[Buddha-l] Question about Chinese orthography

[Curt Steinmetz]

Perennial Favorites wrote:
>
> Oh, okay. So avoid Blofeld.  I just finished reading Chan Buddhism by 
> Hershock and would like to find another book that is useful for learning 
> about early Buddhist thought. I don't read Chinese or Sanskrit...any advice?
>
> And btw, "does a dog have buddha nature?" was the koan that made me want to 
> avoid koans.
>
>   

Rupert Gethin's "The Foundation of Buddhism" is excellent. I am deeply 
indebted to Bodhisattva Peter Harvey for the reading list that he put 
together for his Buddhist MA program:
http://seacoast.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0phr/budm01books.html

That simple list is, in my opinion, one of the single most helpful 
Buddhist resources on the entire Internet. The book "Buddhist Traditions 
in Asia, China and Japan", btw, has a brief digression on the early 
Chinese Buddhist philosopher Tao-Sheng - this is an essential part of 
the "back story" behind the "Mu" koan.

Curt Steinmetz