Can you recommend a book.

Blayne

Hello, I'm looking for a book about practicing Buddhism and not just the history or philosophy of the religion.

Any help would be great

Jeffrey

Here is a good one:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Heart-Buddhas-Teaching-Transforming/dp/0767903692

matthewmartin

What sort of Buddhism? This makes a *big* difference. I can't tell from your post if you've settled into any particular style yet.

I'm taking practices to mean meditation, behavior when you aren't meditating, wisdom (aka, stuff you know via books, in person teachers, etc), rules to follow (aka ethics), and livelihood. Depending on the school, meditation is expanded to include regular rituals, such as chanting, visualizations, offerings, prostrations and so on. Or maybe not-- there's 84,000 doors to the Dharma.

Practice
Mindfulness in Plain English - Gunaratana.- Free online book about meditation. This is from the Theravada Tradition, but meditation doesn't vary so much that you need a meditation manual from one or another school.

Thich Nhat Han - anything. This is modern, popularized Zen. He makes a good case for how to be mindful throughout the day when you aren't sitting.

Wisdom, the Practice of Reading Books
(N.b. if you don't like reading books, you don't have too-- Zen gets very anti-intellectual and anti-book and does so across dozens of huge volumes of scholarly writings)
Dharma Punx, Levine - "Punk Rock Zen"
The Spirit of the Buddha, Batchlor - One of the better overviews.
Star Spangled Buddha, Jeff Ourvan - Zen, SGI and Shambhala as it is in the US. Ultimately, it's a case for Nichiren/SGI, which is a specific sort of practice, namely mantra recitation in the context of a daily gongyo (also called puja)

I don't have any good books specifically about puja/gongyo/daily rituals yet. 1st off, it isn't a universal thing (many western varieties of Buddhism are pretty ritual free-- if it doesn't do anything for you, there is plenty of other practices to keep you busy), some traditions you are obliged to learn the ritual from a teacher in person, and so on. That said, in W Eurpoe, Ngondro style ritual is pretty popular. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngöndro 2nd, puja/gongyo/daily practice rituals are pretty diverse and sometimes official guides exist depending on the organization.

BhikkhuJayasara

This thread from a couple weeks ago has a lot of good ones.

http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/19741/recommend-me-a-book-please#latest

Dennis1

'Tha Avatamsaka Sutra' also known as 'The Flower Ornament Scripture'.

misterCope

What @matthewmartin said.

lobster

Blayne said:

Hello, I'm looking for a book about practicing Buddhism and not just the history or philosophy of the religion.

Any help would be great

You are probably interested in content but require thickness.
Put a folded blanket on top and sit on it.
Other than that a meditation diary will eventually contain all the help required

fivebells

@Blayne With Each & Every Breath. Very practically oriented, good explanations for each piece of advice, lots of references to supporting material.

inyo

Hi there; my all time favorite is "Monkey" by Wu Cheng'en. I want to remind you (because I often make this mistake) if you have an idea of Buddhism, like a basis or foundation, then balance it out with your own practice; for instance if you are inquiring about death, then first try to ask yourself what you think about it and write about it and meditate on it. If you are inquiring about compassion ask yourself "What do I think about it? What do I think is a true aspect of compassion?" You will discover a lot that you never knew you knew! I love reading Buddhism texts, but be careful to please balance by asking yourself for the answers/practice as well.