Setting The Three Jewels

Discover new opportunities for building 2D and 3D games with HTML5 The newest iteration of HTML, HTML5 can be used with JavaScript, CSS3, and WebGL to create beautiful, unique, engaging games that can be played on the web or mobile devices like the iPad or Android phones. Gone are the days where games were only possible with plugin technologies such as Flash and this cutting-edge book shows you how to utilize the latest open web technologies to create a game from scratch using Canvas, HTML5 Audio, WebGL, and WebSockets. You'll discover how to build a framework on which you will create your HTML5 game. Then each successive chapter covers a new aspect of the game, including user input, sound, multiplayer functionality, 2D and 3D graphics, and more. Aims directly at a new way to develop games for the web through the use of HTML5 Demonstrates how to make iOS and Android web apps Explains how to capture player input; create 3D graphics; and incorporate textures, lighting, and sound Guides you through the process of creating a game from scratch using Canvas, HTML5 Audio, WebGL, and WebSockets By the end of this invaluable book, you will have created a fully functional game that can be played in any compatible browser or on any mobile device that supports HTML5.

Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia... This vast area has experienced significant changes following political and socio-cultural upheavals: the Chinese occupation of Tibet since the 1950s; the opening of Nepal to the world in 1951 and the influx of large numbers of Tibetan refugees into its territory; the end of the communist era and the transition to a market economy in Mongolia, and more generally the confrontation with modernity and globalisation. Revisiting Rituals in a Changing Tibetan World examines the changes rituals have undergone and offers the reader the result of recent research based on both fieldwork and textual studies by researchers who have worked in these countries. Contributors include Hildegard Diemberger, Fabienne Jagou, Thierry Dodin, Fernanda Pirie, Nicola Schneider, Mireille Helffer, Alexander von Rospatt, Marie-Dominique Even, Robert Barnett, Katia Buffetrille

The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Tib. Lam rim chen mo) is one of the brightest jewels in the world’s treasury of sacred literature. The author, Tsong-kha-pa, completed it in 1402, and it soon became one of the most renowned works of spiritual practice and philosophy in the world of Tibetan Buddhism. Because it condenses all the exoteric sūtra scriptures into a meditation manual that is easy to understand, scholars and practitioners rely on its authoritative presentation as a gateway that leads to a full understanding of the Buddha’s teachings. Tsong-kha-pa took great pains to base his insights on classical Indian Buddhist literature, illustrating his points with classical citations as well as with sayings of the masters of the earlier Kadampa tradition. In this way the text demonstrates clearly how Tibetan Buddhism carefully preserved and developed the Indian Buddhist traditions. This second of three volumes covers the deeds of the bodhisattvas, as well as how to train in the six perfections.

Golden Garland of Eloquence (Legs bshad gser phreng) is the famous Perfection of Wisdom (prajnaparamita) commentary written by the influential Tibetan writer Tsong kha pa (1356-1419). It is Tsong kha pa's first major work, written before his better known works on Madhyamaka. It is greatly respected and much studied by all schools of Buddhism in Tibet.The Golden Garland supplements the two main Indian Perfection of Wisdom commentaries, Arya Vimuktisena's Vrtti and Haribhadra's Aloka, on which it is based. It explains the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras and earlier commentaries in detail, glossing difficult words and going into detailed explanations of difficult points. It introduces the reader to some twenty works by the most important Indian Perfection of Wisdom writers, and to the earlier Tibetan traditions of Ngok and Dolpopa, and the traditions of Buton and Nyaon. This translation makes available, for the first time in English, an example of the rich Tibetan Perfection of Wisdom commentarial tradition and will be of interest to both scholars and informed general readers alike. This is the first of four volumes.

The third volume of Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, Geshe Sopa's commentary on Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo, introduces the reader to the path of the bodhisattvas. The volume begins with an explanation of what distinguishes the Mahayana practitioner from all other Buddhists-bodhicitta, the desire to attain enlightenment in order to benefit other sentient beings. The nature of bodhicitta, an essential practice for persons of great spiritual capacity, is described in depth, and Geshe Sopa then provides a detailed, contemporary commentary on the two methods to develop this attitude: the "sevenfold cause-and-effect personal instructions" based on the teachings of the lineage descended from Atisa, and the "training to exchange self and other" based on Santideva's Engaging in the Bodhisattva's Deeds. Bodhicitta is an incredibly important attitude, but the attitude alone is not enough to attain enlightenment; a practitioner must perform actions motivated by bodhicitta, in other words, the six bodhisattva perfections. After a general introduction, this volume contains a detailed explanation of the first four perfections: generosity, ethical discipline, patience, and joyful perseverance. Here we find only a brief summary of the final two perfections, meditative stabilization and wisdom, to prepare the reader for the detailed discussion of these topics in the last two volumes of the series. To tie all these practices together, the volume concludes with an explanation of how Mahayana practitioners help others to mature spiritually: the four ways to gather disciples.

A basic introduction to the world of philosophy, with answers to the deepest questions we all ask ourselves, through the lens of the world's greatest philosophers, from Plato and Confucius to modern thinkers. A guide to the fundamental nature of existence, society and the way we think. After an overview of philosophy, with the history of philosophy, branches of philosophy, philosophical concepts and philosophical schools and traditions, specific topics in philosophy are addressed, such as God (religion), good and evil (ethics), animal rights, politics (political philosophy), appearance and reality, science (philosophy of science), mind (philosophy of mind), and art (aesthetics). Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning such matters as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic presentation. Classical philosophical questions include both abstract questions (Is it possible to know something and prove it? What is most real?) and more practical and concrete questions (Is there an optimal way to live? Is it better to be just or unjust? Do people have free will?) Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of approaching these problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and reliance on rational arguments. Other investigations are closely related to art, science, politics, or other pursuits. For example, is beauty objective or subjective? Are there many scientific methods or just one? Is political utopia a hopeful dream or hopeless fantasy? The main sub-fields of academic philosophy include metaphysics ("concerned with the fundamental nature of reality and being"), epistemology (about the nature and foundations of knowledge andits limits and validity), ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, logic, philosophy of science and the history of Western philosophy. Many philosophical debates that began in antiquity are still debated today.