Thinking about becoming buddhist. What are some good beginner's books?

The right book will find you, grasshopper.

Look at Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar to see what happens when people accept mysticism like Buddhism on a societal scale.

Go to Japan or Vietnam. If you go to Japan, you can be a walking monk.

Google search marathon walking monks Japan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaih

ōgyō

zenbodi wrote:

Go to Japan or Vietnam. If you go to Japan, you can be a walking monk.

Google search marathon walking monks Japan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaih

ōgyō

"Scientific Healing Affirmations: Theory and Practice of Concentration"

by the Paramahansa Yogananda.

Summary:

The Scientific use of concentration and affirmations for healing inharmonies of Body, Mind, and Soul through Reason, WIll, Feeling, and Power.

it's a very small book that fits in your back pocket, or purse. One of the most indispensable guides to wet your appetite for Buddhism.

A Buddhist Bible, by Dwight Goddard

You must be a Californian living in Frisco or Hollyweird ;-)

Read Destiny of Souls and then Journey of Souls. After that, you'll have a much better understanding of the afterlife than you will ever get from Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism. These books don't directly address religion, but they will give you foundation for eventually understanding what's wrong with each of these religions.

If you wanted to become a Christian, some might read/study little catechisms and liturgical/lay prayer books. Some idiots might even make new age contemporary Christian authors rich by buying their lousy books that are cash schemes and inferior and incorrect regurgitations and applications of doctrine. But the best way is through the Bible, the New Testament, and most of all, the Gospels. And then, consulting art works, the crucifix, and the legacy of the Saints and the Prophets.

Similarly, with Buddhism, you need to go straight to the great scriptures. The Pali Canon is the first set of scriptures, in time of writing, the closest to the Buddha's life and supposedly, like the red blood ink of the words of Christ,

the victorious ones exact words.

The Mahayana scriptures come after, representing a period of time when Buddhism was spreading out of India, over and through the Eurasian steppes, Silk Road and into Asia. I think...

These scriptures were translated Part and part, by European scholars in the 19th and 20th century, into German and English. You'll have to go to book stores and ask around. If there is a major University near you with a religious studies and or East Asian departments, send the professors kind and inquisitive emails and you'll get leads.

Then, you'll need contextual information. Even before complating the law giver, the Buddha circa 500 BC, and before contemplating later Buddhist Saints and martyrs of mind and soul,

You should also study and know something of the historical context. Buddhism came about in a highly spiritually and morally focused Indian subcontinent umbrella civilization, with already a thousand years of Hindu civilization prior and precursors to Buddhist doctrine handed down from the traditions of the Holy Vedas. Second, what most morons, even with PhDs, in the west, don't know , is that there was a sister religion to Buddhism, technically sprouting at the same time but likely even older. Jainism, literally, the religion of the victors. In the Pali Canon, the Buddha calls himself a Jina, or Victor. So technically, the Buddha, Tathagata (recurrent saviour) is also a Tirthankara (Jain term for recurrent saviour).

By learning some Sanskrit too, you'll be able to understand the concepts in Buddhism through linguistics, the interconnection of the Indian religion, and trace Western heritage back to it, as you'll see for yourself the connections of Western language and thought to the Indo Aryan language family.

There is no point contemplating the visual symbology of Buddhist art and statues, nor the same, with Hinduism. This is worse than worthless meditation and worship, it is false and confused and will lead to wrong doing. When the underlying reasonings of organized religion anywhere in the world are lost, then proper administration is lost, and violence and bloodshed and superstition shall reign.

This happened in India between 1250 - 1850 AD, when, for whatever reason, upon Islam's incursion into India, Hindu religion broke down into dark and evil and wrongful manifestations. murderous criminals roamed the country for 600-700 years, unchecked, until the British brought organized and ingenious policing methods and administration.

takin a p wrote:

Look at Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar to see what happens when people accept mysticism like Buddhism on a societal scale.

You're a complete moron with zero understanding of world history and world religions. In the first place, Southeast Asia had great Buddhist polities countless ventures ago, approximately 700-100 AD. These declined later.

What we see in the modern age is the aftermath of colonialism and secular military dictatorships and political manipulation. A scourge of modernity, not the outgrowth of any legitimate manifestation of any religion.

Have you even been to those countries? Can you even tell me about the atrocities and genocides that occurred in East Asia in the 20th century?

It astounds me how people who are doing the glorious rite, distance running, are so conceited and ignorant. Shame, shame on you

*there is no point (caution against) contemplating the visual art, without the prerequisite proper doctrinal and historical understanding

Tomas Cruz is a Scientologist.

Yo_soy_un_hombre_sincero wrote:

takin a p wrote:

Look at Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar to see what happens when people accept mysticism like Buddhism on a societal scale.

You're a complete moron with zero understanding of world history and world religions. In the first place, Southeast Asia had great Buddhist polities countless ventures ago, approximately 700-100 AD. These declined later.

What we see in the modern age is the aftermath of colonialism and secular military dictatorships and political manipulation. A scourge of modernity, not the outgrowth of any legitimate manifestation of any religion.

Have you even been to those countries? Can you even tell me about the atrocities and genocides that occurred in East Asia in the 20th century?

It astounds me how people who are doing the glorious rite, distance running, are so conceited and ignorant. Shame, shame on you

Bad Wigins wrote:

Just go sit under a tree for 40 days

...while fasting.

Surprised barbarian macho bad Wigins left that part out. I guess only amoral machismo gets him off, eh?

Moses, Jesus , Siddhartha Gautama Buddha and Mahavira all accomplished 40+ day (consecutive) fasts at least once.

Yo_soy_un_hombre_sincero wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

Just go sit under a tree for 40 days

...while fasting.

Surprised barbarian macho bad Wigins left that part out. I guess only amoral machismo gets him off, eh?

Moses, Jesus , Siddhartha Gautama Buddha and Mahavira all accomplished 40+ day (consecutive) fasts at least once.

Interesting. Today is Ash Wednesday for many Christians, the beginning of Lent, and a day of fasting.

Sakyong Mipham - Running with the mind of meditation

You might find Janwillem van de wetering's "The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery" interesting.

Also, Peter Matthiessen's "Nine-Headed Dragon River: Zen Journals 1969-1982" is quite good.

I suggest these not so much to learn about Buddhism as such, but to learn about the experiences that people not raised in that tradition had when entering it.

I grew up in a community in Hawai'i where Buddhism was effectively just another religion that kids in my high school practiced (or tried to get out of practicing, sometimes). In other parts of the country it was and is considered something exceptional, out there, and practicing it was making a statement and so on.

But in the end, it's no more, and no less, than another religion practiced by millions of people. It appeals to you, you want to explore it -- what's this message board fuss all about? Let the OP find his own path.

fisky wrote:

Read Destiny of Souls and then Journey of Souls. After that, you'll have a much better understanding of the afterlife than you will ever get from Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism. These books don't directly address religion, but they will give you foundation for eventually understanding what's wrong with each of these religions.

There is no afterlife in Buddhism. There is emptiness now.

Yo_soy_un_hombre_sincero wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

Just go sit under a tree for 40 days

...while fasting.

Surprised barbarian macho bad Wigins left that part out. I guess only amoral machismo gets him off, eh?

Moses, Jesus , Siddhartha Gautama Buddha and Mahavira all accomplished 40+ day (consecutive) fasts at least once.

Mr. Wigins is a moral man. He plays at bad Wigins for entertainment on this site.