Stoddart - An illustrated outline of Buddhism: the essentials of Buddhist spirituality

William Stoddart was born in Carstairs, Scotland, lived most of his life in London, England, and now lives in Windsor, Ontario. He studied modern languages, and later medicine, at the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dublin. He was a close associate of both Frithjof Schuon and Titus Burckhardt during the lives of these leading perennialists and translated several of their works into English. For many years Stoddart was also assistant editor of the British journal Studies in Comparative Religion . Pursuing his interests in comparative religion, he has traveled widely in Europe, North Africa, India, Sri Lanka, and Japan. Stoddarts works include Outline of Hinduism (1993; 2007 edition titled Hinduism and Its Spiritual Masters ), Outline of Buddhism (1998), Outline of Sufism: The Essentials of Islamic Spirituality (2012), Invincible Wisdom: Quotations from the Scriptures, Saints, and Sages of All Times and Places (2008), What Do the Religions Say About Each Other? Christian Attitudes towards Islam, Islamic Attitudes towards Christianity (2008), and What Does Islam Mean in Todays World? (2012). His essential writings were published by World Wisdom as Remembering in a World of Forgetting: Thoughts on Tradition and Postmodernism (2008).

Joseph A. Fitzgerald studied Comparative Religion at Indiana University, where he also earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree. For over twenty years he has traveled extensively throughout the Buddhist world, including visits to Bhutan, Mongolia, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Nepal, India, and Japan. He is an award-winning editor whose previous publications include Honen the Buddhist Saint: Essential Writings and Official Biography (2006), The Essential Sri Anandamayi Ma: Life and Teachings of a 20th Century Saint from India (2007), The Way and the Mountain: Tibet, Buddhism, and Tradition (2008), An Illustrated Introduction to Taoism: The Wisdom of the Sages (2010), The Original Gospel of Ramakrishna (2011), and The Wisdom of Ananda Coomaraswamy (with S.D.R. Singam) (2011) . Joseph lives with his wife and daughters in Bloomington, Indiana.

For much helpful counsel and discussion, thanks are due to the late Ranjit Fernando, Alberto Martin, the late Richard Nicholson, Peter Oldmeadow, the late Marco Pallis, John Paraskevopoulos, and Gregory Phillips.

The author is indebted to Paulo Cesar Honorio for designing the four maps of the Buddhist areas of the world on pp. 52, 87, 108, and 111, and to Shr Keshavram Iengar of Mysore for permission to reproduce his Sanskrit calligraphy on pp. 22 and 106.

Sitting Buddha, Sri Lanka, 8th-9th century

Above: Shkyamuni Buddha at Vulture Peak Paradise, Central or Eastern Tibet

For a glossary of all key foreign words
used in books published by World Wisdom, including metaphysical terms in English, consult:
www.DictionaryofSpiritualTerms.org.
This on-line Dictionary of Spiritual Terms provides extensive definitions,
examples, and related terms in other languages.

World Wisdom Titles on Buddhism

The Buddha Eye:
An Anthology of the Kyoto School and Its Contemporaries ,
edited by Frederick Franck, 2004

A Buddhist Spectrum: Contributions to Buddhist-Christian Dialogue ,
by Marco Pallis, 2004

The Essential Shinran: A Buddhist Path of True Entrusting ,
edited by Alfred Bloom, 2007

The Golden Age of Zen: Zen Masters of the Tang Dynasty ,
by John C.H. Wu, 2004

Honen the Buddhist Saint: Essential Writings and Official Biography ,
edited by Joseph A. Fitzgerald, 2006

An Illustrated Outline of Buddhism:
The Essentials of Buddhist Spirituality ,
by William Stoddart, 2013

The Laughing Buddha of Tofukuji:
The Life of Zen Master Keido Fukushima ,
by Ishwar Harris, 2004

Living in Amidas Universal Vow: Essays in Shin Buddhism ,
edited by Alfred Bloom, 2004

Naturalness: A Classic of Shin Buddhism ,
by Kenryo Kanamatsu, 2002

Samdhong Rinpoche: Uncompromising Truth for a
Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism and Todays World ,
edited by Donovan Roebert, 2006

Treasures of Buddhism ,
by Frithjof Schuon, 1993

The Way and the Mountain: Tibet, Buddhism, and Tradition ,
by Marco Pallis, 2008

Zen Buddhism: A History, Vol. 1: India and China ,
by Heinrich Dumoulin, 2005

Zen Buddhism: A History, Vol. 2: Japan ,
wisdom ( praj ) section

Ballou, Robert (ed.). The Bible of the World . London: Kegan Paul/New York: Avon Books, 1940.

Basham, A.L. The Wonder That was India . London: Fontana/New York: Grove Press, 1954.

Burckhardt, Titus. The Image of the Buddha and Landscape in Far-Eastern Art. In Sacred Art in East and West . Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2001. Two major studies.

Conze, Edward. Buddhism: Its Essence and Development . Oxford: Cassirer/New York: Harper & Row, 1951.

. Buddhist Scriptures . Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1959.

Coomaraswamy, Ananda. Elements of Buddhist Iconography . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1935.

. Hinduism and Buddhism . New York: Philosophical Library, 1943.

. The Living Thoughts of Gotama the Buddha . London: Cassell, 1948.

& Sister Nivedita. Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists . London: Harrap, 1913.

Harrer, Heinrich. Seven Years in Tibet . London: Pan Books, 1953.

Herrigel, Eugen. Zen in the Art of Archery . London: Kegan Paul/New York: Random House, 1953.

. The Method of Zen . London: Kegan Paul/New York: Random House, 1960.

Herrigel, Gustie. Zen in the Art of Flower Arrangement . London: Kegan Paul, 1958.

Hnen the Buddhist Saint , edited by Joseph A. Fitzgerald. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2006.

Horner, I.B. Dhamma in Early Buddhism. In The Unanimous Tradition , edited by Ranjit Fernando. Colombo: Sri Lanka Institute of Traditional Studies, 1991.

Inagaki, Hisao & Harold Stewart. The Three Pure Land Stras . Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo, 1995.

Life of Milarepa, The , translated by Lhobsang P. Lhalungpa. New York: Dutton, 1977.

Masefield, Peter. Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism . London: Rout-ledge, 2008.

Okakura, Kakuzo. The Book of Tea . Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1906.

Pallis, Marco. Peaks and Lamas . London: Frank Cass, 1974.

. A Buddhist Spectrum . Bloomington IN: World Wisdom, 2003.

. The Way and the Mountain . Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2008.

Schuon, Frithjof. Treasures of Buddhism . Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 1993. [Revised and enlarged edition of In the Tracks of Buddhism .] The best explanation of Buddhism available.

Shastri, Hari Prasad. Echoes of Japan . London: Shanti Sadan, 1961.

Stein, R.A. Tibetan Civilization . London: Faber, 1972.

Steinilber, E. & Kuni Matsuo. Les Sectes Bouddhiques Japonaises . Paris: Crs, 1930.

Stewart, Harold. A Net of Fireflies [Japanese haiku and haiku paintings with verse translations by Harold Stewart]. Rutland, VT/Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1960.

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. Outlines of Mahyna Buddhism . London: Luzac & Co., 1907.

. Introduction to Zen Buddhism . New York: Causeway Books, 1974.

Tibets Great Yog Milarepa: A Biography from the Tibetan , edited by W.Y. Evans-Wentz. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.