Over the summer I wrote a book. The idea was presented to me by the publisher, who had decided that they needed a daily practice guide based on Buddhist teachings, and they wanted me essentially to fill in the blanks.
It turned out to be a bit more involved than that, because their original outline wasn’t realistic. So we worked together to create a new outline, and the book ended up having four components: brief guides to meditation, reflections, mantras, and — ta-da! — quotes from the Buddha.
In some cases I translated quotes myself. Sometimes I used or adapted other people’s translations. Full canonical references are given.
In order that the quotes be seen as relevant to any reader, I made sure that they were all gender-neutral, and where a quote referred to a mendicant (bhikkhu — usually but not very accurately translated as “monk”) I changed that to something like “spiritual practitioner.” Apart from that I kept the quotes as accurate as possible.
I love how the book’s been designed. It’s very beautiful, as you can see from the cover. The inside is lovely too.
The Kindle edition is now available. Using the same link you can order the paperback version, which gets released on the 4th of January.
It’s not yet available on Apple Books or the Kobo store.
I consider Amazon to be a pretty awful company, so please do consider supporting your local bookshop buy pre-ordering there.
Publisher: Rockridge Press (January 4, 2022)
Language: English
Paperback: 264 pages
ISBN-10: 1638783004
ISBN-13: 978-1638783008
Congratulations on the book! Just launched today! 🙂
Thank you, Bhante.
Do you mind if I ask? What sect of Buddhism do you adhere to? I notice you don’t mention Therevada according to your site search but you do Mahayana. You also mention the use of mantras which is far mor ecommon in Mahayana and Vajrayana.
So out of sheer curiosity – and it doesn’t affect my opinion of the blog or your content in anyway. What Buddhist school do you prefer?
Thanks for asking, Doug. I’m a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order, which is an ecumenical Buddhist movement. I’ve studied some Mahayana texts, but I’m much more interested in the Pali texts and other early versions of the teachings. That doesn’t make me lean toward Theravada, because that school is more based on Buddhaghosa’s writings than it is on the suttas. I find Buddhaghosa interesting, but he’s not always reliable. If there’s a conflict between the suttas and BG, I’ll chose the suttas every time.
If asked what kind of Buddhist I am, I usually just say that I’m “just a Buddhist.” I wouldn’t say that have a preference in schools. I’m in the Triratna Order mainly for the spiritual friendship. I meet regularly with other committed Triratna Buddhists, I teach in Triratna centers, and the core Triratna meditations (which are all traditional) are the basis of my practice. But I pretty much ignore the “official” framework of teachings that the leadership of Triratna would like us all to adopt. I pretty much have the freedom to do my own thing, and my freedom to do that seems to be universally respected within Triratna.