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THE HEART OF BUDDHISM
A Simple Introduction to Buddhist Practice
Guy Claxton
For the whanau, who help me to live it.
Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep –
He hath awakened from the dream of life – ’Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep With phantoms an unprofitable strife, And in mad trance, strike with our spirit’s knife Invulnerable nothings. – We decay Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief Convulse us and consume us day by day, And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.
He hath outsoared the shadow of our night;
Envy and calumny and hate and pain, And that unrest which men miscall delight, Can touch him not and torture not again; From the contagion of the world’s slow stain He is secure …
He lives, he wakes – ’tis Death is dead, not he;
Mourn not for Adonais.
— Percy Bysshe Shelley: Adonais
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Preface
1 - Why Buddhism?
What draws people to Buddhism?
2 - A Peace Missing
3 - No Hard Feelings
4 - Trouble In Mind
5 - The Ground Flaw
6 - Attention, Attention, Attention
The Wise Lady from Philadelphia
7 - Buddhist Support Systems
8 - The Fruit of the Path
9 - Becoming a Buddhist
Which brand of Buddhism is for me?
What difference will it make to my life?
When is the best time to start?
Glossary