Originally published in 1993, Vessantara’s Meeting the Buddhas rapidly attained the status of a classic not only within Triratna, but also in the wider Buddhist world. Out of print since 2008, it’s been carefully revised and updated, and in December we’ll be releasing a brand-new edition. The new cover was designed by Akasajoti, and many of the images that illustrate the text are new.
How you can help
As we’ve mentioned before, it’s a precarious time in publishing, with high inflation and global trade difficulties pushing up print costs and resulting in very small margins to sustain our work.
One of the ways you can help is by sponsoring the new edition of Meeting the Buddhas. The money we receive in sponsorship will help us to cover the cost of printing, which will be particularly high for this book, given its length and the large number of illustrations.
Sponsorship starts at £40 (we’ll be very grateful if you can give more than this) and as a sponsor you’ll be sent a print copy and an eBook as soon as the new edition is released.
Vessantara on Meeting the Buddhas
‘First born in 1993, after a five-year gestation period, it flourished for fifteen years. Then, in 2008, it was dismembered and reborn as three volumes. Now, fourteen years on, Windhorse Publications are reconstituting those three into a new one-volume edition. I’m pleased about this. Once again you have everything together, to read through, or to use for reference to learn about all the main Indo-Tibetan Buddhist figures.
Apart from adding a section on Vajrakīla, I have confined myself to making hundreds of small changes. Some are stylistic, but many reflect my deepening knowledge and understanding of these figures.
Rereading the book, I’m happy to find how relevant and useful it is. Fundamentally, these
extraordinary figures are timeless. They embody and convey the amazing wisdom and positive qualities of the deepest levels of our minds. Over these three decades, I have continued practising with them myself and guiding others, and I am in awe at how deeply transformative meditating on them can be.
So, in all important respects, the book is just as valuable today as it was in 1993. Love,
truth and freedom never go out of style.’
– Vessantara, 2022
Praise for Meeting the Buddhas
‘An invitation to experience our lives in a completely new way – infused with imagination, light, love, power, and mystery.’ – Vidyamala Burch OBE, co-founder of The Breathworks Foundation and author of Living Well with Pain and Illness, Mindfulness for Health, and Mindfulness for Women
‘Here is a path for Buddhist practice, which engages the heart as well as the mind.’ – Dr Elizabeth English (Locana), Mindfulness Practitioner at the University of Cambridge, and author of Vajrayogini: Her Visualisations, Rituals and Forms and Journeys to the Deep: A Gentle Guide to Mindfulness Meditation
‘Every practitioner’s shelf needs room for it!’ – Kamalashila, author of Buddhist Meditation
Mind in Harmony back in stock
We’re pleased to announce that Subhuti’s Mind in Harmony is now back in stock.
‘The purpose of Mind in Harmony is to describe the mind from the Buddhist point of view. Since Buddhism is never interested in mere conceptual understanding, that means offering a description that can serve as a practical tool for transforming the mind so that it becomes more and more ethical, finds greater and greater fulfilment, and ultimately attains liberation.’ – Subhuti, from the preface