The Buddhist Handbook : A Complete Guide to Buddhist Schools, Teaching, Practice, and History

The most comprehensive guide to Buddhism and its exponents in the Western world--with fully updated information on Buddhist organizations around the world.

• A Who's Who of contemporary teachers, writers, and practitioners.

• Provides thorough summaries of all major Buddhist traditions around the world.

• An excellent introduction to the fastest-growing religion in the West.

Newly revised and updated, The Buddhist Handbook is the definitive guide to the complete panorama of Buddhist teaching, practice, schools, and history. The fastest-growing religion in the West, Buddhism includes numerous traditions within its scope. The Buddhist Handbook provides a comprehensive and nonsectarian survey of these traditions and their contemporary exponents throughout the world, providing necessary information for those who wish to explore the various traditions thoroughly and find the one best-suited to their needs. For those already practicing in a particular school of Buddhism, it offers illuminating insight into the teachings of other schools, as well as a Who's Who of contemporary teachers, writers, and practitioners.

The far-reaching range of this book includes chapters on the westward migration of Buddhist thought, contemporary Buddhist activities in North America and around the world, the relationship between Buddhism and psychotherapy, Buddhism and social action, and the role of women in Buddhism. Updated to include the most recent information about developments in Buddhism throughout the world, The Buddhist Handbook remains an essential work for the library of every aspiring Buddhist.

John Snelling (1943-1992) was General Secretary of the Buddhist Society as well as editor of the Society's journal, The Middle Way, the most widely circulated Buddhist periodical in the West. Among the many books he wrote are The Sacred Mountain: Pilgrims and Travellers at Mt. Kailas in Western Tibet, Buddhism in Russia, and The Elements of Buddhism.