Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
by Damien Keown
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Book Summary Information
Author: Damien KeownEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2000-06-15
ISBN: 0192853864
Number of pages: 152
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Book Review: Lives up to its title, fluently and accessibly
Summary: 4 Stars
Finishing Damien Keown's "Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 1996), I compared his understanding to the book immediately prior that I had reviewed on Amazon, "god Is Not Great," by Christopher Hitchens. The latter writer fails to note the Dalai Lama's own insistence that if scientific inquiry proved false the words of the Buddha, he'd abandon the words; he also keeps, as Pico Iyer reported in his "Time" cover story (Mar. 31, 2008), a model of the human brain on his desk. Certainly the Dalai Lama's not the quasi-feudal potentate lording over theocratic serfs that Hitchens hints. Neither has modern Buddhism, as it evolves in the West, been opposed to secular liberalism or psychological analysis.
London-based scholar Damien Keown quotes the delightfully named Christmas Humphreys, a leading British pioneer in popularizing what he suggested a "new vehicle" of "Nava-yana" to "grow happily alongside, and even blend with the best of Western science, psychology and social science, and thus effect the ever-changing field of Western thought." He continued: "Just what it will be we do not know, nor does it matter at the present time. The Dhamma as such is immortal, but its forms must ever change to serve the ever-changing human need." (qtd. by Keown p. 121 from Humphreys' "Sixty Years of Buddhism in England," p. 80).
Surely Hitchens might find in such an openness a fruitful intersection rather than a solid wall that he erects that shuts off, given the failings of the Dalai Lama that he castigates amidst the larger stupidities of such as the Bhagwan or the Maharishi. In the single chapter he devotes to demolishing the Eastern alternatives, Hitchens does overlook the fluidity of Buddhism within progress, a feature that distinguishes its overlooked practical nature from the otherworldly states that Hitchens like most of us characterizes as a salient, and often only, differing feature of the Far Eastern seeker or guru vs. the Western (or Middle Eastern) mullah or minister.
Keown, by contrast, as his short study promises in its title, gives us a friendly entrance by portals we recognize into what for me's been a mysterious panorama. He compares human nature's "five factors of individuality" taught by the Buddha to five components of an automobile. The parts shift in motion, the car demands the fuel of "tanha," but all of its five parts eventually will break down. This gas-guzzling car's propelled by perhaps the wrong octane (my metaphor) of desire, which equates with the First Noble Truth that we depend on "dukkha." We will need to diagnose this flaw before we can repair our vehicle.
Likewise, Keown uses fire to explain the metaphor of "samudaya," the Second Truth of Arising. He then defines Cessation ("Nirodha") in the words of the Buddha helpfully: "asking about the whereabouts of 'an enlightened one' after death is like asking where a flame goes when it is blown out." (52) The flame has not gone anywhere; the process of combustion has ceased. "Removing craving and ignorance is like taking away the oxygen and fuel which a flame needs to burn." You can see, although Keown does not belabor the image, how the earlier automotive metaphors compliment the traditional ones of the candle-flame to explain for we moderns a venerable set of Buddhist core teachings--which forms Truth #4 of the Noble Eightfold path of the Middle Way of sensible moderation in daily practice, "Magga."
I found the chapter on the Four Truths enlightening, and his on the life of the Buddha summarized efficiently the little we know in fact well. (In fact, all I perhaps for now needed to know, compared with Karen Armstrong's Penguin Lives "Buddha"-- recently reviewed by me-- that tended to ramble on.) Other sections examine Karma & Rebirth, The Mahayana school, and Asian varieties. A short reading list, maps, and illustrations have all been chosen sparingly but appropriately; the use of text boxes to summarize key concepts makes this book reader-friendly, although the handsome typeface may be too small for some readers. The discussions of Asian expansion while necessary lacked the earlier and later chapters' verve, perhaps inevitably-- a second minor flaw.
Valuable discussions of ethics and Buddhism as adapted to the West should counter claims of many about the supposed non-worldly withdrawal from relevant concerns of human rights, scientific advancement, and mental health that show how this ancient teaching can be well integrated into current knowledge at the most advanced levels in industrialized nations, ecumenical dialogues, and secular cultures.
P.S. Countering George Dekle's 2006 comments here on Amazon, this book does not credulously urge you to levitate or water-walk! A careful re-reading of the book reminds us of Keown's pragmatic view: "Although the Buddha is said to have possessed these abilities himself, he sometimes mocked those who went to great lengths to acquire them, pointing out rather than devote years of one's life to learning to walk on water it was simpler to engage the services of a boatman!" (89)
Summary of Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
This accessible volume covers both the teachings of the Buddha and the integration of Buddhism into daily life. What are the distinctive features of Buddhism? What or who is the Buddha, and what are his teachings? How has Buddhist thought developed over the centuries, and how can contemporary dilemmas be faced from a Buddhist perspective? Words such as "karma" and "nirvana" have entered our vocabulary, but what do they really mean? Keown has taught Buddhism at an introductory level for many years, and in this book he provides a lively, challenging response to these frequently asked questions.General Books
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