Sangharakshita Books

Profoundly knowledgeable and articulate, and equally at home with science, philosophy, myth, art, and poetry, Urgyen Sangharakshita uses every inner avenue to communicate the timeless Dharma to the Western mind. Engaging both the intellect and the heart countless times in a single chapter, the author draws remarkably apt examples from sources as diverse as Orwell, Aeschylus, and Jane Austen. This distilled volume is a primer to the breadth and depth of Buddhist thought and practice.

The memoirs capture the journey of an English Buddhist monk in the mid-1950s as he endeavors to revive Buddhism in India, its birthplace. The author vividly describes the Indian landscape, offering readers a rich and detailed portrayal of his experiences and the cultural context of his mission. These reflections provide insight into both the challenges and triumphs faced in promoting spiritual teachings in a historically significant land.

Anagarika Dharmapala, founder of the Maha Bodhi Society, was the first person to take the Dharma to countries across the whole globe. He ranks as one of the greatest Buddhist figures of modern times. Sangharakshita’s biographical sketch, based on Dharmapala’s own diaries, recounts the extraordinary story with a vividness that leaves the reader uplifted and inspired. This volume also contains other writings including the sometimes controversial columns of 'Himavantavasi', as well as book reviews and the memorable sixty-five 'Immortal Sayings' of Anagarika Dharmapala.

Sangharakshita approaches communicating Buddhism in the West from two very different, but equally illuminating, angles. In the first part, he introduces the apparently exotic worlds of Tibetan Buddhism and its creative symbols, and Zen Buddhism. In the second part he examines the practice of Buddhism in the context of Western culture

This volume introduces the Complete Works volumes that include Sangharakshita's commentaries on a range of traditional Buddhist texts, beginning with The Eternal Legacy, an introduction to the canonical literature of Buddhism, and concluding with Wisdom Beyond Words, Sangharakshita's much- loved commentary on several Perfection of Wisdom texts.

This volume of Sangharakshita's Complete Works includes Facing Mount Kanchenjunga, the second in the series of his memoirs, and, in Dear Dinoo, some very personal letters. Facing Mount Kanchenjunga covers the period 1950-1953, beginning with Sangharakshita's arrival in Kalimpong as a twenty- four-year-old sramanera.

The first part of this volume describes the arising of the bodhicitta and the bodhisattva's path to Enlightenment in a weaving together of the sublime and the inspiringly practical, and the second part is a commentary on Santideva's classic 8th-century text, the Bodhicaryavatara, based on a seminar given in 1973.

In this first volume of memoirs Sangharakshita describes how, from a working- class childhood in the London suburb of Tooting, he came, a twenty-four-year- old Buddhist novice monk, to Kalimpong in the eastern Himalayas.

The nine texts in this volume, composed over a period of more than thirty years, show Sangharakshita's unfolding insight into the meaning, significance and centrality of Going for Refuge. It includes some of his most important communications to the Order he founded: on the ten ethical precepts, and the history of his Going for Refuge.

In this highly readable handbook on the fundamental teachings of Buddhism, Sangharakshita guides the reader through this sometimes complex religion.