The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen

Great reference book at a small price. You will not be dissapointed. I wasn't. I love it. Just wish it was also a dictionary with roman transliteration

This has been my best investment to help me mentally organize the plethora of terms associated with eastern spiritual traditions. The term descriptions show links to other terms within the encyclopedia so it's kinda like following hypertext links on the internet. I can't praise the authors enough for their collaborative creation. Exellent job!

Usually Reference Books of this type are quite expensive and are also often difficult to find. Congratulations to Shambhala Press for providing a useful book at a reasonable price. The Book concentrates on four areas: Buddhism, Hindiusm, Taoism and Zen. The first three are covered by German and Austrian Scholars, and Zen by a Japanese Scholar. The Book is a translation (by Committee) from the German, and suffers surprisingly little as a result. All entries are Alphabetical and are coded to the four categories listed above, thus making it easy to use. Within the text of the entries arrows next to trems lead readers to related entries. The entries are by necccessity brief. An extensive but incomplete Bibliography, provides much of the most important Source Material. It is an ambitious undertaking to produce a one Volume, 468 page, Reference Book of this type. I think that the Editors have succeeded in their undertaking. I hope that subsequent editions will expand on some of the more important entries and add others. I recommend this Book highly to Students and Scholars alike.

An excellent source for reference or just casual reading, "The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion" is more often than not the first book I turn to when looking for a description of anything from "Advaita" to "Zazen." More than just a collection of terms on Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Zen, this book covers a wide variety of teachers and esoteric wisdom. Rarely have I been stumped when looking to this tome for a word. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in spirituality.