100 Best Buddhism Books of All Time

Steve Jobsoften used the methods found in this book to center himself during difficult moments in his career. He was such an avid practitioner that he considered going to Japan to continue his practice, but was advised against it. (Source)

Kevin RoseIsn’t a religious book, but more on self-realization, study on yourself, breathing exercises, relaxation and understanding human nature. Really cool book, very short read and you will really enjoy reading. (Source)

David Heinemeier HanssonZen Mind, Beginner’s Mind is an introduction to Buddhism and meditation. There are a lot of echoes between Stoicism and Buddhism, and I thought I’d dive deeper into this on recommendation from Eric Dodson (great YouTube channel for existentialist and stoic explainers and introductions). So far I’m finding that there’s longer between the nuggets of wisdom that slot into my brain than with the... (Source)

Jonathan HaidtThe Dhammapada is one of the greatest psychological works ever written, and certainly one of the greatest before 1900. It is masterful in its understanding of the nature of consciousness, and in particular the way we are always striving and never satisfied. You can turn to it – and people have turned to it throughout the ages – at times of trouble, at times of disappointment, at times of loss,... (Source)

Dr. Gabor MatéThe Buddhist collection of sayings. And it begins with, basically, the idea that we create the world with our minds. (Source)

Seth GodinAlmost the flip side. I'm so much better at [protracted difficult periods] because of Pema and because of meditation and because of knowing how to sit with it and not insist that the tension go away. (Source)

Joel GascoigneAround two and a half years ago I found myself on a very organic path from business, success and self-improvement books to those that spanned both personal success and spirituality. Books like The Monk and the Riddle mentioned above address this topic. After reading some of these books, I naturally found myself interested in meditation and Zen Buddhism. One of the most fascinating Zen Buddhists... (Source)

Vinod KhoslaEasy access to meditation. (Source)

Nigel WarburtonWright has a degree of evangelism about him, but he’s not saying this is the only way to achieve a better life. He says it’s a way of eliminating suffering from many people’s lives, and it worked for him. (Source)

Brad FeldI think every entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur should read the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It was written in the 1970s by a guy named Robert Pirsig. It was his first book, it's kind of a hippie philosophy treatised journey. The word that sort of came out of it was Chautauqua, he's like having a conversation with his son as they do a motorcycle trip across the country, and... (Source)

Drew Houston[There are] engineers who [dismiss] all these things that can’t be fit into an algorithm, or that don’t have some kind of mathematical rigor underpinning them, [this book] is about that question. (Source)

Tyler CowenHonorable mentions: Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and The Joy of Sex, all given to me by my mother. I believe they helped inculcate some of the 1960s-70s ethos of individual freedom into my thinking. (Source)

Steve JobsDuring his freshman year at Reed College, Jobs befriended Daniel Kottke, who went on to work at Apple, and together they devoured books such as Shunryu Suzuki’s “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind,” Chogyam Trungpa’s “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism” and Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi,” a book Jobs read and re-read many times during his life. (Source)

Andy PuddicombeHe was calling out probably the biggest trap in the journey of self-discovery, that of spiritual materialism … If we meditate in order to let go of labels, to let go of identity, the last thing we want to do is take on another label: of being ‘spiritual.’ We’re looking to let go of that kind of judgment. (Source)

Andy PuddicombeThe purpose is not to read cover to cover, the purpose is to find out what is the essence you need in that moment that’s going help you live a happier, healthier life, and in turn to help others lead a healthier and happier life. And that’s enough. I still use the book in that way. (Source)

Bryan Van NordenDespite the intimidating title, it’s actually a readable introduction to a certain kind of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. (Source)

Edward NortonOne of Edward Norton's favorites. (Source)

Roxana Bitoleanu[One of the books that had the biggest impact on ] The power of now, as time is a limited resource and we should spend it as wonderfully as possible. (Source)

Darrah BrusteinOthers include The Power Of Now which is powerful reminder that all we have is the present and helps give you meaningful ways to live in it, not in the past or the future. (Source)

Valeria Mercado@Ye_Ali The best book (Source)

Rick RubinIt’s a great book if you’ve never meditated, and if you’ve been meditating for 50 years. (Source)

Henry MedineI promote range and diversity. Thus, I recommend readers to expose themselves to as many different topics as possible. I usually have 2-4 books I refer back to at any given time. They range in topics from management, art, spirituality and philosophy. Trying to get the engineering thing going but don't much of a mind for science. (Source)

Timothy FerrissThis book was recommended to me by a PhD neuroscientist and is what finally helped me tame anger, one of my most destructive (and persistent) emotions. It’s easy to aim for 'successful' and be miserable. This book is the antidote. (Source)

Reid HoffmanReid read Carl von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu as a boy, which informed his strategic thinking. (Source)

Neil deGrasse TysonWhich books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? [...] The Art of War (Sun Tsu) [to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art]. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. (Source)

Evan SpiegelAfter meeting Mark Zuckerberg, [Evan Spiegel] immediately bought every [Snapchat] employee a copy of 'The Art Of War'. (Source)

Tim O'ReillyThe Way of Life According to Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching), translated by Witter Bynner. My personal religious philosophy, stressing the rightness of what is, if only we can accept it. Most people who know me have heard me quote from this book. "Seeing as how nothing is outside the vast, wide-meshed net of heaven, who is there to say just how it is cast?" (Source)

Naval RavikantIn the philosophy side, I’ve been rereading the Tao Te Ching. (Source)

Jack DorseyQ: What are the books that had a major influence on you? Or simply the ones you like the most. : Tao te Ching, score takes care of itself, between the world and me, the four agreements, the old man and the sea...I love reading! (Source)

Matthew BellowsIt's the only guidebook for life that's worked for me consistently over the last 20 years of my career. (Source)

David Heinemeier HanssonOn a lighter note, I finished The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. It’s a short book, but it still manages to repeat itself a lot. And yet the core patterns it covers are as effective as they are simple. I’ve been on a decluttering kick at home and feel so much better because of it. It was also the kickstarter for the conversation... (Source)

Benjamin SpallThe Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo [...] I started reading on vacation. I interviewed Marie for my own book and while the translation is somewhat quirky in places, her book is worth the hype. (Source)

Annie Loves Covfefe@Benny29143790 @Thereal_ssteele Oh how I love Kondo cleaning. Her first book is fantastic too!! (Source)

Chelsea FrankI read everything with an open mind, often challenging myself by choosing books with an odd perspective or religious/spiritual views. These books do not reflect my personal feelings but are books that helped shape my perspective on life, love, and happiness. (Source)

Bogdan LucaciuI recently read “The Book of Joy”. It’s a series of dialogues between Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu (beautifully narrated in the audio version). They share their view on living a happy life in the face of adversity. The book brought profound clarity on topics like compassion, gratitude, generosity, and it deeply resonated with my worldview. If there’s one book you end up reading from my list, I... (Source)

Ari IaccarinoI have no favorite book, but I can tell you a particular genre that continues to capture my literary interests: metacognition. Books like The Tao of Physics, Everyday Zen, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Buddhist Biology, Zen and the Brain, and The Physics of Consciousness all run the gamut of challenging and considering to think of how we think. (Source)

Donald S Lopez JrTibetan Buddhism had rather bad press in Europe and America, being called Lamaism into the 20th century, as if it did not merit the name ‘Buddhism’. It is only since the Dalai Lama left Tibet and went into exile in 1959 that our perception has changed dramatically. Today, 52 years later, many Tibetan Buddhist texts have been translated and we know a great deal more about the practice of Tibetan... (Source)

Adam Robinson[One of five books that confirm] there is far, far more in our unconscious mind than is dreamt of in our philosophy. (Source)

Adam Robinson[One of five books that confirm] there is far, far more in our unconscious mind than is dreamt of in our philosophy. (Source)

Dave Elitch[I give this book] to people all the time. (Source)

Peter AttiaModulating hormones as necessary - we’ve not really talked about that. Fixing anything that needs to be fixed, on top of that pharmacologically, and I’m a huge proponent of pharmacotherapy under the right setting. The final component is managing your stress. So as a guy who’s thinking about this, I became really interested after actually reading Dan Harris’s book. (Source)

Chris GowardI remember reading 10% Happier by Dan Harris on one of my many flights to speak at a conference a couple years ago. I had been practicing meditation for a few years, and had tried to get deeper into learning about it, I struggled with the religious aspect many Buddhist authors brought, which seemed to bring more confusion than clarity. The way Dan described his process of skepticism and discovery... (Source)

Veronica BelmontMade me totally rethink mindfulness and meditation. (Source)

Audrey RussoQuestion: What books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path? Answer: Anything by Peter Senge. The Hard Thing About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz Once you are Lucky, Twice you are good – Sara Lacey Revolutionary Wealth – Alvin Toffler Black Swan – Taleb Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, by Ellen Pao. Creative Class – Richard Florida Creativity Inc. by Ed... (Source)

Carlo RovelliNagarjuna’s philosophy is centred on the idea of the interdependence of all things and the absence of autonomous essence of anything. (Source)

Steve JobsIn late 1972, Jobs had just started at Reed College, an elite liberal arts school in Portland, Oregon. He started doing lots of LSD and reading lots of books about spirituality. (Source)

Jack KornfieldChanged countless lives. (Source)

Travis Brewer[Travis Brewer said this is one of his most-recommended books.] (Source)

Andy PuddicombeThis book is a rallying call for giving up life as we know it and transforming the conditioned mind. The fact that I read it, shaved all my hair off, ordained as a Buddhist monk and went into retreat at a monastery is a good indication of how it made me feel. (Source)

Jeffrey D SachsYes, I think it is probably right to start with the new millennium of which we have now completed the first decade. A lot of the writing that I am talking about is focused on the idea that we need to do something new in our new millennium and our new century. The Millennium Development Goals are the most specific manifestation of that idea, the objective of really reaching a new level and a new... (Source)

Eric RipertExplore the connections between science and Buddhist philosophy. (Source)

Oliver BurkemanThis is a very thin book but a mind-blowing one. In many ways it was part of my motivation to write my book. Alan Watts was a philosophical populariser. He called himself a “spiritual entertainer”, and went around the world giving lectures and writing popular books about Eastern philosophies such as Zen Buddhism and Taoism. This book is about non-dualism – the theory that in some sense,... (Source)

Antonio EramThis book was recommended by Antonio when asked for titles he would recommend to young people interested in his career path. (Source)

Gunhee ParkFor spirituality, I’ve really enjoyed reading Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?. The title of the book sounds a bit odd, but it is a book full of short stories and lessons by a renowned monk named Ajahn Brahm. (Source)

Kyle RussellBook 20 Lesson: Distinction is not separation. To understand something, you must also understand its relationships with other parts of the environment or context around it. https://t.co/DB453aY565 (Source)

Kevin LampingNot a business book, but *The Book* is one that I can say shines out among the other stars. It's hard to pick a book that's had the most impact on me, because they always have some effect. But there was something so calming, so reassuring about *The Book* that really helped me in a time of lots of self-doubt. I know this is supposed to focus on less "spiritual" books, and I'm not a religious guy,... (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Joel GascoigneThe author of this book has sometimes been called the "happiest man in the world". He is a French Biochemist turned Buddhist monk and has been in a unique position to merge science with mindfulness and meditation. The underlying theme of the book is that happiness is indeed within our control, and is much more a skill than something that simply happens to us. One of the biggest revelations for me... (Source)

Jamie Lee CurtisThe most important book I have ever read, the best gift I have ever given. A daily touchstone to center, balance, inspire & comfort. I was honored @marknepo asked me to write the forward for this 20th anniversary edition. It is available now for pre-order. Publication date 1/1/20 https://t.co/6PIQFBI1Wz (Source)

Marian KeyesOh! So GREAT! If you're able, PLEASE read her powerful book. https://t.co/3itlgrS7Mz (Source)

Susan CainSuch a fantastic book. And it was really, for me, completely lifechanging. (Source)

Chris GowardI also highly recommend Sam Harris' Waking Up, which is a more well-rounded unpacking of non-religious mindfulness practice. (Source)

Fabrice GrindaVery well thought through analysis of spirituality without religion. (Source)