Preface. Part One: The Experience of Buddhism in South Asia. 1. The Life Story of the Buddha and its Ramifications. 1.1 The Eight Commemorative Shrines. 1.2 A Royal Pilgrim Retraces the Life of the Buddha. 1.3 The Great Departure and Enlightenment. 1.4 Remembering Past Lives. 1.4.1 Planting the Seeds of the Buddhahood. 1.4.2 The Last Past Life: The Story of Vessantara. 1.5 Viewing the Cosmos. 1.5.1 The Hierarchy of Beings. 1.5.2 Karma and the Six Realms of Rebirth. 1.6 Realizing the Four Noble Truths. 1.7 The "Death" and Parinirvana of the Buddha. 1.8 A Story of a Buddha Image. 1.9 The Future of Buddha Maitreya. 2. The Experience of the Sangha. 2.1 Tales of Conversion. 2.1.1 The First Disciples of the Buddha. 2.1.2 The Laywoman Sujata. 2.1.3 The Conversion of Sariputra and Maudgalyayana. 2.1.4 The Acceptance of Women into the Order. 2.1.5 The Conversion of Patacara. 2.1.6 The Conversion of a Lynch Mob. 2.2 Rites of Passage. 2.2.1 Passage Denied: The Naga Who Tried to Become a Monk. 2.2.2 Passage Achieved: Joining the Order. 2.3 The Regulation of the Sangha. 2.3.1 Recitation of the Rules. 2.3.2 The Interpretation of the Rules. 2.3.3 Rules and Right Attitudes. 2.4 Sangha Situations. 2.4.1 Nagasena Disobeys His Master and Preaches to a Layman. 2.4.2 Walls Make Good Neighbors. 2.4.3 The Community at Kitagiri. 2.5 The Laity and the Sangha: Commonalities and Differences. 2.5.1 Why Not Remain a Layperson? 2.5.2 Meditation in the Midst of Daily Life. 2.5.3 Making and Sharing Merit. 2.5.4 Mohamaudgalyayama Brings About the Conversion of His Mother. 2.6 Buddhism and the State: The King and the Community. 2.6.1 The Two Wheels of Dharma: A Parable. 2.6.2 King Udena and the Elder Pindola. 2.6.3 Some Edicts of Asoka. 3. The Dharma: Some Perspectives of Mainstream Buddhism. 3.1 Preliminaries: The Loss and Preservation of the Dharma. 3.2 Suffering, Impermanence, and No-Self. 3.2.1 Impermanence. 3.2.2 Milinda and the Chariot. 3.2.3 Vajira''s Reply to the Mara. 3.2.4 The Buddha''s Silence. 3.2.5 Channa Is Taught the Middle Way. 3.2.6 The Man Who Lost His Body. 3.3 The Arising Suffering. 3.3.1 Interdependent Origination. 3.3.2 The Evolution of the World. 3.4 The Cessation of Suffering. 3.4.1 Nirvana, Nirvana. 3.4.2 Milinda Asks About Nirvana. 3.4.3 The Attainment of Two Arhats. 3.5 The Path. 3.5.1 The Refuges and the Precepts. 3.5.2 Moral Conduct of Monks. 3.5.3 Sayings On the Path. 3.5.4 Mindfulness. 3.5.5 The Practice of Meditation. 3.5.6 How to Walk on Water and Fly Through the Air. 3.5.7 The Trance of Cessation. 3.6 Doctrinal Issues. 3.6.1 A Theravadin Claim to Orthodoxy. 3.6.2 The Sarvastivadins on Time. 3.6.3 The Mahasamghikas on the Buddha. 4. The Dharma: Some Mahayana Perspectives. 4.1 Preliminary: The Parable of the Burning House. 4.2 Basic Perspectives: The Perfection of Wisdom. 4.2.1 Rahulabhadra''s Verses in Praise of Perfect Wisdom. 4.2.2 The Heart Sutra. 4.2.3 The Perfection of Wisdom and the Middle Way. 4.3 Philosophical Formulations. 4.3.1 Nagarjuna: Verses on the Noble Truths and on Nirvana. 4.3.2 The Ongoing Dialectic. 4.3.3 Vasubandhu: Types of Consciousness. 4.3.4 In Praise of the Bodies of the Buddha. 4.3.5 Queen Srimala Explains the Womb of the Tathagata. 4.3.6 Sudhana''s Vision of the Cosmos. 4.4 The Bodhisattva Path. 4.4.1 The Necessity of Compassion. 4.4.2 Developing the Thought of Enlightenment. 4.4.3 The Practice of the Perfections. 4.4.4 The Skillful Menas of Vimalakirti. 5. Saviors and Siddhas: The Mahayana Pantheon and Tantric Buddhism. 5.1 The Life Span of the Tathgata. 5.2 Savior Bodhisattvas. 5.2.1 The Compassion of Avalokitesvara. 5.2.2 The Multiple Forms of Tara. 5.2.3 Samantabhadra and the Reciters of the Lotus Sutra. 5.3 Savior Texts. 5.4 Celestial Buddhas and Pure Lands. 5.4.1 Amitabha and His Pure Land. 5.4.2 The Twelve Vows of the Healing Buddha. 5.4.3 How to Be Reborn in Aksobhya''s Land. 5.5 Tantric Buddhism or the Vajrayana. 5.5.2 The Perfection of Nonduality. 5.5.2 Worship in a Tantric Context. 5.5.4 The Me