Buddha-Dharma: The Way To Enlightenment, Revised Second Edition [Hardcover]

Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research (Author), Numata Center for Buddhist Translation A (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2004

This is massive anthology of sections from the Buddhist sutras and commentaries. The text follows the life of Shakyamuni Buddha and records some of the teachings and discourses that he delivered throughout his nearly forty-five years of enlightening the world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research was founded by the late Dr. Rev. Yehan Numata, founder of the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) [Society for the Promotion of Buddhism]. The Numata Center also makes available in the English language the Buddhist scriptures and commentaries of the Sino-Japanese edition of the "Taisho Tripitaka." Scholars and specialists from throughout the world have been enlisted to translate the selected texts into English.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 829 pages
• Publisher: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research; 2nd edition (March 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886439192
• ISBN-13: 978-1886439191
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,090,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indra's Web: Yours for only 5 stars!, June 10, 2005

By 

Peter M. Schogol (Lexington, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buddha-Dharma: The Way To Enlightenment, Revised Second Edition (Hardcover)

This book has been in print over a year and no one has reviewed it yet for Amazon. Or perhaps the silence is a sort of mute reverence for the intent, scope, scholarship, and production of this book which surpass previous attempts to bring the Buddhavacana -- the 'word' of the Buddha(s) -- into the daily lives of ordinary folk. One may quibble with the choices the editors made, and certainly the editors regret the omissions they had to make in order to keep the book manageable in size and affordable (at $33.96 hardcover and $21.21 paperback you just know that the Numata Center has absorbed a major chunk of the publication costs), but there's no slighting the sense of awe one gets reading merely the introduction and the table of contents. Truly, as Taitetsu Unno says in his review, this is the closest thing we have in print to a Buddhist Bible.

The editors disavow a sectarian bias as to the choice of contents and the flow of texts, but in a subtle way the book reflects the catholic scholarship of Shin Buddhist priests and scholars at the same time as it extends and expands the Lotus Sutra metaphor of the One Vehicle.

At points the commentary seems a bit formal and occasionally hokey, reflecting Japanese linguistic sensibilities more than English, but overall the flow is natural and the presence of Buddha is never more clear than in the exquisite translations and editing.

Were I to continue waiting for a more credentialed reviewer to speak knowledgeably about his book I fear nothing will get said here on Amazon at all. BUDDHA-DHARMA: THE WAY TO ENLIGHTENMENT deserves attention, study, and -- yes -- reverence for the wondrous Dharma which speaks through the words of this incredible team from the Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research.