Getty, Alice

The Gods of Northern Buddhism

Their History, Iconography and Progressive Evolution Through the Northern Buddhist Countries

Alice Getty

1977, First Tuttle edition, 3rd printing.

Grey hardcover with painted and decorated cloth.  Book is in FINE condition with like dust jacket in mylar sleeve and with the original cardboard slipcase.  8vo. Pp. liv, 220, 68 plates; 8 in color.  A classic on the subject produced by Tuttle in its heyday. 

(03/J) No trades. Cash, or Credit Card sales only.              $200.00 net

Guenther, Herbert

The Royal Song of Saraha

A Study in the History of Buddhist Thought

translated & annotated by  Herbert V. Guenther

First Edition (so stated) Shambhala Press

214pp.  clean & tight, paperback in Near fine condition.

Contents include The tradition about Saraha & his works, Teaching of the Dohas, Existence versus Essence, Song on Human Action, Treasure of Dohas, Commentaries by sKe-med bde-chen & Karma Phrin-las-pa, Saraha, Dohas 

Very scarce.

(06K) No trades.  Cash or Credit card only                                     $ 150.00 net.

The Cry of Vietnam

Thich Nhat Hanh

drawings by Vo-Dinh

1968 1^st Edition, Unicorn Press, Santa Barbara

A very scarce “true first” edition.  Oblong softcover in brown paper wraps.  Titles printed in black on front cover.  In Good condition protected in a clear plastic envelope. 8vo.  54pp. Some edgewear and light staining at the extremities with clean text and tight binding.  Illustrated throughout with twenty-three B&W drawings by Vo-Dinh.

Kawai, Hayao

The Buddhist Priest Myoe:

A Life of Dreams

Hayao Kawai

1992 First American edition, Lapis Press, Venice

Hardcover Quarto, original blue cloth, 237pp, sans d.j.    Cover page shown.

A study of the thirteenth-century Japanese priest: his life, dreams and dream-life. The original Japanese edition received the Shincjho Award for Learning and the Arts for its scholarly and literary excellence. The author is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Kyoto University and the foremost Japanese Jungian psychotherapist.  Bibliography of Kawai’s works in English appended.  Scarce.

Lewis, C. G.

Tibetan Venture

C. G. Lewis

Foreword by Sachaverell Sitwell

1968  First American Edition,  A.S. Barnes, New York

Quarto. Silver letters on full charcoal cloth, NEAR FINE in a NEAR FINE dust jacket. 191pp. with 12 photo illustrations. 

“I became thrillingly aware that here a solution to my problem was unfolding. I heard of a school for incarnate lamas from Tibet. I heard of its atmosphere, an atmosphere of peace and spiritual depth; a gateway, surely, to that path into another world which has become obscured and overgrown with weeds of iron in the West. I heard, too, of its situation, of the road around its mountain from which could be seen the mighty snowcapped peaks of the Himalayas. This was what I must do! I, too, must go and teach, and learn, in that heaven of Tibetan Buddhism.”  Scarce.

(06H) No trades.  Cash or Credit card only          $ 75.00 net.

Buddhism in Christendom

or Jesus, the Essene

Arthur Lillie

1887 Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London

Hardcover Octavo. Brown Cloth with gilt letters on the spine.   Cover page  shown.

vii, 410 pp. Frontispiece, 15 b&w illustrations & index. Tips bumped at the tale and some yellowing as would be expected for a book of a 118-year vintage.  Exploring similarities between Buddhism and Christianity, this is a rare early scholarly study that has worn well in every sense.

Approaching VERY GOOD condition.

(05/E) No trades. Cash or Credit Card only.              $ 125.00 net.

Linrothe, Robert N.

Ruthless Compassion

Robert N. Linrothe

1999 First edition, Shambhala, Boston

Tall quarto. Silver lettered blue buckram. FINE in a FINE dustjacket.

This spectacular, thorough, and profusely illustrated book examines the iconography of wrathful deities in early Indo-Tibetan esoteric Buddhist art.  This group of art objects is comprised of sculpture surviving from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries at widely scattered sites throughout eastern India, Europe, and America.  Collectively, the group provides a continuous historical record of the evolution of esoteric Buddhist belief and practice - a record that supplements and often challenges the conclusions of exclusively academic histories.     A very uncommon and exceptional book.

(060K) No trades. Cash or Credit Card only.       $200.00 net

Shibayama, Zenki

Zen Comments on the Mumonkan

The authoritative translation, with commentary of a basic Zen text.

Zenkei Shibayama

Translated by Sumiko Kudo

Illustrated with Zen Master Shibayama’s calligraphy. 

Embossed letters in gilt on the spine.  Blue full cloth, blind-stamped on the front with an imprint of a sumi circle in NEAR FINE condition.  xvi, 361pp. Includes:  An Introduction by Shibayama Roshi, Shuan’s Preface, the Dedication to the Throne by Monk Ekai, and master Mumon’s original Preface, then the 48 cases from the Mumonkan, an Appendix with Mumon’s Postscript, Warnings etc. plus Glossary and Index.  This is a very important resource for serious students.  An essential counterpoint reference to other translations.

(05/A) No trades. Cash or Credit Card only.                                      $ 100.00 net.

The Essentials of Zen Buddhism

Selected from the Writings of Daisetz T. Suzuki

Edited, and with an Introduction by Bernard Phillips.

1962 First Edition (So stated.) E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. 

Gold letters on full brown cloth in FINE condition sans dust jacket.  544 pp 

Suzuki is arguably the foremost interpreter of Zen to the West. This indispensable anthology has been assembled from the full range of Dr. Suzuki’s writings that include over 100 books in Japanese, and some 30 in English.  It is still one of the best overall introductions to Zen.

(06G) (No trades.  Cash or Credit card only)              $ 45.00 net.

Suzuki, D. T.

Manual of Zen Buddhism

Daisetz Tetaro Suzuki

Signed 1935 First Edition, Eastern Buddhist Society, Kyoto

Gilt embossed letters on blue cloth boards with embossed borders. 

IN FINE CONDITION. 

Tan parchment printed dust jacket with closed tears but completely neat and intact.  Otherwise the jacket is in NEAR FINE condition and is protected in a clear Brodart cover.  This volume is also presented in its original stapled slipcase that has some creasing at the closed fore-edge, a dime sized water stain on the front and a bit of wear to the leading edges of the case.  However, these are minor and not detracting flaws for this EXTREMELY RARE treasure. 

Frontis plus 15 more photo plates and tissue dividers.  24 drawings of Buddha and Buddhist deities and the 10 Oxherding pictures plus Index.   

Sengai, the Zen Master

Daisetz T. Suzuki

Edited by Eva van Hoboken

with editorial and prefatory notes by Eva van Hoboken,

Sazo Idemitsu, Sir Herbert Read and Basil Gray

1971 First Edition, Faber and Faber Ltd., London

Quarto. Gilt letters on full gray cloth.  FINE in a like dust jacket.  xviii, 191 p.  Includes:  Editor’s Note.  Sengai’s Drawings and Myself.  Sengai and his Predecessors.  Preface.  Introduction to Sengai.  Ink Drawings and Calligraphies Related to Sengai’s Life at the Temples.  Ink Drawings and Calligraphies.  Explanatory Notes.   Illustrations (128 in all). 

Playful, coarse, subtle, profound; this is the “usual” Zen stuff that you can’t find anywhere else.  Out of Print and marvelous, this is the great medicine that cures disease and nurtures deep culture.

Suzuki, D. T.

Zen and Japanese Culture

D. T. Suzuki

1965 Third Edition, Bollingen Foundation / Pantheon Books, New York

Octavio  in NEAR FINE condition.  Bollingen Series LXIV. Gilt letters on a black spine over tan full cloth boards, sans dust jacket.  Cover page shown.  Bollingen emblem stamped in gilt on the front.   pp. xxiv+478, 68 plates (3 large folding and 1 double-page), chronology, appendices, bibliography, index.  Revised and enlarged. 

This is certainly one of the definitive works on Japanese culture articulating and clarifying long misunderstood mysteries.  Suzuki expresses better than anyone the depth and influence of Zen Buddhism on Japanese culture that has allowed a subtlety and accomplishment rarely matched in world history.  This cloth edition is out of print and at the high end of the bookmaking art.  Indispensable.