Buddhism for Beginners

Rating:
Summary: A Breath of Fresh Air.
Review: A beautifly simple book for the curious, beginner, or anyone who has ever thought about practicing. This book allows the reader to go from cover to cover, or skip to the chapters that truly interest them. There are no mystical words, no vague references or language problems. It's simple, basic english that will answer almost all the questions you have ever wanted to ask about Buddhism, but diddn't know which book to read or who to ask.

Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction to Buddhism
Review: Great Introduction to Buddhism

This book was written in response to many - "can I ask you a question about Buddhism?"

I really enjoyed the question and answer style that this is written in - for example in chapter one the question is asked - "What is the essence of Buddha's teachings?" and an excellent and easy to understand answer given. "What is the goal of the Buddhist path?" and again another easy to understand and terrific answer given etc -

These and other great questions throughout the book are questions that someone looking into Buddhism would be asking.

Some of the questions I hadn't really considered before, but was really glad they were asked and fully interested in the answers and learned new things.

This is an easy and enjoyable book to read. Great for the beginner or someone just curious about Buddhism. Great for someone further along the path to sit, smile and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Buddhism 101
Review: I was looking for a good beginner's book on Buddhism, and found it with this one. Thubten Chodron did an excellent job in teaching the basics of Buddhism, it's history, and the difference in interpretations by various nations. She breaks down the chapters into various topics, from "Meditation" to "Social Activism & Ethical Issues." Each chapter is composed of Q&A's, like "What is karma? How does it work?" After reading this book, I got a great idea of how Buddhists view their world. This book is rather brief (150 pages) but it accomplishes it's intended purpose well.

Rating:
Summary: Buddhism 101
Review: I was looking for a good beginner's book on Buddhism, and found it with this one. Thubten Chodron did an excellent job in teaching the basics of Buddhism, it's history, and the difference in interpretations by various nations. She breaks down the chapters into various topics, from "Meditation" to "Social Activism & Ethical Issues." Each chapter is composed of Q&A's, like "What is karma? How does it work?" After reading this book, I got a great idea of how Buddhists view their world. This book is rather brief (150 pages) but it accomplishes it's intended purpose well.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for those new to Buddhism & their families!
Review: The strongest feature of this book is the simple and straight-forward English explanations to many, many Buddhist questions. Each chapter deals with a general topic and has several questions relating to that topic. The answers are concise and well thought out and are excellent introductions to some of the more weighty thinking Buddhism has. The questions range from the sublime (the nature of the mind) to the mundane (lay ordained monks were asked to wear a white strip on their shawl to distinguish themselves from the other ordained). All of the answers are insightful, even to those more advanced beginners out there.

I think this book is best for people that have read some other Buddhist influenced books (perhaps something like The Art of Happiness where the author uses the Dalai Lama’s answers to form some general advice on dealing with life). To those “advanced” beginners, they might have formulated many of those questions contained in the book. (Answering questions you didn’t think of isn’t the best learning mechanism at times.) If you want to know more about Buddhism, the religion and the philosophy, in very general broad brush sweeps, this is an excellent book...

Rating:
Summary: A Flawed Materpiece
Review: These are questions and then their answers by a Tibetan Buddhist nun. And they are very very good. Because they are questions that students rarely ask. Some issues seem remote from Buddhism.
But they are not. So this book is a real gem. But it should have included a really good prelude to each of the 21 chapters.
One feels a little like one missed the main discussion and arrived only for the question and answer period. Please buy
"Open Heart, Clear Mind" by the author and make these two books a dynamic duo.

Rating:
Summary: A Flawed Materpiece
Review: These are questions and then their answers by a Tibetan Buddhist nun. And they are very very good. Because they are questions that students rarely ask. Some issues seem remote from Buddhism.
But they are not. So this book is a real gem. But it should have included a really good prelude to each of the 21 chapters.
One feels a little like one missed the main discussion and arrived only for the question and answer period. Please buy
"Open Heart, Clear Mind" by the author and make these two books a dynamic duo.