What Would Buddha Do?: 101 Answers to Life's Daily Dilemmas

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Summary: Wonderful, simple advice
Review: A great little appetizer, filled with flavourful pieces of advice and snippets of common sense that we can all use in our daily dealings with the world, most of which are taken from Buddhist sacred texts.

One wonderful example of this is, "What would Buddha do about that coffee habit?", to which the response is: "Our country is full of sickly-looking, skinny people, just because we don't drink tea. Whenever people feel weak, they should drink tea (Kissa Yojoki)". In that simple piece of advice, we're told both a common sense and medicinal answer to that coffee habit (the author tells us that tea is healthier than coffee, which is truthful). The author expands on the passage, giving a short interpretation of the lesson including "...When we have to have something, the truth is that thing has us. Ask yourself who is master, who or these things you 'need'. If it's not you, something is wrong". It's passages such as this that make us stop, and think "oh yeah...".

To a serious scholar of Buddhism, this book may lack substance and true contextual meaning, and may leave the some readers gasping like a fish out of water, reaching for a more substantial main course. However, it does successfully bring Buddhist teachings into our daily lives, and can be a great tool for living a simpler, better life.

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Summary: Great Concept
Review: Asking what a Buddha would do in 101 different situations. What a great concept! Although I must admit I can't agree with all the author's answers to the 101 questions posed, I think most people interested in Eastern thought would find this book well done.

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Summary: Doesn't do Buddha justice
Review: Enjoyable reading. I love the honesty and humor and will be ordering several books for my friends.

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Summary: Buddha Goes Mainstream
Review: My Daughter bought me this book for my birthday, the insistance that I wear the WWBD bracelet was amusing. For a religion that keeps such a low profile it was refreshing to see an offering in such a current format.

Much of it was great insight, both the source quoted and the author's comments. Buddhism is a religion or way of thought that is, at it's core based on logic. Two items that jumped out at me seemed to break that directive.

The first being the consumption of meat, I believe this is a very complicated matter and certainly a matter of personal choice. But the writers logic would allow us to eat meat because it is already dead and can suffer no more. For a religion steeped in the concepts of interdependancy and mutual arising this reasoning seems very shallow. As long as you don't kill it was the only admonition. It would seem to me that the hunter with a spiritual connection to the prey is the most honest meat eater. To eat meat with no concept of the causal effect between using a product and driving the production of the product seems not well thought out.

The second was a comment on patriotism and unless I misunderstood there is very strange comment to the effect that "even athiests can be patriotic" unless I read this wrong I find this a very strange comment to make. Exactly how is atheist the antithisis of patriot,a comment much like even people with brown hair can rollerskate. In spite of my concerns with logic, I liked the book and hope Buddhism and it's understanding continues to expand in this way.

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Summary: Great insight can be instilled by this book...
Review: This book can help you realize a few things about yourself and the world around you. An open mind is a requirement (that is, unless you're buddhist). I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

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Summary: A powerful little book...
Review: This book holds a lot of thought for only 130 pages. Franz Metcalf takes his knowledge of Buddhism to answer now just the big questions of "Life", but the smaller questions of daily life. What would Buddha do or think about such subjects as failure, anger, road rage, gun control, lying, the environment, eating meat, money, sex, drinking, drug abuse, boredom and even prostitution. Hard issues, but each is given a page, answered with a quote from Buddhist teaching and advice from the author.
Great gift for a friend or a gift for yourself. It really helps you strip away the fat and get to the very core of the subject in question.

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Summary: simple and to the point
Review: This is a remarkable little book...and quite handy in the confusion of today's world. It brings light into our problems with 101 answers that make a lot of sense. It also makes us look into ourselves, and helps bring out the patience and compassion that is in our hearts. Each question, whether about road rage, lust, burnout, or noisy neighbors, etc., is followed by a short quote from scripture or someone like the Dalai Lama, and then followed by several sentences from the author. Most of it applies to the negative situations we find on a daily basis, and gives the simple solutions to deal with them. A small portion of the answer to "What would Buddha do to win over an audience ?" is "When we tell it like it is, it will bear good fruit in all people, though we might have to wait awhile". Franz Metcalf tells it like it is !

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Summary: What Would Buddha Write?
Review: This little book gives great insight into those little koans that can really boggle your mind. Metcalf has taken Buddha sayings and made them a little more understandable for the layperson. I found the book very thought-provoking and allowed me to reflect on a peaceful solution to some of those daily dilemmas. An enjoyable read.

Rating:
Summary: Simple, but not overly-simple
Review: When I picked up this book on a lark, I wasn't sure what to expect, I just thought it was an amusing answer to the ubiquitous "WWJD" slogans. Flipping through it, I was initially disappointed at how simplistic the advice was.

However, after I put the book down for awhile, and then came back to it with no expectations, its simplicity was what seemed to be its charm - short, one-page advice regarding everyday problems that can be extrapolated to other areas of life very easily. Take this one, for example:

"What would Buddha do when he can't resist having dessert?"
Metcalf quotes a few lines from Saraha, Dohakosha 64, and then gives his own paragraph of interpretation, which includes reminding us of oneness and interconnectedness - "don't wolf the chocolate; think of the labor that brought it to you. When we really experience our desires and fulfillments, we realize oneness with the Buddha way."

For the beginning, such as myself, this little book is useful to remind us that Buddhism can be lived all day, every day, even when it seems like there's just no way about something. For the advanced readers, it might help when he or she is struggling with a problem like one named in the book, and needs a point of reference to help them along the way.

Overall, I would say it's not a book to be read front to back, so much as it's a book one refers to in times of need; it's not a book that will clearly teach someone "how to be a buddhist," but it will offer waypoints along the path. For an excellent introduction to buddhism, try (and don't let the title scare you off) _The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Buddhism_ - that's an *excellent* starter for those wishing to learn about almost every element of this path.