Suggested Reading and Study List

This reading list is provided for those interested in supplementing their practice with readings. There are three primary sections: (1) "Introductory", which is a good place to start if you're new to Buddhism or just want to get a good groundling in the basics: (2) "Core Reading", which provides sutras and teachings central to Gareth's primary teaching approaches; and (2) "Additional Reading" which is a broad range of Buddhist teachings that flesh those out and provide additional rich study opportunities for study.

Introductory

• Mindfulness - Joseph Goldstein: This commentary on the Satipatthana (Four Foundations of Mindfulness) Sutta from the Pali canon of Theravadan Buddhism provides a solid and comprehensive introduction to the foundational teachings and practices of Buddhism;
• Mindfulness with Breathing - Buddhadasa Bhikkhu: A commentary on the Anapanasati Sutta that provides deep and meaningful guidance for practitioners of all levels. A masterpiece by a master;
• In Love with the World - Yongey Mingyur Ripoche: An autobiographical account of one of the senior Tibetan abbot leaving his monastery in secret to become a complete renunciant for a period of several years. Inspirational and full of penetrating insights and wonderful teachings and practices...as well as the most amazing narration of a "near death experience";
• Zen Mind, Beginners Mind - Shunryo Suzuki: No list of recommended texts can be complete without including this wonderful classic, a series of dharma talks from the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center;
• The Essence of Chan - Guo Gu: The author uses a foundational teaching of Bodhidharma as the framework for articulating the basic teachings and practices of Chan Buddhism
• Gautama Buddha - Vishvapani Blomfield: Comprehensively researched, well structured, and comprehensive, this book tells the story of the Buddha's life, in the context of the life and times within which he lived;
• Boundless Heart - Christina Feldman: The Brahmaviharas are both the fruit of an awakened life and the path that leads to it, and metta practice is a specific technique that embodies this. Feldman's text is a wonderful and thorough introduction;
  
• With Each and Every Breath - Thanissaro Bhikkhu: A wonderful introduction and guide to the practice of meditation, which goes in detail from the very simplest and earliest steps all the way through to the experience of awakening itself. Thanissaro structures this teaching based on the Pali sutta canon;
  
• A Still Forest Pool - Achaan Chah: A collection of short talks from Thai Forest, Master Achaan Chah, a teacher who reformed Thai Buddhism and heavily influenced the first generations of western Buddhist teachers;
  
• The Hidden Lamp - Florence Caplow and Susan Moon: A contemporary collection of 100 koans, each a story featuring women and with a commentary by a female Buddhist teacher;
• Awakening of the Heart - Thich Nhat Hanh: A broad collection of sutras from different traditions, each with a beautiful and insightful commentary from the Vietnamese master;
• First Female Buddhists - Susan Murcott: This is a modern translation of with scholarly commentary on the Therigatha, a classic Theravadan collection of poems by "wives, mothers, teachers, courtesans, prostitutes and wanderers who became the first female disciples of the Buddha".
  

Core Teachings

Supplementary

• Pure and Simple - Upaseka Kee Nanayon: "The extraordinary teachings of a Thai Forest laywoman" are manifest the directness, starkness and simplicity of the teachings themselves and of a style of delivering them;
• Blue Cliff Record: Cleary and Cleary - A translation of the classic Japanese collection of Zen koans. Traditionally this is used in the Rinzai sect for koan practice, but it can also be taken as reading material (to be taken slowly!). Don't try to (or expect to be able to!) understand the koans or the commentaries, but let them lie in the background of your mind, working away invisibly;
• The Wings to Awakening - Thanissaro Bhikkhu: A deep and thorough guide to Buddhist practice following the Pali Canon and the Theravadan tradition. For anyone interested in engaging in a thorough study of Theravadan teachings, you could begin by reading this a few times!
  
• Diamond Sutra Explained - Master Nan Huai-Chin: A translation of and commentary on the Diamond Sutra from a Chinese Ch'an Master. While he is not well known in the west, this translation and commentary are the most profound I've read, and offer deep wisdom and insight;
  
• Passing Through the Gateless Barrier - Guo Gu: with "grandmotherly kindness" Guo Gu not only provides a beautiful translation of the classic Mumonkan collection of koans, but also penetrating insights. And threaded throughout the book is a clear articulation of how koans and hua tou are used in the Chan tradition.
• The Awakening of Faith - Yoshito Hakeda: A translation of and commentary on a seminal and profoundly influential Chinese treatise that drew a vast number of historical commentaries and had a deep impact on the development of Buddhism in Eastern Asia.
• Food for the Heart - The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah: A collection of discourses from the Thai Forest Master. Longer, more comprehensive, more subtle and at the same time more explosive than those in "A Still Forest Pool";
• On The Path - Thanissaro Bhikkhu: A rigorous and thorough guide to engaging with the components of the Attangikamagga, the Noble Eightfold/ Eight-Limbed Path, Buddha's primary teaching methodology;
• Strategies for Modern Living - Yuen Bo/ Alfred Bloom: A translation of and commentary on the Tannisho, a classic Pure Land text, which provides practical everyday advice that has applicability to all Buddhists;
  
• Buddhism for Today: Nikkyo Niwano - A commentary on the "King of Sutras", the Lotus Sutra, by the founder of Rissho Kossei Kai, a mid-Twentieth Century Lotus Sutra movement. It illuminates this challenging text, both bringing it to life and helping the reader make sense of it in the context of broader Buddhism and Twenty-First Century life;
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Complete Translation) Gyurme Dorje: A difficult text that requires additional reading for grounding and context, but one that can be transformative and significantly reshape one's approach to the practice. It is the primary canonical Buddhist text that specifically focuses on preparing for the actual experience of dying from this specific incarnation/life
• Jesus and the Disinherited - Howard Thurman: A classic of American Christianity, this text helped shape the US Civil Rights Movement, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King carried it in his jacket pocket. It offers all, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, profound insight into suffering and the end of suffering, and the cultivation of wisdom and compassion;
• Talks with Ramana Maharshi: A collection of dialogs with this icon of self-enlightened Twentieth-Century Hindu mystics;
• Pointers from Nisargadata Maharaj: Ramesh Balkesar: Conversations with Nisargadata assembled and provided context by his disciple, Balsekar. The structure and narrative offered by Balkesar makes this a far more approachable text than the more well known "I Am That", while at the same time preserving the startling wisdom and insight of the teacher;
• The Holy Geeta - Swami Chinmayananda: The Bhagavad Gita is the central religious text of Hindu meditative/ liberative philosophy and practice. It in may ways parallels Buddhist practice, viewing through a different lens, it can profoundly inform and help our journey to awakening. Chinmayananda's lengthy commentary, while written in an Indian voice with male pronouns and a dash of nationalism that may offend Western sensibilities, penetrates into the depth of the source text and breaks open its teachings non-duality and compassion