Four hundred million people call themselves Buddhists today. Yet most
Westerners know little about this powerful, Eastern-spawned faith. How
did it begin? What do its adherents believe? Why are so many Westerners
drawn to it?
Essential Buddhism responds to these questions and many more, offering
an accessible, global perspective on the religion's past, present, and
future. It identifies how the principal concepts and practices
originated and evolved through diverse cultural adaptations into three
basic formats:
* Theraveda (including Vipassana, brought from Vietnam in the 1960s
and including such practitioners as Jack Kornfield and Jon Kapat-Zinn)
* Mahayana (including Zen Buddhism, originally brought to America
by Japanese teachers after World War II and popularized by Jack Kerouac
and Thomas Merton)
* Vajrayana (including Tibetan Buddhism, from the teachers who fled
the Chinese takeover of Tibet in the 1950s as well as the Dalai Lama,
and embraced by Allen Ginsberg, Richard Gere, and countless others)
Essential Buddhism is the single best resource for the novice and the
expert alike, exploring the depths of Buddhism's popularity and
illuminating its tenets and sensible approach to living. Written in the
lucid prose of a longtime professional storyteller, and full of Buddhist
tales, scriptural quotes, ancient stories, and contemporary insights,
Essential Buddhism is the first complete guide to the faith and the
phenomenon.
