A concise and up-to-date guide to the history, teachings, and practice of Buddhism by two luminaries in the field of world religions.

pt. I. The wheel of the Dharma. The man who woke up ; The silent sage ; The rebel saint ; The four noble truths ; The eightfold path ; Other core Buddhist concepts: Nirvana, anatta, the three marks of existence, dependent arising, and emptiness ; Theravada and Mahayana: The great divide ; Vipassana: The Theravadin way of insight ; Zen Buddhism: The secret of the flower ; Tibetan Buddhism: The diamond thunderbolt ; The image of the crossing ; The confluence of Buddhism and Hinduism in India -- pt. II. The wheel rolls west. The new migration ; America the Buddha full ; Adaptations: The new Buddhism ; America starts meditating I: The ways of Zen ; America starts meditating II: Tibetan Buddhism in exile ; America starts meditating III: The Vipassana movement -- Afterword. The flowering of faith: Buddhism's pure land tradition.