David Tuffley

The Essence of Buddhism

Santideva

The Bodhicaryavatara is an ancient text written in Sanskrit around 700 CE by Santideva, Buddhist monk and scholar who lived at the Nalanda Monastic University in India. The Bodhicaryavatara roughly translates to A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. A Bodhisattva is an enlightened being on their way to attaining full Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. The text has ten chapters that explain how to develop bodhicitta, or the enlightened mind. Earlier English translations of this text are accurate but difficult to understand for many readers living in the 21st Century. The mode of expression and the figures of speech are the product of that far-off time. This book faithfully re-expresses in modern day language the underlying message of the original text. Every effort has been made to preserve the underlying spirit of the message. There will be those who object to the changing of the outward form of this much-loved classic. While the author respects the beauty of the original text, the governing principle is to bring the even greater beauty of the underlying message to a whole new audience in the modern world who might otherwise find the original less than easy to fully understand. If you are embarking on the path to enlightenment, or just curious, this slim little book could be just the change agent you have been looking for. It is said to be one of the Dalai Lama's favorite texts. Chapter 1 The Benefit of the Spirit of Awakening Chapter 2 The Confession of Error Chapter 3 Adopting the Spirit of Awakening Chapter 4 Attending to the Spirit of Awakening Chapter 5 Guarding Introspection Chapter 6 The Perfection of Patience Chapter 7 The Perfection of Zeal Chapter 8 The Perfection of Meditation Chapter 9 The Perfection of Wisdom Chapter 10 The Post-Dedication

The 8th Century Classic in 21st Century Language

The Bodhicaryavatara: A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life

Epictetus

The Enchiridion (Greek for Handbook) of Epictetus is a favourite text of the Stoic school of philosophy. Compiled by Arrian, a former pupil around the time of Epictetus' death in 135 AD, this enduring text is a compilation of lecture notes based on Epictetus' lessons. It has long been considered an excellent manual of practical philosophy. Epictetus (55 – 135 AD) was born at Hierapolis in what is now Turkey. Sold to Epaphroditos, who was secretary to Emperor Nero, he spent his youth in Rome. He developed a consuming passion for philosophy. With the permission of his master, Epictetus was allowed to study Stoic philosophy. Over time, as his learning and wisdom grew, he became a respectable citizen of Rome, and an esteemed philosopher. Epictetus, unlike some of his metaphysical forebears, concentrated on making philosophy practical. How it could be used beneficially in everyday life. The timeless message of the Enchiridion is as practical today as it was in ancient Greece. Perhaps this is where the Enchiridion gets its enduring power and long-life. A central theme of the work is to clearly distinguish between what we can and cannot control in life. We can control what we think, and how we act. We cannot control what others think and how they act. We must put our effort into what we can control and refuse to worry about what we cannot. Following on from this is to limit our expectations. If we understand we cannot control people, then we will not expect them to behave in a certain way, and we will not get upset or disappointed when they do something different. Another theme is to not become attached to people and things such that when they disappear from our lives, we will be upset. This idea bears a striking resemblance to the central Buddhist tenet of non-attachment to impermanence. Epictetus urges us to observe carefully the patterns of Nature and learn to live in harmony with them. This includes accepting what happens in life with grace, without resistance. It is how we think about events that makes them good or bad, not the event itself. Our beliefs create our reality. The same event could be interpreted by two people in diametrically opposed ways, according to their belief. These have been a sampler of the many practical recommendations to be found in this remarkable book. The first English translation was published around 1567, though this book is based on Elizabeth Carter's 18th Century translation.

The Handbook of Epictetus

The Enchiridion of Epictetus

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is a perennial, belonging to a very special category of book that has but a few members out of the millions of books ever published; longevity. It has a simple, powerful message that is as fresh and useful today as it was nearly two thousand years ago. That alone makes it worthy of careful study, but it has more to commend it than that. The greater the Truth, the more simply it can be put. The original book states a few great Truths, and states them very simply. Meditations is the author's personal journal, written in private over a ten year period. It is doubtful whether he intended it to ever be read by others. It was a way for him to remind himself what he recognised as being most important to remember about Life. As a result, there is much repetition of ideas. A few big ideas are constantly discussed, these being uppermost in the author's mind as the months and years rolled by. Therefore this Primer provides a summary of the recurrent ideas of Meditations, and does so in 21st Century language, easily accessible to modern readers. It presents the first five books as being representative of the entire twelve books. This is sufficient to grasp the essence of the original. In Meditations you come to know the real man, and to the reader this can seem an extraordinary privilege. But the man was also an emperor, and no ordinary emperor, one of the finest in Rome's illustrious history. A truly remarkable man by any standard, but as you will see, a modest, even humble man. Even today, Meditations stands tall as a guide to staying calm under pressure when there is a difficult job to do. Marcus Aurelius might have been a Roman, but his thinking had been shaped, like so many educated Romans, by the classical period of ancient Greece. Indeed, Meditations was written in Greek. Even today, classical Greek thinking still permeates the foundations of Western civilisation.

A Primer

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

As English has evolved over the past 1,500 years, words that were once in common usage have slipped out of usage. Some are delightful, others not so much. This book blows the dust off over a thousand delightful words, bringing them to a whole new audience. If you enjoy words for their own sake, or if you are at all curious about how people talked and wrote when the world was a quite different place, then this book is for you. The perfect gift for those who love words. Ever since it emerged as a distinct language from the West Germanic dialect spoken by early arrivals to what is now called England around the 5th Century C.E, English has busily absorbed many thousands of words from Ancient Greek, Roman Latin, the Northern Germanic languages of Scandinavia, the French spoken in Normandy, and more recently from countries that were once part of the British Empire (for example India). Most recently, American English has contributed many words to colourfully describe the modern world. The Oxford English Dictionary in 2011 lists over 250,000 words, and that does not include many more technical and slang words. Use this book like a hungry person might approach a delicious buffet lunch. It deserves to be consumed slowly, savouring the flavours and giving them time to be properly digested.

David Tuffley

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