I love reading. I love it so much I’ve read 30 Buddhism books over the past 2 years! My shelves are filled with books written by Buddhist masters like the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and Chögyam Trungpa. To save you time and research, I’ve compiled a list of the best Buddhism books for beginners and for the more advanced.
Beginner Buddhism Books
If you’re interested in learning about Buddhism, but aren’t too sure where to start, please refer to five books below. These buddhist books are geared towards beginners that will give a “big picture” look into Buddhism. You won’t necessarily be learning in-depth concepts yet, but rather exploring the overarching teachings of the Buddhist path.
Approaching the Buddha’s Path
By the Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron
This is the first volume in a multi-volume collection presenting the Dalai Lama’s comprehensive explanation of the Buddhist path. This first volume provides a wealth of reflections on Buddhist history and fundamentals, contemporary issues, and the Dalai Lama’s own personal experiences. It stands alone as an introduction to Buddhism, but it also provides a foundation for the systematic illumination of the path in the other volumes.
The first half (roughly) deals with a more historical look at Buddhism and the Buddhist texts and sects. The second half deals more with practices and development.
*Note: some reviewers agree this is a great book for beginners, others have said it was more difficult than expected. Personally, I had no trouble with it, so I included it for beginners. However, I would suggest “looking inside” the book on Amazon first to gauge whether this is a good start for you. The Dalai Lama generally does a great job of explaining concepts clearly for Westerners. But, if not, please refer to the books below.*
8 Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha’s Path
By Bhante Gunaratana
Internationally recognized author and meditation teacher, Bhante Gunaratana delves deeply into the noble eightfold path, the Buddha’s most profound teaching on bringing an end to suffering. With easy-to-understand and specific advice, Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness offers skillful ways to handle anger, find right livelihood, cultivate loving-friendliness, and overcome the mental hindrances that prevent happiness.
I would highly suggest reading this as one of your first books on Buddhism. Gunaratana does a fantastic job explaining the eightfold path, with a “key points” section at the end of each Step.
For example, Step 1 (ie. Chapter 1) talks about Skillful Understanding. Gunaratana makes it easy to understand what he’s talking about by giving real-life examples to go along with the concepts.
Impermanence is easy to understand. The fact that things are temporary is not the problem. Rather, it’s the attachment we have to people and things that makes us unhappy. Say we have a new jacket we like enormously. After wearing it only a few times, we get some wet paint on it, or we tear it. We feel annoyed. […] We must look it right in the eye, this dissatisfaction caused by change, and acknowledge it.
You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment
By Thich Nhat Hanh
Do you feel like you have trouble staying in the present moment? Are you always overthinking, anxious and stressed? If so, this may be the perfect book for you. Thich Nhat Hanh, one of my favorite Buddhist authors, emphasizes the power of mindfulness to transform our lives. This book is actually based off a retreat that he led for Westerners, so it’s suitable for beginners (all his books are – you can view his entire collection here because there is just too many to list!)
He offers a range of simple, effective practices for cultivating mindfulness, including awareness of breathing and walking, deep listening, and skillful speech. You Are Here also offers guidance on healing emotional pain and manifesting real love and compassion in our relationships with others.
The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality
By the Dalai Lama
Are you interested in learning about Buddhism, but are ultimately skeptical of its teachings? Do you wish to know it’s relation to science? If so, this is for you. Whereas many religious leaders are skeptical of the collaboration between science and spirituality, His Holiness the Dalai Lama values the interplay between them. After forty years of study with some of the greatest scientific minds, the Dalai Lama presents a brilliant analysis of why all avenues of inquiry—scientific as well as spiritual—must be pursued in order to arrive at a complete picture of the truth.
The Dalai Lama has said that if science disproves any of the Buddhist teachings, he will believe in the science. What other religion or religious leader has ever said something like that before?
If on the quantum level, matter is revealed to be less solid and definable than it appears, then it seems to me that science is coming closer to the Buddhist contemplative insights of emptiness and interdependence.
Buddha’s Office
By Dan Zigmond
Many of us work 30-50 hours a week at a job we probably don’t love. Too many of us are working long hours, dealing with difficult bosses, high-maintenance coworkers, and non-stop stress. We need someone to help remind us that there is a better way. With Buddha’s wisdom at the core of every chapter, Buddha’s Office will help you learn how to stop taking shortcuts and pay more attention, care for yourself and others, deal with distractions, and incorporate Buddha’s ageless instructions into our modern working life.
I actually stumbled upon this book while browsing the business section at Barnes and Noble. Not really sure why it wasn’t where the spiritual development books are, but nonetheless, this is exactly what I needed. I only graduated college a few years ago, so I never realized the immense stress that comes along with a full-time career job. It’s a quick read with lots of helpful tips to get you through your work day. This is especially helpful since many of us work from home now.
Advanced Buddhism Books
The following advanced buddhism books require a basic understanding of Buddhism in order to fully comprehend its teachings. Before diving into these you should know the all-important concepts of emptiness, egolessness, dharma, nirvana, samsara and mind (among others), and you should already be applying the teachings you’ve learned from the “beginner books” section to your day-to-day life.
Of course, don’t let me dissuade you if you’re feeling up to the challenge! But, it’s kind of like jumping into a Calculus course without having already taken Pre-Calculus – it’s certainly possible, but you may have trouble understanding the concepts (you can visit the glossary page for Buddhism terms & definitions!)
Shambhala – The Sacred Path of the Warrior
By Chögyam Trungpa
Shambhala has my heart. This is the very book that introduced me to Buddhism and meditation in 2016. I was at the Global Café bookstore in Prague, CZ when I came across it. I couldn’t tell you why it caught my eye, but it did, and it changed my life.
This book talks about how to become a warrior, but what does that mean? When we think of warriors, we probably think of a brave soul going into battle to defend his or her country. But that definition doesn’t fit the mold for this. The sacred warrior that Trungpa talks about is one who conquers the world not through violence or aggression, but through gentleness, courage, and self-knowledge. The warrior discovers the basic goodness of human life and radiates that goodness out into the world for the peace and sanity of others. That’s what the Shambhala teachings are all about. Trungpa shows that through discovering the basic goodness of human life, the warrior learns to radiate that goodness out into the world for the peace and sanity of others.
To be a warrior is to learn to be genuine in every moment of your life.
Shambhala also discusses fear, intimacy, bravery, and our connection to the natural world around us and the ways in which we can help the world, instead of destroying it.
Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
by Sogyal Rinpoche
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is not an easy read. As you can gather from the title, it’s a book about death, which is a very sensitive subject. In the West, we bury the thought of our eventual demise by filling up our time with nonsense. How many times have you re-watched the same TV show or movie? How many hours have you spent just on social media? We constantly distract ourselves, because to spend time alone with our thoughts is a dangerous thing (or so we think). This is our ego talking, and it’s completely delusional. Death is not something to be afraid of and Rinpoche does a great job of explaining why.
Rinpoche discusses concepts such as reincarnation, karma, and bardo and practices such as meditation, tonglen, and phowa, which teach us how to face death constructively.
How to See Yourself as You Really Are
by the Dalai Lama
Although the Dalai Lama is very good at explaining Buddhist concepts in a clear and concise way for beginners, I decided this particular book may be better suited for advanced readers. The main concept in this book revolves around emptiness, which can be difficult to wrap one’s head around. Tibetan Buddhism teaches us that we do not exist in and of ourselves and that everything is interdependent. We can see ourselves as we really are through focusing our minds, turning to meditation, and noticing how everything depends on thought.
I found myself re-reading sections, highlighting certain points and reflecting constantly on the lessons. It’s difficult to accept that we are not really who we believe we are – we are not our mind, we are not our ego, and we are connected with everyone and everything. One cannot exist without the other.
In the process of developing an accurate assessment of who you actually are, you need to appreciate the disparity between how you appear to your own mind and how you indeed exist.
The book is divided into thematic sections with meditative reflections at the end of each.
The Path of Individual Liberation: Volume One
by Chögyam Trungpa
The Path of Individual Liberation is the first in a three-volume collection by renowned Buddhist Meditation Master Chögyam Trungpa. Throughout the collection, he presents comprehensive teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist path of the hinayana, mahayana, and vajrayana.
In the first volume, Trungpa begins by presenting the teachings of the hinayana. The hinayana introduces core Buddhist teachings on the nature of mind, the practice of meditation, the reality of suffering, and the possibility of liberation. It examines the nature of suffering, impermanence, and egolessness, with an emphasis on personal development through meditative discipline and study. The hinayana path is based on training in mindfulness and awareness, cultivating virtue, and cutting grasping.
The Path of Individual Liberation, along with its two companion volumes, presents a complete map of the Tibetan Buddhist path. Although this first volume may be suitable for beginners, Trungpa is very detailed in his teachings. Even more so than the Dalai Lama. This isn’t a bad thing, but it might be off-putting to newcomers.
In the Buddha’s Words – An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
By Bhikku Bodhi
Scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, with a foreword by the infamous Dalai Lama, presents selected sutras of the Buddha from the Pali Canon, the earliest record of what the Buddha taught. It’s a relatively substantial book (about 512 pages) with the sutras being divided into ten thematic chapters, e.g. the Human Condition, Mastering the Mind, Deepening One’s Perspective on the World, etc.
This is very advanced, so I would recommend reading all the other ones mentioned in this post before diving into Buddha’s discourses. Thankfully, Bodhi gives an introduction before each sutra, which should be helpful when analyzing the texts.
Was this post helpful? Did you decide to read any of the books listed? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
