Sutra and Other Stories


Book Description

Six stories by an Iranian novelist. The title piece is on a smuggler who forces his wife and daughter into prostitution, Potshard is about a white woman who tries to adopt a village orphan, and Anis is on how a woman adjusts to new husbands. By the author of Savushun.




A River Sutra


Book Description

With imaginative lushness and narrative elan, Mehta provides a novel that combines Indian storytelling with thoroughly modern perceptions into the nature of love--love both carnal and sublime, treacherous and redeeming. "Conveys a world that is spiritual, foreign, and entirely accessible."--Vanity Fair.




The Stories of the Lotus Sutra


Book Description

"The Lotus Sutra" is one of the world's great religious scriptures and most influential texts. It has been a seminal work in the development of Buddhism throughout East Asia and, by extension in the development of Mahayana Buddhism throughout the world. Taking place in a vast and fantastical cosmic setting, the Lotus Sutra places emphasis on skillfully doing whatever is needed to serve and compassionately care for others, on breaking down sharp distinctions between the ideals of the fully enlightened buddha and the bodhisattva who vows to postpone personal salvation until all beings may share it together, and especially on each and every being's innate capacity to become a buddha.




American Sutra


Book Description

Winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion A Los Angeles Times Bestseller “Raises timely and important questions about what religious freedom in America truly means.” —Ruth Ozeki “A must-read for anyone interested in the implacable quest for civil liberties, social and racial justice, religious freedom, and American belonging.” —George Takei On December 7, 1941, as the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, the first person detained was the leader of the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist sect in Hawai‘i. Nearly all Japanese Americans were subject to accusations of disloyalty, but Buddhists aroused particular suspicion. From the White House to the local town council, many believed that Buddhism was incompatible with American values. Intelligence agencies targeted the Buddhist community, and Buddhist priests were deemed a threat to national security. In this pathbreaking account, based on personal accounts and extensive research in untapped archives, Duncan Ryūken Williams reveals how, even as they were stripped of their homes and imprisoned in camps, Japanese American Buddhists launched one of the most inspiring defenses of religious freedom in our nation’s history, insisting that they could be both Buddhist and American. “A searingly instructive story...from which all Americans might learn.” —Smithsonian “Williams’ moving account shows how Japanese Americans transformed Buddhism into an American religion, and, through that struggle, changed the United States for the better.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer “Reading this book, one cannot help but think of the current racial and religious tensions that have gripped this nation—and shudder.” —Reza Aslan, author of Zealot




Sutra of the Wise and the Foolish


Book Description

One of the great treasures of Buddhist literature, is mDo-mdzangs-blun or the Sutra of the Wise and the Foolish as it is known to the Mongols. The text was translated to Mongolian from Tibetan as the Üliger-ün Dalai or Ocean of Narratives. It is one of the most interesting, enjoyable and readable Buddhist scriptures. For centuries, it has been an inexhaustible source of inspiration, instruction and pleasure for all who have been able to read it. The history of this unusual scripture is still uncertain. Legend has it that the tales were heard in Khotan by Chinese monks, who translated them (but from what language?) into Chinese, from which it was translated into Tibetan, then into Mongolian and Oirat. The Narratives are Jatakas, or rebirth stories, tracing the causes of present tragedy in human lives to events which took place in former lifetimes. The theme of each narrative is the same: the tragedy of the human condition, the reason for this tragedy and the possibility of transcending it. But unlike Greek tragedy, Buddhist tragedy is never an end in itself, i.e. a catharsis, but a call to transcend that which can be transcended and need not be endlessly endured. The people we meet in the Sutra of the Wise and the Foolish, although supposedly living in the India of the Buddha’s time, might also be living at present in New York City, a small rural town or Leningrad, and the problems they face are the same problems that men have had to face always and everywhere. Herein lies the timeless appeal of this profound Buddhist scripture.




Kafka Sutra


Book Description

"Imtiaz Akhtar's short stories are delicate precious stones that he might have collected while strolling with an umbrella along the Ganges River in his native Kolkata, at the end of the Monsoon season. The stories are an invitation to an India, both eternal and ephemeral, and are untainted by the puritanism brought to the continent by the British empire. I have sometimes called Imtiaz an existentialist secular Muslim, but no ism or religious affiliation could do justice to his superb writing, his exquisite palette of words that burst with smells, passions and ideas. Let Imtiaz take you on a wild journey that you will not soon forget, an imaginary trip in a world full of spice, desire, humor and the mysterious joys of life, spirituality, lust and death; a memorable voyage deep into our common collective psyche." Gilbert Mercier, author of The Orwellian Empire




The Laughing Sutra


Book Description

Iron & Silk, Mark Salzman's bestselling account of his adventures as an English teacher and martial arts student in China, introduced a writer of enormous charm and keen insight into the cultural chasm between East and West. Now Salzman returns to China in his first novel, which follows the adventures of Hsun-ching, a naive but courageous orphan, and the formidable and mysterious Colonel Sun, who together travel from mainland China to San Francisco, risking everything to track down an elusive Buddhist scripture called The Laughing Sutra. Part Tom Sawyer, part Tom Jones, The Laughing Sutra draws us into an irresistible narrative of danger and comedy that speaks volumes about the nature of freedom and the meaning of loyalty.




Divine Stories


Book Description

Divine Stories is the inaugural volume in a landmark translation series devoted to making the wealth of classical Indian Buddhism accessible to modern readers. The stories here, among the first texts to be inscribed by Buddhists, highlight the moral economy of karma, illustrating how gestures of faith, especially offerings, can bring the reward of future happiness and ultimate liberation. Originally contained in the Divyavadana, an enormous compendium of Sanskrit Buddhist narratives from the early Common Era, the stories in this collection express the moral and ethical impulses of Indian Buddhist thought and are a testament to the historical and social power of narrative. Long believed by followers to be the actual words of the Buddha himself, these divine stories are without a doubt some of the most influential stories in the history of Buddhism.




Animal Sutras


Book Description

THE RENOWNED TEACHER AND AUTHOR'S SPIRITUAL MEMOIR, AS TOLD THROUGH HIS LIFELONG ENCOUNTERS WITH ANIMALS AND NATURE “I love this book. It feels like a secret treasure bequeathed by Stephen Levine to be opened after his death—an overflowing vessel of insight, humor and literary genius. Animal Sutras may be the best book Stephen Levine ever wrote.” —Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy “Stephen was a profound healer of the heart, writer and meditation teacher. In Animal Sutras, his other gifts shine, as a wise poet-naturalist and Dharma storyteller-philosopher, offered here in a lyrical, quirky, playful, and inviting collection.” —Jack Kornfield, A Path With Heart For Stephen Levine, “animal-people” were his greatest teachers. So, at age seventy, he began collecting animal spirit stories and transcendent moments in nature from throughout his life—from the green snake who taught him to meditate as a boy to the generous hen whom predators would not harm, and many more. “Animals have a natural mindfulness,” Levine writes. “They know what they are doing. Humans, who are full of confusion and seldom wholly in touch with their mind/body, need encouragement and technique to live in the present.” Stephen Levine (1937–2016) was an American poet, author, and spiritual teacher best known for his work, with his wife Ondrea, on death and dying. He is one of a generation of pioneering teachers who made Theravada Buddhism more widely available to students in the West. Like the writings of his colleague and close friend Ram Dass (formerly Richard Alpert), Levine’s work is also flavored by the devotional practices and teachings of the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba. Levine spent many years in the Southwest, including one tending a wildlife sanctuary in southern Arizona, and among the mountains of New Mexico, where Ondrea still lives. His many books include Who Dies?, A Year to Live, Unattended Sorrow, and Healing into Life and Death.




The Revised Kama Sutra: A Novel


Book Description

This novel, an Indian sensation, describes a young man's growing up and coming to grips with sexuality with delicious and often-hilarious detail, but it is about much more: political, ironic, and "an indictment of colonialism" (The Hindu). This comic novel of childhood, coming of age, of modern Indian manhood, and an American Dream was described as "humorous and manic" by The Independent of London, and as personifying "the post-Independence Indian male." It has also been adapted for the stage and played to many standing room only audiences. "Hilarious."--Time Out. "Indefatigable good humor, charm"--Publishers Weekly. "A comic timing never seen in any Indian novel to date."--The Indian Express "Should be a recognized classic. An Indian Catcher in the Rye"--Mark Ledbetter, Author and Professor of Linguistics Keywords: Coming of Age, Indian novel, Contemporary India, Indian society, the Male Experience, Literary Fiction, Sexual Repression, Indian Christians, Indian Catholics, Konkani language, Indian Comic Novel, Politically Incorrect, Men and Women, American Dream, Immigrant American Writers, Asian writers, Asian-American fiction