Sangharakshita's A Survey of Buddhism has inspired readers for decades. The great Buddhist teacher and writer Lama Anagarika Govinda wrote, 'It would be difficult to find a single book in which the history and development of Buddhist thought has been described as vividly and clearly as in this survey.'
This first chapter illuminates the doctrines and methods common to all schools and draws out the transcendental unity of Buddhism. Written for practitioners rather than scholars, Sangharakshita covers the nature of the Buddha and Enlightenment, and outlines core doctrines of the Dharma. He argues for the priority of the wise and altruistic Bodhisattva as a goal of Buddhist practice.
Introduction to the Classic Sangharakshita Series v
Sources and Publication History viii
Preface to the Sixth Edition xi
Chapter 1: The Buddha and Buddhism 3
1 The Approach to Buddhism 3
2 The Study of the Dharma:
Methods and Materials 12
3 History Versus Tradition
i The Universal Context of Buddhism 26
4 History Versus Tradition
ii The Cosmological Perspective 35
5 The Lineage of the Enlightened One 44
6 Gautama the Buddha:
His Greatness and Role 53
7 The Historical Uniqueness of the Dharma 62
8 Ineffable Nirvana 73
9 The Charge of Nihilism 85
10 The Positive Aspects of Nirvana 97
11 The Essence of Enlightenment 108
12 The True Nature of All Dharmas 121
13 Conditioned Co-Production:
The Twelve Links 132
14 Samsara and Nirvana 145
15 The Four Aryan Truths 155
16 The Threefold Way - The Middle Path -
Morality 178
17 Meditation 197
18 Wisdom and the Arhant Ideal 224
19 The Foundations of Buddhism:
Early Schools 244
Notes and References 256
Index 277
Sangharakshita (1925-2018) was a Buddhist teacher who spent twenty years in India before returning to the United Kingdom and founding the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community (originally the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order). He was an important translator of Buddhism into western culture in the latter half of the 20th century.
Born in London as Dennis Lingwood, he became a Buddhist monk in India in 1949. He studied with Buddhist teachers from Theravada and Tibetan traditions, and spent several months each year teaching the dalit Buddhist followers of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. In 1964 he returned to the UK and established the FWBO (now Triratna) in 1967, drawing on the riches of the entire Buddhist universe, as well as helpful aspects of Western cultural traditions.
Sangharakshita was a prolific author, from his first major work A Survey of Buddhism (1957), to edited lectures and seminars, to a series of memoirs of his time in India and the West. His Complete Works have now been published in 27 volumes by Windhorse Publications. The Triratna Buddhist Order and Community is now a thriving worldwide movement, in which his teachings continue to inspire practitioners new and old.
For more, go to www.sangharakshita.org.
