Doing Research for a Professor

I'm pretty close with the chaplain at my college, and a couple days ago, he approached me about doing some research for him. He's teaching a class on forgiveness this coming year, and, knowing my interests was hoping I could come up with some material on the Buddhist perspective for him. I've found an article or two, but would like to present him with a range of stuff for him to choose from. Also, if anyone could find/write a short explanation of the numbering system for me to give to him, I'd appreciate it. A couple of the articles I've found have quotes from the suttas at the beginning, and it'd be nice if he could explain the references if a student asks.

That's a hard one to answer, DeusExLibrus. Do you have a couple of examples of the type of books you're looking for?

Buddhism comes in a lot of flavors. There are two that come to mind, but they may not be what you're looking for. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki, and Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen.

Here's a useful website: http://buddhanet.net/

For a short text, the Wikipedia section isn't all that bad. And it has references, including one to a blog by an Irishman who studied theology in Rome and now teaches in Japan, which might be well-suited.

Wikipedia is a reasonable place to start for figuring out Sutta references as well.

He's looking for something engaging, that someone who's never even heard of Buddhism could follow. I thought at first that one of Pema Chodron's books might work, but she focuses mainly on fear and overcoming it. Unless I'm glossing over one (so many of her books seem to be the same teachings repackaged) I don't think she's written about forgiveness. He mentioned HH the Dalai Lama, and Thich Nhat Hanh in our discussion, and I think it would be best to stay with pop Buddhism. One of the articles I've given him thus far was by Thanissaro Bikkhu, and, while it was an excellent article, I agree with the chaplain that it might not be the best thing to hand someone with no previous exposure to the Dharma (upon rereading, I realize it was rather more dry than I thought on first looking it over).

ETA: He's looking for material specifically on Buddhist teachings about Forgiveness, not Buddhism in general for the purposes of this class.

The Buddha And The Terrorist: The Story Of Angulimala has some specific Buddhist perspectives related to forgiveness. Wikipedia has a good article on the story of Angulimala. I don't think "Forgiveness" as taught in Christianity has a very exact equivalent in Buddhism.

That sounds on point. Yes, in Buddhism it might instead be self-forgiveness (don't dwell on past "failures") and appreciating the difficulty someone brings you as a learning experience, rather than being angry at them. (Arggh, not easy!)

Another book that comes to mind is The Heart of Buddhist Meditation by Nyanaponika Thera

The Buddhist equivalent of 'forgiveness' would be 'loving kindness' or perhaps 'compassion' - and just putting the term into Google scholar will give you plenty of reading. With metta...

Recommended marq's book and an article off Access to Insight, and he's using both.