A reading list

Insight meditation (vipassana)

* suitable for beginners
*** suitable for experienced meditators

Satipaṭṭhāna Meditation: A Practice Guide
Bhikkhu Anālayo 2018. download

Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators ***
Guy Armstrong 2017

Older and Wiser: Classical Buddhist Teachings on Aging, Sickness, and Death
Mu Soeng, Gloria Ambrosia, Andrew Olendzki 2017 Barre Center for Buddhist Studies

Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas ***
Leigh Brasington 2015

Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation ***
Bhikkhu Analayo 2015

Seeing That Frees: Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising ***
Rob Burbea 2014

Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening ***
Joseph Goldstein 2013

Stepping Out of Self-Deception ***
Rodney Smith 2010

The Issue at Hand: Essays on Buddhist Mindfulness Practice *
Gil Fronsdal
available as a PDF here

Seeking the Heart of Wisdom *
Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield 2001

Breath by Breath *
Larry Rosenberg 1998

In This Very Life: The Liberation Teachings of the Buddha ***
Sayadaw U Pandita 1995

The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
U Silananda 1995

Mindfulness in Plain English *
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana 1992

The Experience of Insight *
Joseph Goldstein 1987

The Heart of Buddhist Meditation
Nyanaponika Thera 1973


Brahmavihara heart practices and relational meditation

Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing
David Treleaven 2018

Awakening Joy: 10 Steps to True Happiness *
James Baraz 2012

A Heart Full of Peace *
Joseph Goldstein 2007

Insight Dialogue: The Interpersonal Path to Freedom
Gregory Kramer 2007

Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness *
Sharon Salzberg 2002


Theravada Buddhism

A Whole-Life Path: A Lay Buddhist’s Guide to Crafting a Dhamma-Infused Life
Gregory Kramer 2020

Parami: Ways to Cross Life’s Floods
Ajahn Sucitto 2012
available as an ebook here

The Noble Eightfold Path
Bhikkhu Bodhi 2006

Small Boat, Great Mountain ***
Ajahn Amaro 2002
available as an ebook here: http://www.abhayagiri.org/books/small-boat-great-mountain

Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha’s Path *
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana 2001

Wings to Awakening
Thanissaro Bhikkhu 1999

Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree: The Buddha’s Teachings on Voidness
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu 1995

Being Nobody, Going Nowhere
Ayya Khema 1987

A Still Forest Pool *
Ajahn Chah 1985


The Buddha’s original teachings

The Dhammapada *
Gil Fronsdal

In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
Bhikkhu Bodhi, ed.


Secular Approaches to Meditation and Dharma

Wherever You Go, There You are *
Jon Kabat-Zinn

Buddhism Without Beliefs *
Stephen Batchelor


Social justice issues and Buddhism

Deep Diversity, Overcoming Us vs. Them
Shakil Choudhury 2015

The Way of Tenderness: Awakening Through Race, Sexuality, and Gender
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel 2015

Dharma, Color, and Culture
Hilda Gutierrez Baldoquin, ed.


Buddhism and the Climate Crisis

Buddha-Nature, Human Nature

by Ajahn Sucitto Amaravati Publications 2019

Buddha-Nature, Human Nature is a book about our environment and the effects that Buddhism has had and can have upon it.

Available to download here

EcoDharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis

by David Loy Wisdom Publications 2019

This landmark work is simultaneously a manifesto, a blueprint, a call to action, and a deep comfort for troubling times. David R. Loy masterfully lays out the principles and perspectives of Ecodharma—a Buddhist response to our ecological predicament, introducing a new term for a new development of the Buddhist tradition.


Buddhism, psychology and neuroscience

Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing
David Treleaven 2018

Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation
Dan Siegel 2011

Buddha’s Brain *
Rick Hanson 2009

Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha *
Tara Brach 2004

Thoughts without a Thinker
Mark Epstein 2004



Books from other Buddhist traditions

Tibetan Buddhism

The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness *
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Eric Swanson and Daniel Goleman 2008

When Things Fall Apart *
Pema Chödrön 1997

The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving Kindness *
Pema Chödrön 1991

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
Chogyam Trungpa 1973

Zen Buddhism

Everyday Zen *
Charlotte Joko Beck 1989

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
Suzuki Roshi 1970

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