Book of Protection

By Ven. Piyadassi Thera

An ancient anthology of protective (paritta) suttas translated into English: discourses of the Buddha commonly recited for protection against fear, illness, and misfortune. An introductory essay explains the value of paritta recitation for physical and mental health.

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The Buddha and His Message

Past, Present & future (United Nations Vesak Day Lecture)

By Bhikkhu Bodhi

This booklet contains a lecture given by Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi at the United Nations on Vesak Day, 2001. Ven. Bodhi gives an overview of the life of the Buddha and his message of truth and peace, which is valid and applicable for all of humanity.

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The Buddha and His Teachings

By Narada Thera

This book is one of the clearest and most detailed introductions to the fundamental teachings of Buddhism available in English. In simple and lucid language the author explains those doctrines and concepts which form the common bedrock of all Buddhism as they have been preserved by the Theravada school. The first part of the work is devoted to the life of the Buddha. The remainder of the book explains in detail the Buddha's teachings, the final chapters showing the relevance of Buddhism to the problems of modern life.

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The Buddha’s Path to Deliverance

A Systematic Exposition in the Words of the Sutta Pitaka

By Nyanatiloka Mahathera

Larger in size and more advanced in treatment than The Word of the Buddha, this book arranges the Buddha's discourses into the threefold framework of morality, concentration, and wisdom, and the seven stages of purity. The selections, giving full coverage to both serenity and insight meditation, gain further light from the translator's own authoritative explanations.

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Buddhism in a Nutshell

By Narada Thera

An excellent introductory overview of the fundamental principles of Buddhist doctrine. Topics covered include: the life of the Buddha, the Dhamma (Is it a philosophy? A religion? An ethical system?), the Four Noble Truths, the Law of Kamma, Rebirth, Dependent Origination, Anatta, and Nibbana. Recommended for beginners.

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Buddhism: a Living Message

By Ven. Piyadassi Thera

A brief introduction, good to hand to a friend who might just be interested in the subject.

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Buddhist Dictionary

By Nyanatiloka Mahathera

Authentic, clear explanations of all key Theravada Buddhist terms and doctrines, arranged alphabetically, with textual references. An indispensable aid for the serious student of Theravada Buddhism.

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Collected Bodhi Leaves Vol. I (BL 1–30)

By Various

This book contains thirty numbers of the renowned Bodhi Leaf Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching.

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Collected Bodhi Leaves Vol. II (BL 31–60)

By Various

This book contains thirty numbers of the renowned Bodhi Leaf Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching.

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Collected Bodhi Leaves Vol. III (BL 61–90)

By Various

This book contains thirty numbers of the renowned Bodhi Leaf Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching.

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Collected Bodhi Leaves Vol. IV (BL 91–121)

By Various

This book contains thirty one numbers of the renowned Bodhi Leaf Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching.

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Collected Wheel Publications Vol. III (31–46)

By Various

This book contains fifteen numbers of the renowned Wheel Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching.

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Collected Wheel Publications Vol. IX (116–131)

By Various

This book contains fifteen numbers of the renowned Wheel Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching.

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Collected Wheel Publications Vol. X (132–151)

By Various

This book contains nineteen numbers of the renowned Wheel Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching.

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Collected Wheel Publications Vol. XI (152–166)

By Various

This book contains fourteen numbers of the renowned Wheel Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching.

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Collected Wheel Publications Vol. XIII (182–198)

By Various

This book contains sixteen numbers of the renowned Wheel Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching.

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Collected Wheel Publications Vol. XIV (198–215)

By Various

This book contains fourteen numbers of the renowned Wheel Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching.

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Contemplation of Feelings

By Nyanaponika Thera

This booklet contains a translation of the Connected Discourses on Feelings (Vedana Samyutta), preceded by a penetrating introduction.

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Dimensions of Buddhist Thought

By Francis Story

This book comprises Francis Story’s contributions to the two serial publications The Wheel and Bodhi Leaves, which belong to his best and most mature writing. With its rich and variegated contents, this book may well serve as an introduction to the Buddha’s teachings.

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Exploring the Word of the Buddha

A Systematic study of the Majjhima Nikaya Taught by Bhikkhu Bodhi

By Bhikkhu Bodhi

The original three-CD set of Bhikkhu Bodhi’s lectures are included in this single DVD.

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The Foundations of Mindfulness

Satipatthana Sutta

By Nyanasatta Thera

This book contains a translation of the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness, the Satipatthana Sutta.

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The Great Discourse on Causation

The Mahānidāna Sutta and Its Commentaries

By Bhikkhu Bodhi

The Mahanidana Sutta is the Buddha’s longest discourse on dependent arising, often taken to be the key to his entire teaching. The commentary treats this doctrine according to the Abhidhamma method, explained in an appendix. A penetrative introduction lays bare the sutta’s structure and the philosophical significance of dependent arising.

Note: See also The Great Discourse on Causation in the on-line library.

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Guide through the Abhidhamma Pitaka

A Synopsis of the Philosophical Collection of the Theravada Buddhist Canon

By Nyanatiloka Mahathera

This book contains an outline or synopsis of the seven books of the advanced analytical collection of the Pali Canon, the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Each of the seven books of this collection is introduced and then systematically summarised by the renowned German scholar-monk Nyanatiloka Mahathera. The principal aim of this book is to clarify the structure of the Abhidhamma works, most of which are quite large and complex, and thus aid the study of them. As a further aid, tables to clarify the factors of consciousness, etc, have been included as an appendix. This book is indispensable for students of Abhidhamma as well as for those who wish to get an introduction to and overview of the Abhidhamma Pitaka.

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The Heart of Buddhist Meditation

By Nyanaponika Thera

A modern Buddhist classic, translated into seven languages. With the combined powers of deep personal insight and clear exposition, the author conveys the essential principles making up the Buddha's way of mindfulness.

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Just Seeing

By Cynthia Thatcher

In eloquent, expressive language this book explores in depth the Buddha's significant teaching, "When seeing, just see; when hearing, just hear," as it applies to the practice of insight meditation as taught by Mahasi Sayadaw. Along the way, the book touches on the two kinds of reality-ultimate and conventional-expounded in the Abhidhamma. The author explains these two realities through the example of a pointillist painting of Seurat that can be viewed in two ways. In addition, there are meditation instructions for beginners, an appendix on the perceptual process as described in Buddhist metaphysics, and a crossword puzzle of Pali terms.

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Lay Buddhist Practice

The Shrine Room, Uposatha Day & Rains Residence

By Bhikkhu Khantipalo

A practical manual for lay Buddhists covering devotional practices (chanting, setting up a shrine room, etc.), uposatha day observances, lay precepts, and basic meditation techniques.

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The Magic of the Mind

By Bhikkhu Nyanananda

The philosophically and psychologically important Kalakarama Sutta brings out some striking features of the epistemology of early Buddhism.

As a prologue and as a framework for discussion of his exposition of the discourse, the author gives the simile of the “magic-show” to show the illusory nature of consciousness in the context of doctrinal categories such as the five aggregates. Throughout the exposition similes and analogies, both canonical and modern, and quotations from other discourses are given to illustrate and explain the relevant facts.

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Meditation

A Collection of Talks on Cultivating the Mind

By Ajahn Chah

This compilation consists of five talks and three question and answer sessions by the renowned Thai Forest Tradition teacher Venerable Ajahn Chah. The selected talks mainly deal with the topic OF meditation, both tranquillity meditation as well as insight meditation. Ajahn Chah discusses the beginning steps as well as the higher stages and this book is a source of inspiration foar beginners as well as serious practitioners.

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Mindfulness of Breathing

By Nyanamoli Thera

This book brings together the most important suttas from the Pali Canon and extracts from the commentaries dealing with anapanasati—the meditative practice of mindfulness of breathing.

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Mirror of the Dhamma

A Manual of Buddhist Chanting and Devotional Texts

By Narada Mahathera, Kassapa Thera

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Noble Eightfold Path

By Bhikkhu Bodhi

A concise, clear, and thorough account of the eightfold path. Explains each path-factor from the angle both of theory and practice, with a final chapter on the unity of the Buddhist path and its culmination in enlightenment.

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The Pali Literature of Ceylon

By G.P. Malalasekera

No copies in stock

An old classic by the doyen of Sri Lanka’s Pali scholars; admirably surveys Sri Lanka’s rich legacy of Pali Buddhist literature. The book is also a gracefully written history of Sri Lankan Buddhism. “Not likely ever to be superseded” (I.B. Horner)

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Parents and Children

By Medagama Vajiragnana

The Buddha stressed the importance of giving a child a good education. This is one of the main responsibilities of a parent. Furthermore, “the gift of Dhamma excels all other gifts.” Therefore, to give a child an education in the Dhamma is indeed the best gift.

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The Path of Freedom

Vimuttimagga

By N.R.M. Ehara, Soma Thera, Kheminda Thera, Translators from the Chinese

The Path of Freedom: The Vimuttimagga . Translated from the Chinese by N.R.M. Ehara, Soma Thera, Kheminda Thera. Written in Pali in Sri Lanka during the first century A.C., the Vimuttimagga survived only in a Chinese translation, from which the present rendering has been made. Ascribed to the Arahant Upatissa, the work is a meditation manual similar in structure to the Visuddhimagga, but less analytical and more practical in its treatment of meditation.

This is a limited edition, photocopy reprint.

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The Path of Purification

Visuddhimagga

By Nyanamoli Thera

The Visuddhimagga is the most important non-canonical work of Theravada Buddhism. Written in the 5th century by Acariya Buddhaghosa, the book serves as a systematic encyclopaedia of Buddhist doctrine and a detailed guide to meditation.

The translation by Ven. Nanamoli itself ranks as an outstanding scholarly achievement.

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Power of Mindfulness

An Inquiry into the Scope of Bare Attention and the Principal Sources of its Strength

By Nyanaponika Thera

The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate and explain the efficacy of the method of mindfulness (satipatthana), that is, to show the actual power of mindfulness.

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Rebirth as Doctrine and Experience

By Francis Story

These case studies, which make fascinating reading, lend strong evidential support to the hypothesis of rebirth and thus help to illuminate the ultimate questions concerning human destiny after death.

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Satipatthana — The Direct Path to Realization

By Analayo

This book helps to fill what has long been a glaring gap in the scholarship on Early Buddhism, offering us a detailed textual study of the Satipatthana Sutta, the foundational Buddhist discourse on meditation practice. With painstaking thoroughness, Ven. Analayo marshals the suttas of the Pali canon, works of modern scholarship, and the teachings of present-day meditation masters to make the rich implications of this text, so concise in the original, clear to contemporary students of the Dharma.

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The Seven Stages of Purification

By M. Nyanarama Thera

This is a book born of wide and deep meditative experience, a guide to the progressive stages of Buddhist meditation for those who have taken up the practice in full earnestness. The seven stages of purification provide the framework for the disciple’s gradual progress from the cultivation of virtue up to the attainment of the final goal. Integral to the higher stages of purification are the nine types of insight-knowledge by which the disciple penetrates to the real nature of phenomena. The present book treats the stages of purification and the insight-knowledges not only with great erudition, but with the clarifying light of actual meditative experience.

The Venerable Matara Sri Nyanarama Mahathera (1901–92), late abbot and meditation master of the Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya monastery, was one of the most respected meditation masters of present-day Sri Lanka.

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A Technique of Living

By Leonard A. Bullen

In this book Leonard Bullen describes a twelve-month system of exercises and contemplations aimed at achieving a well rounded life, leading the practitioner through relaxation, mindfulness, egolessness, motivation and many other stages of the Buddhist path.

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Thinker’s Notebook

By Nyanamoli Thera, collected, edited, and introduced by Nyanaponika Thera

Collected posthumous papers of the English monk-scholar Nyanamoli, who counts as one of the foremost translators of Pali Buddhist texts into English. Besides being a gifted translator Nyanamoli was also a gifted thinker, philosopher, and poet. Besides some longer essays, most of the notes are only one paragraph long and were written in the 1950s as a Buddhist monk. The notes and essays deal with profound topics such as ontology, metaphysics, nuclear physics, logic, but there is also humour, irony, sarcasm and light poetry. Four essays were earlier published in a Wheel Publication no. 52/53, Pathways of Buddhist Thought.

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The Word of the Buddha

An Outline of the Buddha's Teaching in the Words of the Pali Canon

By Nyanatiloka Mahathera

This superb little work by the eminent German scholar-monk is probably the best compact sourcebook in English on the Buddha's basic teachings, all expounded in his own words. Translated into a dozen languages, it is now in its 16th English edition, yet still reads as fresh, clear, and vigorous as if it were just written.

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