The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

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DGA
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The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by DGA »

Many of us got to know Buddhism through books first. This is common for people who were not born into Buddhist families. I'd like to know which book may have been the one that inspired you to practice Buddhism, to get out there and find others to practice with.

For myself, I had been aware of Buddhism from my family (my late uncle was the first Buddhist in my family, and my mom had lived in Okinawa...), and I had read some Buddhist materials in classes and at the library, but I didn't really get a fire in me for practice until I'd read Lama Surya Das' book on the eightfold path, Awakening the Buddha Within, in maybe 1997 or so. Reading that book made me want to go out and learn some more, and to practice. I'll always be thankful for it.

(parenthetically I think it's strange that Surya Das comes up so infrequently in discussion here at DW, given how popular his books have been over the years.)

How about you?
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Matt J
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by Matt J »

Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana. Specifically, the free version online. In addition, "In Search of the Miraculous" by PD Ouspensky.

Through a series of synchronous events, I later took refuge and the lay precepts from Bhante G.
"The world is made of stories, not atoms."
--- Muriel Rukeyser
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justsit
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by justsit »

Oh, easy one. When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron. My husband of 17 years had walked out, as a result I'd lost my home and moved where I knew no one, my dog died. I was depressed and desperate. That book saved my life.
Motova
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by Motova »

Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism by Lama Anagarika Govinda
To become a rain man one must master the ten virtues and sciences.
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padma norbu
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by padma norbu »

I remember Buddhism Plain & Simple by Steve Hagen presented it in such a sensible way that I became more seriously interested and thus bought more books, so maybe that one.
"Use what seems like poison as medicine. We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings." Pema Chodron
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Konchog1
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by Konchog1 »

Byron's Dhammapada
Equanimity is the ground. Love is the moisture. Compassion is the seed. Bodhicitta is the result.

-Paraphrase of Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tsephel citing the Guhyasamaja Tantra

"All memories and thoughts are the union of emptiness and knowing, the Mind.
Without attachment, self-liberating, like a snake in a knot.
Through the qualities of meditating in that way,
Mental obscurations are purified and the dharmakaya is attained."

-Ra Lotsawa, All-pervading Melodious Drumbeats
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DNS
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by DNS »

The book that first got me interested in Buddhism and then Theravada was What the Buddha Taught by Dr. Walpola Rahula (1959):
http://vinaire.files.wordpress.com/2012 ... taught.pdf

And the book that got me interested in Zen and Mahayana was The Three Pillars of Zen by Roshi Kapleau (1965)

I became a Buddhist in 1984. :)
emaho
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by emaho »

For me the first book about Buddhism was Kapleau's Three Pillars of Zen.

My first book about Vajrayana was Lama Govindas Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism.
"I struggled with some demons, They were middle class and tame..." L. Cohen
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Johnny Dangerous
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

Turning The Wheel of Dharma ..whatever translation is in Goddard's A Buddhist Bible, that and Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism pretty much signed me up. Read them many years apart, I picked up A Buddhist Bible at 17 or something, and spent years just reading and rereading that Sutta over and over, it was the one that really spoke to me in the beginning, simple as it is. Years later I read Cutting Through as an adult, and it kind of put two and two together for me in some way.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

-Khunu Lama
JKhedrup
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by JKhedrup »

The Life of Milarepa.
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WuMing
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by WuMing »

The books by Lama Anagarika Govinda.
Life is great and death has to be just as great as life.
- Mike Tyson
People not only don't know what's happening to them, they don't even know that they don't know.
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seeker242
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by seeker242 »

First buddhist book was Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Three Pillars of Zen "sealed the deal" so to speak. :smile:
One should not kill any living being, nor cause it to be killed, nor should one incite any other to kill. Do never injure any being, whether strong or weak, in this entire universe!
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Lindama
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by Lindama »

Introduction to Tantra, Lama Yeshe was the first buddhist book that I ever read. I had it on my nightstand for quite a while before I read it... when I did, he had already spoken to me in dreams tho I didn't know it til I read the book. I have no idea how I came by it, but I never do.
Not last night,
not this morning,
melon flowers bloomed.
~ Bassho
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Sherab
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by Sherab »

"The Wisdom of Buddhism" edited by Christmas Humphries.
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Thomas Amundsen
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

Be Here Now by Ram Dass.
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Wayfarer
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by Wayfarer »

The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation through Knowing the One Mind ed. W Y Evanz-Wentz, followed soon after by Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and Way of Zen.
Last edited by Wayfarer on Wed Sep 18, 2013 7:02 am, edited 2 times in total.
'Only practice with no gaining idea' ~ Suzuki Roshi
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Karma Dorje
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by Karma Dorje »

Be Here Now. Later it was Dowman's Sky Dancer and Crystal and the Way of Light by ChNNR.
"Although my view is higher than the sky, My respect for the cause and effect of actions is as fine as grains of flour."
-Padmasambhava
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oushi
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by oushi »

I got hooked by an article about anatta. In response I went online to buy a book about Buddhism. As I had no idea where to start, I bought a book that appeared at the pot of a search. It was Mumonkan - The Gateless Gate. :tongue:
When I received it, I thought: "so thin..., I will finish it today..."
Say what you think about me here.
Simon E.
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by Simon E. »

I am slightly embarrassed to admit it now :emb: ...and in mitigation it swiftly led to other books and to flesh and blood contacts..but what started me off was Kerouac's 'The Dharma Bums'.
“You don’t know it. You just know about it. That is not the same thing.”

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to me.
KonchokZoepa
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Re: The Book that Got You Hooked on Dharma

Post by KonchokZoepa »

mine was Karma Chagme's mountain dharma vol 1 or Lama Zopa Rinpoche's how to practice Dharma - teaching on the eight worldly dharmas.
If the thought of demons
Never rises in your mind,
You need not fear the demon hosts around you.
It is most important to tame your mind within....

In so far as the Ultimate, or the true nature of being is concerned,
there are neither buddhas or demons.
He who frees himself from fear and hope, evil and virtue,
will realize the insubstantial and groundless nature of confusion.
Samsara will then appear as the mahamudra itself….

-Milarepa

OMMANIPADMEHUNG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls6P9tOYmdo
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