Want to know what books Donald S Lopez Jr recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Donald S Lopez Jr's favorite book recommendations of all time.
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First published in 1592, The Journey to the West, volume I, comprises the first twenty-five chapters of Anthony C. Yu's four-volume translation of Hsi-yu Chi, one of the most beloved classics of Chinese literature. The fantastic tale recounts the sixteen-year pilgrimage of the monk Hsüan-tsang (596-664), one of China's most illustrious religious heroes, who journeyed to India with four animal disciples in quest of Buddhist scriptures. For nearly a thousand years, his exploits were celebrated and embellished in various accounts, culminating in the hundred-chapter Journey to... more First published in 1592, The Journey to the West, volume I, comprises the first twenty-five chapters of Anthony C. Yu's four-volume translation of Hsi-yu Chi, one of the most beloved classics of Chinese literature. The fantastic tale recounts the sixteen-year pilgrimage of the monk Hsüan-tsang (596-664), one of China's most illustrious religious heroes, who journeyed to India with four animal disciples in quest of Buddhist scriptures. For nearly a thousand years, his exploits were celebrated and embellished in various accounts, culminating in the hundred-chapter Journey to the West, which combines religious allegory with romance, fantasy, humor, and satire. less 
Donald S Lopez JrIn 629, a Chinese monk named Xuanzang set out for India in order to retrieve Buddhist scriptures, returning in 645. He was welcomed as a hero by the emperor and received the title ‘Master of the Tripitaka’, the Buddhist canon. Xuanzang wrote a detailed account of his travels, entitled Great Tang Records on the Western Regions – if I could choose six books, it would be the sixth. His long journey... (Source)
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Patrul Rinpoche, Padmakara Translation Group, Dilgo Khyentse, His Holiness the Dalai Lama | 4.55
Featuring a preface by Dalai Lama, a classic handbook written in the nineteenth century outlines the spiritual practices common to all Tibetan Buddhist traditions and makes them accessible through examples from daily life. Original. 10,000 first printing. more Featuring a preface by Dalai Lama, a classic handbook written in the nineteenth century outlines the spiritual practices common to all Tibetan Buddhist traditions and makes them accessible through examples from daily life. Original. 10,000 first printing. less 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)
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Donald S Lopez JrAfter Burnouf, we see much of the European interest in Buddhism moving away from his emphasis on social history toward philosophy and doctrine. European thinkers became fascinated by ideas like karma, nirvana, and no self. In the process, Schopen argues, we lost sight of what Buddhism was ‘on the ground’ in India. Thus, rather than concentrating on canonical philosophical texts, Schopen looked to... (Source)
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Eugène Burnouf, Katia Buffetrille, et al. | 4.00
The most influential work on Buddhism to be published in the nineteenth century, Introduction à l’histoire du Buddhisme indien, by the great French scholar of Sanskrit Eugène Burnouf, set the course for the academic study of Buddhism, and Indian Buddhism in particular, for the next hundred years. First published in 1844, the masterwork was read by some of the most important thinkers of the time, including Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in Germany and Emerson and Thoreau in America. But a century and a half on, Burnouf’s text has largely been forgotten.
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The most influential work on Buddhism to be published in the nineteenth century, Introduction à l’histoire du Buddhisme indien, by the great French scholar of Sanskrit Eugène Burnouf, set the course for the academic study of Buddhism, and Indian Buddhism in particular, for the next hundred years. First published in 1844, the masterwork was read by some of the most important thinkers of the time, including Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in Germany and Emerson and Thoreau in America. But a century and a half on, Burnouf’s text has largely been forgotten.
All that changes with Katia Buffetrille and Donald S. Lopez Jr.’s English translation of this foundational text. Reemerging here as a vibrant artifact of intellectual history and as a progenitor of the often colorful genealogy of Buddhist studies, Introduction to the History of Indian Buddhism provides a clear view of how the religion was understood in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Burnouf was an impeccable scholar, and his vision, especially of the Buddha, continues to profoundly shape our modern understanding of Buddhism. Indeed, the work offers a wellspring of still-valuable information and insight into the theory and practice of Buddhism. In reintroducing Burnouf to a new generation of Buddhologists, Buffetrille and Lopez have revived a seminal text in the history of Orientalism.
lessDonald S Lopez JrMuch of what we understand Buddhism to be today is a direct result of how Buddhism was portrayed in Europe in the 19th century. By the time that the Portuguese arrived in India in the late 15th century – eventually followed by the Dutch, the French, and the British – Buddhism had effectively disappeared from the subcontinent. (Source)
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Tsugunari Kubo, Akira Yuyama | 4.31
The Lotus Sutra, as it is generally known in the West, is one of the most important of all the Mahayana sutras, and especially in Japan, where it is popularly known as the Ho-ke-kyou, it has been held in high regard ever since Prince Shoutoku included a commentary on it in his set of commentaries on three Mahayana sutras (San-gyou-gi-sho).
It is a work of great literary merit, including as it does many sections of verse and various parables, but at the same time it has earned a lasting place in the history of Buddhism owing to the superior quality of its philosophical... more The Lotus Sutra, as it is generally known in the West, is one of the most important of all the Mahayana sutras, and especially in Japan, where it is popularly known as the Ho-ke-kyou, it has been held in high regard ever since Prince Shoutoku included a commentary on it in his set of commentaries on three Mahayana sutras (San-gyou-gi-sho).
It is a work of great literary merit, including as it does many sections of verse and various parables, but at the same time it has earned a lasting place in the history of Buddhism owing to the superior quality of its philosophical content. The concept of 'One Vehicle' especially, which permeates the whole work, has had immeasurable influence upon Japanese Buddhism.
It is divided into 28 chapters, of which Chapter 16, 'The Life Span of the Tathagatayuspramana-parivarta XV), is especially important for its eulogy of sakyamuni as the embodiment of the eternal life and as having attained enlightenment in the inconceivably remote past. Among the numerous parables those of the three carts and the burning house, the wealthy man and his poor son, the three kinds of medicinal herbs and two kinds of trees, and the phantom city and the treasure land are especially famous. In addition Chapter 25, 'The Universal Gate of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara' (Skt.: Samantamukha-parivarta XXIV), which describes the blessings of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, was circulated in China and Japan as an independent sutra and is still recited today. It is also a well-known fact that the chant, or daimoku, of the Nichiren School of Japan and related sects consists of the invocation na-mu added to the Japanese title of this sutra, resulting in Na-mu-myou-hou-ren-ge-kyou. less Donald S Lopez JrThat’s correct. It is particularly famous in East Asia, but it was very important in India (where it was composed) and Tibet as well. We sometimes think of a religion as having a single sacred text, whether it is the Bible or the Torah or the Koran. And for those traditions that don’t have a single text, we sometimes think of a signature text such as the Bhagavad-Gita for Hinduism or the Tao Te... (Source)
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