10 Best Books on Buddhism for Beginners

If you’re new Buddhism and are making an attempt to seek out the most effective Buddhist book for a beginner, you may be powerless by the quantity of books out there. To make it easier for you, I’ve compiled a listing of my high ten picks that I like to recommend for beginners. A number of them square measure nice at explaining the fundamentals of Buddhist theory, whereas others square measure higher at capturing the essence of the Buddha’s teachings. Either way, they’re all fantastic books and you’re bound to gain one thing from anybody of them.

1. The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation as taught By S.N. Goenka
By William Hart

This is one among my favourite books to lend to those who have an interest in Buddhism. It’s fantastic and straightforward explanations on central Buddhist ideas like fate, morality and meditation. Every chapter begins with associate entertaining or perceptive Buddhist story to intensify the teachings of that chapter.

2. What the Buddha taught
By Walpola Rahula

This is one among the primary Buddhist books I ever browsed. It should be a touch too scholarly for a few individuals, particularly with its inclusion of the many Prakrit words and footnotes. However, this book could be a classic and may answer several queries that individual’s new Buddhism square measure probably to possess.

 

3. In the Buddha’s Words: An anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
By Bhikkhu Bodhi

If you wish to dive right into Gautama’s teachings and skim the particular sutras (discourses) that the Buddha educated to his followers, then you’ll most likely get pleasure from this book. It’s an awfully substantial book, being 512 pages in length! The sutras square measure conferred during this book in logical order beneath their applicable topics, e.g. The Human Condition, Mastering the Mind, etc. However, if you’re utterly new Buddhism, then you may need to browse the book suggested earlier — What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula — before reading this one, as that one reads a lot of sort of a book than a compilation of sutras, and is so abundant easier to browse and follow.

4. The Experience of Insight: A Simple and Direct Guide to Buddhist Meditation
By Joseph Goldstein

This is another nice book for beginners. Joseph Goldstein leads month-long meditation retreats and this book could be a compilation of a number of the teachings given throughout his retreats. It covers the fundamentals of active meditation and offers straightforward explanations and stories illustrating the reality and profundity of the Buddha’s teachings. Once I started learning Vipassana meditation I found this book a beautiful guide for establishing and galvanizing my very own meditation follow.

5. Opening the Door of Your Heart
By Ajahn Brahm

Ajahn Brahm could be a Theravadin monk and therefore the archimandrite of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. He studied beneath the nice meditation teacher, Ajahn Chah. This book could be a assortment of stories, principally anecdotal tales from his life that square measure usually very funny and filled with Buddhist knowledge. Everybody will remove some knowledge (and a sore abdomen from laughing) from reading this book. Regardless whether or not they Buddhist or not, each house ought to have a replica of this book!

6. Into the heart of Life
By Tenzin Palmo

The teachings of Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo are direct, profound and sensible. Taking a number of the foremost central Buddhist themes of duration, karma, religion and renunciation, she shows U.S.A. the way to ponder them and infuse them into our everyday expertise in order that we will build nice non secular progress. I cannot praise this book extremely enough. If you wish to grasp what the follow of Buddhism is all regarding, this book shows the essence of it.

7. Peace Is each Step
By Thich Nhat Hanh

This is book is brief and simple to browse, however it’s made with profound, nevertheless straightforward reminders for U.S.A. to return back to the current moment. As I began to browse this book, I perceptibly felt a lot of conscious, aware and calm. The primary section of this book is virtually a meditation in action. It captures the profound stillness and sweetness of living heedfully within the nowadays. The second a part of the book explores the importance of knowing what seeds we tend to square measure planting in our minds on a everyday and the way to wear down negative states like anger. Whereas the third half appearance at understanding our connection with one another and our surroundings, in order that we tend to perceive our shared responsibility in promoting happiness during this world.

8. The wisdom of No Escape and the Path of loving-kindness
By Pema Chodron

Pema Chodron could be a outstanding Western Buddhist nun who contains a nice gift of incorporating anecdotal stories into her teachings on Buddhism, and writes in a language that creates Buddhism very accessible and appealing to the lots. This can be one among my favorite books of hers. Her teachings extremely bit one’s heart and show us the way to perceive the Buddhist teachings from a soft spot in our hearts. Through her mild steerage, she shows us how we will overcome difficulties on the non-secular path.

9. Awakening the Buddhist Heart
By Lama Surya Das

Everyone must feel connected, to like and feel blue-eyed, to achieve resolute others and communicate so as to beat alienation, loneliness, and a sense of being disconnected. In wakening the Buddhist Heart Surya Das shows you the way to achieve inward and outward. With tremendous insight, he explores specific ways that during which we will a lot of profitably relate to our own experiences similarly as one another in today’s fast, sophisticated, and infrequently confusing world.

 

10. Buddhist wisdom
By Edward Conze

A landmark publication from its commencement over forty years alone, Buddhist wisdom offers Western readers a novel combination of what Buddhists worldwide think about the holiest of holy texts — The Diamond Sanskrit literature and therefore the Heart Sanskrit literature, or scriptures, ascribed to the first centuries of the primary millennium.