Philosophy). Edited By Frank J. Hoffman and Deegalle Mahinda. Richmond, England: Curzon Press, 1996, 253 pages, ISBN 0-7007-0359-4, US $42.00.
The Religious World of Kīrti Srī: Buddhism, Art, and Politics in Late Medieval Sri Lanka. By John Clifford Holt. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, x + 147 pages, ISBN 0-19-510757-8, $26.95.
Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia. Edited by Christopher S. Queen and Sallie B. King. New York: State University of New York, 1996, xii + 446 pages, ISBN 0-7914-2844-3, $24.95.
The Authority of Experience: Essays on Buddhism and Psychology. Edited By John Pickering. London: Curzon Press, 1997, 250 pages, ISBN: 0700704558, clothbound ISBN: 0700704507, US $22.95, clothbound US $42.00.
Constructing Tibetan Culture: Contemporary Perspectives. Edited By Frank J. Korom. St-Hyacinthe (Quebec): World Heritage Press, 1997, 230 pages, ISBN 1-896064-12-4, US $19.95.
Psychotherapy and Buddhism: Toward an Integration. By Jeffrey B. Rubin. New York and London: Plenum Press, 1996, xi + 207 pages, ISBN:0-306-45441-6, US$39.50.
Healing Deconstruction: Postmodern Thought in Buddhism and Christianity. Edited by David Loy. American Academy of Religion, Reflection and Theory in the Study of Religion, no. 3. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998, 120 pages, ISBN: 0-7885-0122-4, US $23.95.
On Deconstructing Life-Worlds: Buddhism, Christianity, Culture. By Robert Magliola. American Academy of Religion, Cultural Criticism, no. 3. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997. Pp. xxii + 202. ISBN: 0-7885-0296-4, US $19.95.
The Accidental Buddhist: Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still. By Dinty W. Moore. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1997, 208 pages, ISBN 1565121422, US $19.95.
Buddhism Through American Women’s Eyes. Edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion, 1995, 179 pages, ISBN 1-55939-047-6, US $12.95, UK £8.95.
Liberating Intimacy: Enlightenment and Social Virtuosity in Ch’an Buddhism. By Peter D. Hershock. Albany: SUNY Press, 1996, xv + 236 pages, ISBN 0-79142-982-2, $62.50 (cloth), $20.95 (paper).
Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening. By Stephen Batchelor. New York: Riverhead Books, 1997, xii + 127 pages, ISBN 1-57322-058-2, US $21.95.
The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott. By Stephen Prothero. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1996, 242 pages, ISBN 0-253-33014-9 (cloth), $35.00.
Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Living a Life That Matters. By Bernard Glassman and Rick Fields. New York: Bell Tower, 1996, ix, 171 pages, ISBN 0-517-70377-7 (cloth), $20.00.
Traveler in Space: In Search of Female Identity in Tibetan Buddhism. By June Campbell. New York: George Braziller Incorporated, 1996, x, 225 pages, ISBN 0-485-11494-1 (cloth), $27.50.
Virtuosity, Charisma, and the Social Order: A Comparative Sociological Study of Monasticism in Theravāda Buddhism and Medieval Catholicism. By Ilana Freidrich Silber. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, x + 250 pages, ISBN 0-521-41397-4, $54.95.
Identity and Experience. The Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism. By Sue Hamilton. London: Luzac Oriental, 1996, xxxi, 218 pages, ISBN 1-898942-10-2, £40.
The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha. A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Translated from the Pāli. Original translation by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli. Translation edited and revised by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995, 1412 pages, ISBN 0-8617-1072-X (cloth), $75.00.
