The Core Teachings: Essays in Basic Buddhism by Hsing Yun

The Core Teachings: Essays in Basic Buddhism Reviews

• 
  Pennyjelly

  I purchased the paperback version of this book from the Los Angeles Times Book Festival 2013 held at the University of California (USC). This book is currently in its tenth edition and has a beautiful cover (not shown above at the time of this review). You can probably find it at Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I enjoyed this book. It is written in plain english, very easy to understand. Here's a sample from the book:
  
  Positive Karma, Negative Karma, and Neutral Karma
  Some acts produce positive karma, some produce negative karma, and some produce neutral karma. Positive karma is produced by acts that are intended to help other sentient beings. This includes protecting animals, giving to charity, speaking kind and encouraging words, and thinking compassionate thoughts. Negative karma is produced by acts that are intended to harm oneself or others. For example, killing, stealing, lying. . . . . . .
• 
  Timothy

  This feels like a textbook explanation of Buddhism, without a lot of passion or persuasiveness.
  
  It's mostly pages and pages of numbered lists and paragraphs. It reads a bit like, "There are 12 kinds of delicious apples, and they are... There are 3 levels of deliciousness, as follows... Furthermore, there are 8 ways to properly eat an apple to maximize deliciousness... and finally, there are 4 benefits to eating delicious apples." And to take my silly analogy further, I'd say that after reading all that, the reader still hasn't learned what an apple tastes like.
  
  Still, the first third of the book offers a lot of effective explanations of Buddhist teachings, helpful for newbies like me.