Sacred Texts: Taoism

Taoism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Stanford Encyclopedia entry on Taoist philosophy, its key texts, and its development from Laozi and Zhuangzi to religious Taoism.

Zen Buddhism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry covering the philosophy, history, and key concepts of Japanese Zen Buddhism.

Meister Eckhart — Wisdom of the Masters

Samaneri Jayasāra

Audio teachings and readings from Meister Eckhart, curated by Samaneri Jayasāra on the Wisdom of the Masters channel.

Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction

Joseph Dan

A concise and authoritative introduction to the history, major ideas, and key figures of the Kabbalistic tradition of Jewish mysticism.

After Buddhism

Stephen Batchelor

Some twenty-five centuries after the Buddha started teaching, his message continues to inspire people across the globe, including those living in predominantly secular societies. What does it mean to adapt religious practices to secular contexts? Stephen Batchelor, an internationally known author and teacher, is committed to a secularized version of the Buddha’s teachings. The time has come, he feels, to articulate a coherent ethical, contemplative, and philosophical vision of Buddhism for our age. After Buddhism, the culmination of four decades of study and practice in the Tibetan, Zen, and Theravada traditions, is his attempt to set the record straight about who the Buddha was and what he was trying to teach. Combining critical readings of the earliest canonical texts with narrative accounts of five members of the Buddha’s inner circle, Batchelor depicts the Buddha as a pragmatic ethicist rather than a dogmatic metaphysician. He envisions Buddhism as a constantly evolving culture of awakening whose long survival is due to its capacity to reinvent itself and interact creatively with each society it encounters. This original and provocative book presents a new framework for understanding the remarkable spread of Buddhism in today’s globalized world. It also reminds us of what was so startling about the Buddha’s vision of human flourishing.