Dimensions of Buddhist Thought Collected Essays

This book comprises Francis Story’s contributions to the two serial publications The Wheel and Bodhi Leaves, which belong to his best and most mature writing. With its rich and variegated contents, this book may well serve as an introduction to the Buddha's teachings. The Buddha once said that his Teaching has only one taste, that of liberation. Yet, being a Teaching of Actuality, Buddhism has also dimensions extending to wide fields of human life and thought. Some of them are mirrored in the essays of this volume. These wide-ranging and penetrative writings offer, therefore, many stimulating approaches to Buddhist thought and its application to problems of our time. Contents 1 Hymn for Vaishakha 2 The Buddha—a Unique Teacher 3 The Supreme Conqueror 4 The Appeal of Buddhism 5 The Uniqueness of Buddhism 6 The Four Noble Truths 7 Dialogues on the Dhamma 8 The Scientific Approach to Buddhism 9 The Buddhist World View in the Age of Science 10 A Larger Rationalism 11 Of Gods and Men 12 Prayer and Worship 13 Gods and their Place in Buddhism 14 Cosmological Thought in Buddhism and Modern Science 15 Expanding Universe and Steady-States Universe 16 The Magic Mountain 17 Is there a Beginning? 18 Buddhism and the Origin of Life 19 Divine Creation or Lawful Genesis? 20 Buddhist Meditation 21 Buddhist Mental Therapy 22 Buddhist Lay Ethics 23 The Place of Animals in Buddhism 24 Action 25 Kamma and Causality 26 Kamma and Freedom 27 Collective Karma 28 Beauty and the Buddhist 29 Omniscience and the Buddha 31 Samsara 32 The Way of Dispassion 33 Nibbana