Selected Books

Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is an excellent primer on Vipassana meditation.

Introductory Texts

• Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom (1993)

• Gavin Harrison, In the Lap of the Buddha (1994)

• Jack Kornfield, A Path With Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life (1993)

• Sylvia Boorstein, It's Easier Than You Think (1995)

• Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (1994)

• Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness (1995)

• Thich Nhat Hanh, The Long Road Turns to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation (1996)

• Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975)

• Wes Nisker, Buddha's Nature: Evolution as a Practical Guide to Enlightenment (1998)

Mindfulness and Social Justice

• Joan Halifax, Standing at the Edge (2018)

• Ruth King, Mindful of Race (2018)

• Rhonda Magee, The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness (2019)

• Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother's Hands (2017)

• Lama Rod Owens, Love and Rage (2020)

• Larry Ward, America's Racial Karma (2020)

• Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Lama Rod Owens, Jasmine Syedullah, PhD, Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation (2016)

Vipassana/Insight/Theravadan

• Thanissaro Bhikkhu, The Wings to Awakening (1996)

• Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha (2003)

• Achaan Chah, A Still Forest Pool (1985)

• Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom (1987)

• Joseph Goldstein, One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism (2002)

• Joseph Goldstein, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening (2016)

• Bhante Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English (1991)

• Bhante Gunaratana, The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English (2012)

• Ayya Khema, Being Nobody, Going Nowhere: Meditations on the Buddhist Path (1987)

• Ayya Khema, Who Is My Self?: A Guide to Buddhist Meditation (1997)

• Jack Kornfield, Living Dharma: Teachings of Twelve Buddhist Masters (1996)

• Jack Kornfield (ed.), Teachings of the Buddha (1996)

• Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path (2000)

• Sharon Salzberg, A Heart as Wide as the World: Stories on the Path of Lovingkindness (1999)

• Sharon Salzberg, Faith (2002)

• Amy Schmidt, Knee Deep in Grace: The Extraordinary Life and Teachings of Dipa Ma (2003)

• Rodney Smith, Stepping Out of Self-Deception: The Buddha's Liberating Teaching of No-Self (2010)

• Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation: A Handbook of Mental Training Based on the Buddha's Way of Mindfulness (1965)

• Larry Yang, Awakening Together (2017)

Zen

• Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen (1989)

• Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special: Living Zen (1993)

• Robert E. Buswell, Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul's Korean Way of Zen (1991)

• Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970)

• Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

• Thich Nhat Hanh, Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers (1999)

• Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ (1995)

• Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Being Black (2000)

• Bernie Glassman, Bearing Witness (1999)

Tibetan Buddhism

• Dalai Lama, A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night: A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life (1994)

• Dalai Lama, The Good Heart: Buddhist Perspectives on the Teachings of Jesus (1996)

• Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living (1998)

• Dalai Lama, Essence of the Heart Sutra: The Dalai Lama's Heart of Wisdom Teachings (2002)

• Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living (1994)

• Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (1997)

• Pema Chodron, The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (2001)

• Matthieu Ricard, Journey to Enlightenment: The Life and World of Khyentse Rinpoche, Spiritual Teacher from Tibet (1997)

• Surya Das, Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World (1997)

• Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Fearless Simplicity: The Dzogchen Way of Living Freely in a Complex World (2003)

• Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Rainbow Painting (1995)

Spiritual Journey

• Lex Hixon, Coming Home: The Experience of Enlightenment in Sacred Traditions (1978)

• Stephen Levine, A Gradual Awakening (1979)

• Stephen Levine, Healing Into Life and Death (1987)

• Stephen Levine, A Year to Live: How to Live This Year As If It Were Your Last (1997)

• Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That (1973)

Engaged Buddhism

• Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth (1988)

• Thomas Berry, The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (1999)

• Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self (1991)

• Donald Rothberg, The Engaged Spiritual Life (2006)

• Thanissara, Time to Stand Up (2015)

Science and Buddhism

• David Bohm and F. David Peat, Science, Order, and Creativity, Second Edition (2000)

• David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1981)

• Joanna Macy, Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems (1991)

• Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding (1987)

• Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Xuan Thuan, The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet (2001)

• Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson, Eleanor Rosch, The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (1991)

• B. Alan Wallace, Choosing Reality (1996)

• Renee Weber, Dialogues with Scientists and Sages: The Search for Unity (1986)

• Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems (1996)

• Fritjof Capra and David Steindl-Rast, Belonging to the Universe: Explorations on the Frontiers of Science and Spirituality (1992)

Historical Buddhism

• Matty Weingast, The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns (2020)

• Ann Gleig, American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity (2019)

Fiction

• Susan Carol Stone, The Kosambi Intrigue: A Tale in the Time of the Buddha (2012)

• Susan Carol Stone, The Jealous Heart: A Hundred Hues of Green in the Time of the Buddha (2016)

• Susan Carol Stone, The Yes Sayers: Affirmation in the Time of the Buddha (2018)

Secular Buddhism

• Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening (1997)

• Stephen Batchelor, The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture (1994)