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Buddha's Teachings by Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai
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Buddha's Teachings

$10.49

Narrator Jonathan Reese

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Length 3 hours 9 minutes
Language English
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Like all great religions, Buddhism teaches the importance of spiritual, or holy, values. This religion teaches that if a person has a pure mind, everything he does will be pure and decent, and that if he has a pure heart, all happiness will come to him.



First published in 1925, Buddha's Teachings was originally edited by Japanese scholars of Buddhism before WWII and distributed widely throughout Japan. The first English edition was published in 1934. The Reverend Dr. Yehan Numata brought out another English edition in 1962, and in 1966, after the establishment of the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism), Dr. Numata assembled a committee of Buddhist scholars to substantially revise and edit a new English-Japanese edition. Buddha's Teachings has undergone minor revisions and numerous reprintings since. It is now available in forty-one languages, and over 7 million copies have been distributed and placed in hotel rooms in over fifty countries throughout the world.

The Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism) was founded by the Reverend Dr. Yehan Numata in December 1965. Working with a community of like-minded people, including leaders of each Buddhist sect in Japan and eminent Buddhist scholars, Dr. Numata established the BDK in order to "transmit the Buddhist religion to as many people in the world as possible, without expounding the doctrines of any particular sect or denomination." To achieve this goal, the BDK promotes a wide range of activities and projects in the hope of contributing to world peace and mutual understanding among humanity. Today, the BDK's mission to the world is continuing under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Numata's oldest son, Mr. Toshihide Numata.

Jonathan Reese was trained from an early age in music and theater. Of his many credits he was proudest of being a founding member of Berkeley's Straw Hat review. Formidably intelligent, deeply sympathetic, and highly sensitive to his material, he was perfectly suited for literary narration. His many audiobooks include The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer, Just as I Am by Billy Graham, Travels in Alaska by John Muir, and Without a Hero by T. Coraghessan Boyle. A native Californian, Reese died in San Francisco in 1999.

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Shop the sale

In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Don’t miss out—purchases support your local bookstore!

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Celebrate indie bookstores with our limited-time sale! Shop the sale