The Buddha's Light Philosophy examines the management and accomplishments of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order and the Buddha's Light International Association (BLIA). These organizations, founded to further the goals of Humanistic Buddhism, have flourished around the world and touched many lives. The Buddha's Light Philosophy traces their purpose, mission, concepts, and guidelines to provide the reader with an understanding of Humanistic Buddhist practice in the modern world.

"The relations between eastern and western cultures have long been a neglected topic, and this careful and intelligent look at a small but significant part of those relations is most welcome."--Thomas McEvilley, author of The Shape of Ancient Thought "How wonderful that Jacquelynn Baas has seen the light of the Buddha's smile shining from faraway Asia into the realm of the art of modern times in what we think of as the West! . . . Her work reveals how some of our most influential artists explored and expressed the sophisticated perceptions and joyful energy emanating from the realm of Buddhist Asia."--Robert A. F. Thurman "As a Buddhist scholar and artist I welcome this thoughtful and richly detailed study of how many aspects of Buddhism have stimulated, invigorated, and enriched Western arts over the past 150 years."--Stephen Addiss, author of The Art of Zen "A crucial contribution to modern art studies, this high-spirited text surveys Western artists awakened by the wisdom of the East, from Monet and Duchamp to O'Keeffe to Martin. It is a thoughtful book about thoughtful artists, their values and their visions, with a lot to offer general readers and specialists alike."--Charles Stuckey, Associate Professor of Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

THE BUDDHIST WAY OF LIFE ITS PHILOSOPHY AIM HISTORY This study of Buddhism deals with the early tradition, followed by a brief consideration of its historicity, and the form the religion takes in Ceylon, Burma and Thailand. Then the mainline of development, in India, China and Japan comes under survey. Limits of space prevent any reference to Tibetan and other lesser branches of the faith, but this account attempts to focus essential Buddhism in both its chief schools, the Lesser and Greater Vehicle, together with an estimate of the influence of philosophy on sect and of both on the practical affairs of history. Contents SECTION I. EARLY SOURCES 1. Getama's Heritage 2. The Pali Records SECTION II. TICE TRADITION 3. The Enlightenment 4. The Jewels, Buddha & Dharma 5_ The Third. Jecvel, Sangho SECTION III INTERPRETATION 6. The Getama of History 7. Asoka SECTION IV. EARLY DIFFERENCES 8 Councils and Sciuxds 9. The Lesser Vehicle 10. Widening Hosizaas 11. Nalanda University SECTION V WORLD RELIGION 12 The Boddhisattva 13 The Chinese Cont on 14. The Chinese Interpretation 15. Sung and After 16. The Japanese Nation 17. Japan's Interpretation SECTION VI. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS 18. East and West

Description: The common western understanding of Buddhism today envisions this major world religion as one of compassion and tolerance. But as the author Droit reveals, this view bears little resemblance to one broadly held in the nineteenth-century European philosophical imagination that saw Buddhism as a religion of annihilation calling for the destruction of the self. The Cult of Nothingness traces the history of the western discovery of Buddhism. In so doing, the author shows that such major philosophers as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Hegel, Cousin, and Renan imagined Buddhism as a religion that was, as Nietzsche put it, a negation of the world. In fact, says the author, such portrayals were more a reflection of what was happening in Europe at the time-when the collapse of traditional European hierarchies and values, the specter of atheism, and the rise of racism and social revolts were shaking European societies-than an accurate description of Buddhist thought. The author also reflects on how this history continues to echo in contemporary western understanding of Buddhism. The book includes a comprehensive bibliography on books on Buddhism published in the west between 1638 and 1890.