Buddha

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Summary: Like Sitting At the Master's Knee
Review: Reading Karen Armstrong's Buddha reminds me of the many statues of Buddha throughout East Asia I have gazed at. Like those sculptures, I wonder if this biography is faithful to Siddhartha Gautama in any way. In some inscrutable way those sculptures always lead me to meditations about myself or at least Buddhism. Any temple can contain hundreds of representations of the Buddha, from the future one to the original, across eras and cultures. The laymen can appreciate each viscerally, but each always leads to a less selfish contemplation. And so too does this book.

Having only read fragments of sutra, including the Dhammapada, a few Korean commentaries on the Diamond Sutra, and a general introduction to Asian philosophy, I am no authority on the doctrinal minutiae of the Buddhist canon. More importantly, Armstrong writes a history of Buddhism, not a commentary. She tries to situate the Buddha in a certain locality in an era. I would welcome more information about India, but what Armstrong gives is enough to understand the young man's decision to abandon his family. She also admirably places Buddhism in the context of the other Axial Age religions, like prophetic Judaism and Hinduism.

Armstrong admits that writing a biography of the Buddha when Buddhists seek to overcome individuality seems questionable. But now that Buddhism has reached such sophistication in its organization and doctrine, reconstructing the Buddha's original decisions is helpful. Without some definite information, it is easy to accept any one school's programme for dogma. A non-practitioner's view is more believable. This book levels the playing field. The conversations between the Buddha and Ananda are very meaningful in this context. Ananda, the Buddha's companion, was unable to overcome his self, unlike hundreds of other disciples, even if he understood doctrine impeccably and was the Buddha's personal attendant. Even a perfect grasp of scripture is insufficient for salvation.

Armstrong describes the distinction between the Buddha's teachings and those of his teachers. The descriptions of the contest between the Buddha and Devadetta are also revealing. The book is not only instructive for those looking for answers about Buddhism, but also about other religions, and the sections on Devadetta reveal much about the relationship between Jesus and Judas Iscariot. However, I was not convinced by Armstrong's discussion of the role of females in Buddhist communities, though she admits the difficulties honestly. Just as the book leaves the reader to make a decision for him/herself about other doctrines, the reader either accepts Armstrong's argument or not. I cannot decide if this issue taints Armstrong's argument or Buddhism as a whole.

Armstrong deserves credit for immersing herself in a religious tradition and language alien to most. She is almost excessively scrupulous without sacrificing authority. Her prose is economical, lucid, and lively. She provides unobtrusive endnotes and a glossary of terms also. Buddha is not a substitute for studying sutra, practicing right conduct, and meditation, but it is light enough not to burden an individual. It also provides the means to liberate oneself from ignorance about basic facts without yoking one to a specific programme.

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Summary: Karen Armonstrong's Elegant Life of the Buddha
Review: This elegantly written book, published in the very useful Penguin Lives, is probably the clearest, most serious introductory text to any Eastern religion in English. In the first place, Ms. Armstrong, offers us a traditional biographical narrative of Siddhatta Gotama. This biography draws on both very traditional and recent sources and balances very well indeed the demands of writing a lively narrative without losing intellectual rigor. In order to main this rigor, Ms Armstrong draws on the Pali Canon and many English language and German sources. Beautifully integrated into this biographical narrative is Ms Armstrong's thoughtful account of the main concepts of the Buddhist tradition: Anatta, Atman, Dhamma, Dukkha, Iddhi, Nibbana etc. Finally, for the ordinary reader, Ms Armstrong includes a helpful preface on Buddhist sources and a Glossary containing succinct explanations of key Buddhist term. There is also a convenient map of the Gangetic plain at the time of the Buddha. The only criticism to be made of this book is that the author tends to overplay the important of an "Axial Age." This philosophical tic, also present in Ms Armstrong's other books, diminishes the singularity of Buddhist thought and is something of an oddity in this otherwise excellent work.

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Summary: This is only about who Buddha was
Review: I read this book during my 3 month stay in Bangkok, and found it somewhat useful understanding the culture. The book does great job in connecting the dots. It includes multiple historical facts, interpretations, and comparisons to other religions.

The book became difficult to read after 40 pages. She uses quite a few terminologies (long and hard to remember). It became frustrating to remember their meanings and follow the text.

After Buddha dies, the book ends. I was also hoping to come to the final section and learn more about how Buddhism became a religion, and how Buddha's influence changed overtime and in what ways. This book needs another chapter at the end.

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Summary: Buddha in context
Review: As a student of Buddhism for some 40 years, I found Armstrong's engagingly written account one of the few books I have run across that clearly explains the social and historical context in which the Buddha lived and taught. It provides a basic introduction to the philosophical concepts of Buddhism, but its real focus is to reveal who the Buddha was and how he came to be that way. In this, I think, it succeeds admirably. I was a bit frustrated by the use of Pali rather than Sanscrit, and regretted the lack of a bibliography. But, I think, Armstrong successfully resisted the temptation to "go beyond the evidence," and she has no clear axe to grind or stake in any particular Buddhist sect. Criticisms of the book as "Theravada centered" are off the mark; she describes a period before sects and shows the roots of both Thervada and Mahayana. Her discussion of the Axial Age and her comparisons to other creeds and philosophies were helpful and insightful. I can't wait to read her book on Islam; if it's this good, I can see why it's a best-seller.

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Summary: Highly disappointing
Review: Although the author has the requisite academic credentials, she is tone-deaf where Buddhism is concerned. This book reads like something written in the early 20th century, when studies of Buddhism were entirely overlayed with Western philosophical preconceptions. A much better life of the Buddha is Sherab Chodzin Kohn's "The Awakened One: A Life of the Buddha."

Armstrong's main contribution is to situate Buddhism in the context of the yoga movement that was in full swing when the Buddha lived. But she is so unreliable in discussing the essentials of both Buddhism and yoga that only serious practitioners will be able to see through her Western academic filter.

The biggest annoyance of this book is the author's insistence on using Pali spellings of Buddhist terms that are generally known in Sanskrit. This just makes the book harder to read. Unfortunate.

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Summary: Buddha gets lost in translation.
Review: I wouldn't recommend this book. Armstrong makes Buddha 'accessible' by making him as much like a contemporary sceptical Western intellectual as she possibly can, even when she has to contradict herself to do so. (Example: she keeps saying that he didn't believe in any 'higher power' but then she quotes texts which refer to his belief in Hindu gods such as Brahma). She also does not care about historical proof. Not only doesn't she have a bibliography (as some other reviewers have mentioned) but she behaves as if Karl Jaspers' theories about there having been an Axial Age are fact and she extrapolates wildly about life in Buddha's time with no source material. An unwary reader might get the idea from her preface that she is a scholar in Pali or Sanskrit--read the last paragraph carefully though and you realize that she just paraphrases other people's translations. Bhikku Nanamoli's LIFE OF BUDDHA ACCORDING TO THE PALI CANON was her main source (though she never gives him credit) and I would suggest that someone who really wants to learn about Buddha without her Oprah-like take on his ideas, should just read that book. (It's sold right here on Amazon). I notice that the reviewers who admire this work here all say "I don't know anything about Buddhism and she explains it so well" but as I said before they should be aware that her 'explaining' is just Westernizing and modernizing him in a way that is inaccurate. Would Buddha REALLY have thought that the tempter Mara was just another facet of his own psyche? And what would he have thought about the way she discusses meditation (with extreme nervousness and suspicion) when that was at the very center of his ideas?

I am personally a Christian but was a seeker for a long time first before the historicity and logic of the Bible made me a convert. I think it is a good thing for people to look at good ACCURATE descriptions of other religions if they are looking to make up their minds about faith. I studied Buddhism in Asia with a teacher who later became a Buddhist nun before I decided that it wasn't for me. From what my teacher taught, and from the intensive reading that I have done on this subject (I teach Buddhism now as history) this book is just not accurate.

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Summary: Too compact for such a complicated subject
Review: This book was very densely packed, as others of Armstrong's books I've read have been. But it also suffered (as others of her books do) from a certain lack of focus, a lack of central themes pulling the disparate material together, a lack of a lodestar to bring the reader's attention back to the main issues of the book.

I finished the book almost as an afterthought, having learned a good deal on the surface about the Buddha and the society he flourished in, but not having learned all that much beyond that about the religious life he established and extolled.

To be fair, the limitation of the series is that it forces the authors to write about complex and multifaceted lives in a relatively short space -- the books are not only short (this one was under 190 pages long), but smaller in size than the average book.

Having said that, I found myself longing for some kind of thematic cohesion that would keep me from getting lost every time I saw a protagonist's name, or a Pali religious term, or a place name repeated.

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Summary: Limited
Review: Karen Armstrong who obviously has a deep respect for Buddhism and the man who started it all provides a less than reliable analysis of the life, times and teachings of Siddhatta Gotama, Buddha. This may not be her fault as no contemporary written source exists about Gotama's teachings or anything else about him. Gotama's teachings were passed down through oral tradition for centuries until a written language was developed. What IS her fault, however, is that this fact is almost completely ignored by Armstrong who makes only the slightest mention of it about a third of the way into the book. This fact, however, is quite consequential and downplaying it as she has done calls into question Armstrong's integrity as a researcher, scholar and writer of religious histories. She provides no analysis of evidence, not even a disclaimer about the quality or reliability of the information that exists. Instead, Armstrong attempts to bolster her findings (which are largely based on the Pali Cannon written in the 1 century BC) by stating that the monks responsible for verbally passing down Buddha's teachings took great care to ensure accuracy. That's it. End of discussion. I was really quite surprised and disappointed that she did not delve into the issue much more. It is the unfortunate problem with Armstrong's book and, quite frankly, with Buddhism - the vast timeframe for when events took place and when they were written down.

As I read this book I kept imaging how the Jesus Seminar and other biblical scholars would have treated similar evidence about Jesus. The answer: They would have dismissed it outright and left it at that. But then the standard for Jesus has always been quite high.

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Summary: Enlightenment
Review: Writing a biography of Buddha is an un-Buddhist thing to do. Buddha means enlightened or awakened one. The process of preserving the traditions of Buddha's life began shortly after his death in 483 B.C.E. About a hundred years after his death the Pali Canon was established. Other texts exist. They do contain reliable historical material. There is no developed chronological account of Siddhatta Gotama's life. Of emphasis are his birth, his renunciation of normal domestic life, his enlightenment, the start of his teaching career, and his death.

In the accounts the Buddha is presented as a type. When Gotama was 29 he took to the road. He had a yearning for existence that was wide open and complete. Family life was incompatible with higher forms of spirituality. Attachments to things interfered with spirituality. He was a near contemporary of Confucius and Socrates. He sought Nirvana to overcome the endless cycle of death and decay.

800 to 200 is known as the Axial Age. Socrates, Confucius, and Buddha have been mentioned, and in addition to them, others who established the ethos under which men still live include LaoTzu, Zoroaster, Plato, and the great Hebrew prophets. New religions emerged-- montheism in Iran and the Middle East, Taoism and Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Greek rationalism in Europe. Study and debate became important religious activities. There was a new cult of kingship in Gotama's lifetime. The image of the Universal Monarch became his alter ego.

Gotama rode out from the family house when the existence of suffering penetrated his world. He was able to look at Vedic society with the objectivity of an outsider. Gotama joined some of the wandering monks. They had become almost like a fifth caste. Gotama found a teacher who taught that ignorance rather than desire lay at the root of our problems. He was taught to look for holiness everywhere. Even suffering had a redemptive role. An ascetic often finds it is extremely difficult to liberate himself from the material world. It is not known when the first yogic exercises evolved in India. The word Yoga comes from a term to yoke or bind together.

The sages and prophets of the Axial Age were coming to realize that egotism was the greatest obstacle to experiencing the absolute. The abandonment of selfishness and egotism would be the basis of Gotama's own dharma. Yoga and ethical disciplines were practiced by him. He practiced withdrawal of the senses and concentration. Gotama did not think the elevated state of consciousness reached through the use of Yogic methods was Nirvana because afterwards he still had the same desires. He tried asceticism and that proved as fruitless as Yoga.

In seclusion Gotama found his way to enlightenment. He fostered wholesome states of mind, disinterested compassion. He adopted a habit of mindfulness. The transitory nature of life was one of the chief causes of suffering. The prosperity of one person usually depends upon the poverty of another. Gotama developed a new Yogic method. Scholars traditionally give the enlightenment of Gotama as around the year 528 B.C.E. What he found was not a new invention. His plan could not be understood by rational thinking alone. Nirvana is a still center. It gives meaning to life. Buddhism is essentially a psychological religion.

His first attempt at teaching was a failure. At a later stage the Buddha probably developed one of the most frequent subjects of meditiation, the Chain of Dependent Causation. The fire sermon was a brilliant critique of the Vedic system. The three fires of greed, hatred, and ignorance were an ironic counterpart to the three holy fires of the Vedas. The followers of the Buddha, little Buddhas, are as impersonal as he is in the accounts. Notes and glossary appear at the end of the book. This biography is correct and succinct, and yes, enlightening.

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Summary: Not just the Buddha, but Buddhism.
Review: Having something of an interest in theology, I had been reading a few explanations of the tenets of Buddhism, but nothing that fully put things together. So, when I found a short biography of the Buddha, I decided to find out more about the man who founded one of the great world religions. What I found was a very worthwhile text for folks who want to learn just what Buddhism is all about.

One of the central teachings of the Buddha was that those who follow his teachings must never attach themselves to the charisma of a teacher. One later Buddhist teacher even went so far as to say, "If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha." Of course, killing any living being is directly contrary to Buddhism, but this gives an idea of how important it is to Buddhists that they should not attach themselves to the biography of the Buddha, but rather his teachings. However, as Karen Armstrong points out in the introduction, the biography of the Buddha is impossible to explain without his teachings, so it serves a very valuable purpose.

This biography gives the best explanations of Buddhism I have yet read. By describing the paths the Buddha took and the methods that he used, his later teachings are thrown into an understandable context. From his days as a pampered but unsettled young man, through his itinerant, monastic days, his epic privations, up to his enlightenment, years of teaching and eventual death, everything is explained.

Mind you, to a Westerner, Buddhism seems hopelessly nihilistic and pessimistic at first; especially the bit about the attainment of Nirvana through the destruction of the self (a concept that is rather hard to explain, so I will not try). However, upon reflection, much of it resolves clearly and huge similarities can be found when one compares the teachings of the Buddha with those of Plato and the Jewish mystics. Its rules of concentration, awareness and moderation in all things are still valuable, even to Christians. In fact, some portions of Christianity could be considered similar, though they are not couched in nearly the same terms.

I highly recommend this title for people who want to learn the history and teachings of Buddhism. It is clear, concise, easily accessible, and well worth the money.