Through Which Reality Shines

Sangharakshita (1925-2018) was a Buddhist teacher who spent twenty years in India before returning to the United Kingdom and founding the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community (originally the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order). He was an important translator of Buddhism into western culture in the latter half of the 20th century.Born in London as Dennis Lingwood, he became a Buddhist monk in India in 1949. He studied with Buddhist teachers from Theravada and Tibetan traditions, and spent several months each year teaching the dalit Buddhist followers of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. In 1964 he returned to the UK and established the FWBO (now Triratna) in 1967, drawing on the riches of the entire Buddhist universe, as well as helpful aspects of Western cultural traditions.Sangharakshita was a prolific author, from his first major work A Survey of Buddhism (1957), to edited lectures and seminars, to a series of memoirs of his time in India and the West. His Complete Works have now been published in 27 volumes by Windhorse Publications. The Triratna Buddhist Order and Community is now a thriving worldwide movement, in which his teachings continue to inspire practitioners new and old.

• About the AuthorForewordPrologueIntroduction 1.General Characterization of Buddhism 2. Historical Characterisation of Mahayanism3. Speculative Mahayanism4. Classification of Knoweledge 5. Bhuta-tathata (suchness) 6. Tathagatagarbha and the Alaya-Vijanana7. The Theory of Non-Atman or Non-Ego 8. Karma 9.The Dharmakaya10. The Doctrine of Trikaya11. The Bodhisattava12. The Ten Stages of Bodhisattvahood13. NirvanaConclusion: Verses from the Avatamsaka Sutra Notes and References