The Search for the Buddha: The Men Who Discovered India's Lost Religion
- Softcover Book, eBook, audiobook
- 322 pages
- Author
- Allen, Charles
- Publisher
- Carroll & Graf
- Published
- January 2004
- Format
- Softcover Book, eBook, audiobook
- Pages
- 322
- ISBN
- 978-0786713745
- ISBN-10
- 786713747
Description
Description
Acclaimed historian Charles Allen brings to life a handful of extraordinary eighteenth- and nineteenth-century characters and takes readers to lost holy places across the Asian world as he chronicles how Westerners found the Buddha. The author traces his roots right back to India where his teachings had been suppressed by Islam and Hinduism. Allen's cast includes the eccentric Hungarian wanderer Alexander Csoma di Koros, the soldier-turned-archaeologist Alexander Cunningham, and the brilliant scientist James Prinsep, who in six weeks cracked the code of the mysterious lettering inscribed on the Great Stupa at Sanchi, near the vast caves of Western India. Illustrated throughout with superbly telling the stories of these men who spurred a revival of Buddhism in the nineteenth century, Allen has recorded the Western birth of a religion whose influence in America has increased tremendously in the past half-century.
Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. More information about Vipassana as taught by S.N. Goenka is available at www.dhamma.org.
The tag Vipassana identifies products that are directly related to this tradition and differentiates them from other Theravada resources available on our site. While the main emphasis in Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka is on actual practice, this product may provide inspiration and guidance to a Vipassana meditator.
We also carry titles from the Theravada tradition, as we feel that by exploring the wider world of the Theravada texts, which include the Buddha’s discourses, commentaries, and scholarly articles and treatises, meditators have an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the Dhamma and thereby enrich their meditation practice. This kind of intellectual exploration also helps a meditator to gain an understanding of the evolution and historical context of their meditation tradition. This understanding in turn deepens their practice and understanding of the Dhamma.
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