This first volume of Sangharakshita’s Complete Works includes two foundational texts that have inspired readers for decades in their understanding and practice of Buddhism: A Survey of Buddhism and The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. Of the first, 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.’ The first chapter illuminates the doctrines and methods common to all schools and draws out the transcendental unity of Buddhism. Later chapters discuss the teachings and practices of the different schools. The concluding chapter is dedicated to the bodhisattva ideal, ‘the perfectly ripened fruit of the whole vast tree of Buddhism’. Sangharakshita’s beautiful prose, shot through with poetry, combines with an exceptional clarity of thought to make the Survey one of the most inspiring elucidations of the Dharma.
The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path: Vision and Transformation looks at one of the best known formulations of the Buddha’s teaching. We are led step by step from the mundane world to the transcendental, from wrong view to right view, and on to Perfect Vision. A practical perspective shows how we can apply the Buddha’s teachings to all aspects of our lives, including the food we eat, our relationships and our work. Sangharakshita goes on to make clear the real meaning of mindfulness and meditation, thus giving the reader both a vision of the whole path and guidance in setting out upon it.
Foreword by Subhuti
Editor’s Note
A Survey of Buddhism
Preface to the Sixth Edition
Chapter 1 The Buddha and Buddhism
1 The Approach to Buddhism
2 The Study of the Dharma: Methods and Materials
3 History Versus Tradition
(i) The Universal Context of Buddhism
4 History Versus Tradition
(ii) The Cosmological Perspective
5 The Lineage of the Enlightened One
6 Gautama the Buddha: His Greatness and Role
7 The Historical Uniqueness of the Dharma
8 Ineffable Nirvāṇa
9 The Charge of Nihilism
10 The Positive Aspects of Nirvāṇa
11 The Essence of Enlightenment
12 The True Nature of All Dharmas
13 Conditioned Co-Production: The Twelve Links
14 Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa
15 The Four Āryan Truths
16 The Threefold Way – The Middle Path – Morality
17 Meditation
18 Wisdom and the Arhant Ideal
19 The Foundations of Buddhism: Early Schools
Chapter 2
Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna
1 Is Buddhism One Or Many?
2 The Transcendental Unity of Buddhism:
The Dharma As Means
3 The Three Vehicles
4 Factors in the Emergence of the Mahāyāna
5 What Is Mahāyāna Buddhism?
6 The Trikāya Doctrine
7 The Two Truths: The Egolessness of All Dharmas
8 The Mahāyāna Sangha
Chapter 3
The Mahāyāna Schools
1 The Complexity of the Mahāyāna
2 The Five Spiritual Faculties
3 The Schematization of the Schools
4 The Scriptures of Perfect Wisdom
5 The New Wisdom School
6 The Scriptures of Devotional Buddhism
7 The Pure Land School
8 The Scriptures of Buddhist Idealism
9 The Yogācāra School
10 Transition to the Tantra
11 Tantric Texts, Teachers, and Schools
12 Some Special Features of the Tantra
13 Integral Buddhism
Chapter 4
The Bodhisattva Ideal
1 The Unifying Factor
2 The Bodhisattva Versus the Arhant
3 The Path of the Bodhisattva:
Preliminary Devotional Practices
4 The Thought of Enlightenment
5 The Six Perfections
6 The Ten Perfections and the Ten Stages
Select Bibliography
The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path
Prefatory Note
1 Perfect Vision: The Nature of Existence
2 Perfect Emotion: Reason and Emotion in the Spiritual Life
3 Perfect Speech: The Ideal of Human Communication
4 Perfect Action: The Principles of Ethics
5 Perfect Livelihood: The Ideal Society
6 Perfect Effort: The Conscious Evolution of Man
7 Perfect Awareness: The Levels of Awareness
8 Perfect Samādhi: The Higher Consciousness
Notes
Index
