Buddhism For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
Buddhism For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2011932088
ISBN: 978-1-118-02379-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-12067-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-12068-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-12069-9 (ebk)
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About the Authors
Jonathan Landaw was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1944 and attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. While there, he took a course in Asian religions taught by one of the leading authorities on Chinese thought, Professor Wing-tsit Chan (1901–1994). This course provided Jon with his first formal exposure to the teachings of the East and sparked his lifelong interest in Buddhism. This interest remained dormant while Jon attended graduate school in English literature at the University of California in Berkeley and then served in the Peace Corps, teaching the English language in Iran for three years. Not long after his stint in the Peace Corps, he was living overseas again, this time in northern India and Nepal, where he stayed throughout most of the 1970s. There he first encountered and was inspired by the living tradition of Buddhism as preserved by the refugee community that had recently fled from Chinese oppression in Tibet. By 1972, Jon was studying Buddhism full time and working as English editor of the texts being produced by the Translation Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India. Although he received training in other traditions of Buddhism during this time, the majority of his study and practice has been under the guidance of Tibetan lamas, particularly Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey (1925–1995), Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935–1984), and Lama Zopa Rinpoche (born in 1946). In 1977, Jon returned to the West, though he’s managed to make periodic visits to India and Nepal since then. While living in England, the Netherlands, and now in the United States, he has continued his studies and his work editing Buddhist books for publication. He has also authored books of his own, including Prince Siddhartha, the story of the Buddha’s life retold for children, and Images of Enlightenment, an introduction to the sacred art of Tibet. In addition, he’s been leading meditation courses at Buddhist centers worldwide for more than 25 years. He now resides in Capitola, California, with his wife and three children.
Stephan Bodian began practicing Zen meditation in 1969 and was ordained a monk in 1974 after studying Buddhism and other Asian religions at Columbia University. He had the extraordinary good fortune to train under the guidance of several Zen masters, including Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Kobun Chino Roshi, and Taizan Maezumi Roshi. In 1982, after a period as head monk and director of training at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, he left the monastic life to study psychology. Shortly thereafter, he married and helped raise a family.
During this period, he continued his spiritual practice by studying with several Tibetan teachers, including Sogyal Rinpoche and Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. In 1988, he met his guru, Jean Klein, a master of Advaita Vedanta and Kashmiri yoga, with whom he spent ten years inquiring into the nature of truth. Eventually, Stephan completed his Zen training and received dharma transmission (authorization to teach) from his teacher, Adyashanti, in a lineage dating back to the historical Buddha.
In addition to authoring several books, including Meditation For Dummies, and numerous magazine articles, Stephan was editor-in-chief of the magazine Yoga Journal for ten years. Currently, he practices as a licensed psychotherapist, personal coach, writing consultant, and spiritual counselor, while offering intensives and retreats dedicated to spiritual awakening. You can reach him at www.meditationsource.com.
Gudrun Bühnemann is Professor and Chair of the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is also affiliated to the university’s Religious Studies Program.
Gudrun was born in Germany. After completing studies at the universities of Bonn and Münster in Germany, she earned her Ph.D. in Buddhist and Classical Indian Studies from the University of Vienna in Austria in 1980. From 1980 to 1989, she was affiliated as a research fellow to the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and Pune University, India. Her research was supported by grants from the German Academic Exchange Service, the German Research Council, and the Indian Council of Cultural Research. From 1989 to 1991 and 1991 to 1992, she was a research scholar at, respectively, Nagoya and Kyoto Universities in Japan, during which time she was supported by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai. In 1992, she joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and has since been teaching the Sanskrit language and its literature, along with courses on the religions of South Asia. She has authored and edited more than 15 scholarly books and numerous articles. Her current work centers on Tantric iconography and ritual, research that takes her every summer to Nepal or India. Her website is http://lca.wisc.edu/~gbuhnema/.
The first edition of this book was published in 2003 under the co-authorship of Jonathan Landaw and Stephan Bodian. At the request of Wiley Publishing, Gudrun Bühnemann updated this edition.
Dedication
To my mother, Ida M. Landaw, for her boundless love and support. And to the memory of my father, Louis Landaw, and of my beloved spiritual friend, Lama Thubten Yeshe.
— Jon Landaw
To my teachers, with boundless gratitude, and to the awakening of all beings everywhere.
— Stephan Bodian
Authors’ Acknowledgments
Although it would be impossible for me to name everyone who had a hand in this work, several people’s contributions must be acknowledged. First, I have to thank my coauthor, Stephan Bodian, for his expertise and sound judgment in giving this book a balance and breadth of view it never would have had without him.
In addition, I’d like to express my appreciation to T. Yeshe, former Buddhist nun and, for many years, a teacher associated with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition; Katherine Thanas, abbot of the Santa Cruz Zen Center; and Bob Stahl, former Theravada monk and current mindfulness-based stress reduction teacher at El Camino Hospital and the Santa Cruz Medical Clinic, for reading and offering welcome suggestions to the manuscript; and to Ven. Ajahn Amaro and Richard Kollmar for their timely contributions.
I also wish to express my gratitude to the following for their invaluable aid in providing me with a computer and the assistance to use it properly: Susan Marfield, Victoria Clark, Yorgos Hadzis, Sharon Gross, Dennis Wilson, and Elizabeth Hull.
I would also like to mention Dr. Kevin Zhu and his assistants at the Five Branches Institute in Santa Cruz and my dear friend Karuna Cayton for helping me through some particularly rough patches; and George and Betsy Cameron, whose generosity is a constant source of amazement to me. And to all those teachers who have guided me along the spiritual path, I can only offer this present work in the hope that it reflects a small portion of the insight and compassion they have always demonstrated. And lastly, to Truus Philipsen and our children, Lisa, Anna, and Kevin: thank you for being in my life.
— Jon Landaw
Any grasp of Buddhist wisdom I bring to this book can be attributed to the grace of my beloved teachers and the support of my loving friends and colleagues. In particular, I would like to thank my first Zen teacher, Kobun Chino Otogawa, who introduced me to the depths of dharma and acted as spiritual mentor and elder brother during my formative years as a practitioner; my guru, Jean Klein, who embodied the teachings of the great Zen masters and kindled the first awakening; and Adyashanti, dharma brother and heart friend, in whose presence the truth finally burst into flame.
On a day-to-day level, my dear friends have been a constant source of encouragement, especially my Thursday group; old friends Katie Darling, Barbara Green, John Welwood, and Roy Wiskar; and, above all, my wife, Lis, without whose constant love and support at every level this book would never have come into being. My heartfelt thanks to you all!
I would also like to thank Rev. David Matsumoto, Ven. Ajahn Amaro, and Dechen Bartso for taking the time to answer my detailed questions about Buddhist practice.
— Stephan Bodian
I am grateful to my colleague André Wink for initiating the process that eventually led — through his recommending my name to the publisher — to my becoming involved in preparing the second edition of Buddhism For Dummies. I would like to thank Tracy Boggier of Wiley Publishing and my project editor, Linda Brandon, for their help and support. My special thanks go to the technical editor, William Chu, for all the time, effort, and valuable suggestions, as well as to my copy editor, Krista Hansing.
As I revised the book for publication, numerous colleagues and friends provided information and made useful suggestions. Many thanks go to Richard J. Davidson, Susan Jensen, Amita Schmidt, Carola Roloff, the Sangha of Abhayagiri Monastery, Wendy Lewis, Shosan Victoria Austin, and Philip Pierce.
Special thanks are extended to the following individuals for providing photographs for this book and/or for granting permission to reproduce them: John C. Huntington, Susan Huntington, and Aimee Phillips of the Huntington Archive, The Ohio State University; Tatsuhiko Yokoo; Martin Stabler; Jeff Miller; Susan Jensen; Amita Schmidt; Maria Monroe; Jay Carroll; Terri Saul, Terry Barber, Richard Friday, and the Parallax Press; Liza Matthews and Shambhala Sun; Dolma Tsering, Ven. Lobsang Dechen, and the Tibetan Nuns Project; Tan Cunda, Ajahn Gunavuddho, and the Sangha of Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery; Sudanto Bhikkhu and the Sangha of the Pacific Hermitage; Janejira Sutanonpaiboon; Mel Charbonneau and Krakora Studios; and Wendy Lewis, Tanya Takacs, Shundo David Haye, and the San Francisco Zen Center.
— Gudrun Bühnemann
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
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