Customer Reviews

Bodhisattva Archetypes: Classic Buddhist Guides to Awakening and Their Modern Expression

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Faithful amazon.com patrons know the phenomenon of reading superlative reviews here, reviews that sadly overstate the qualities of the books reviewed. Reading the two reviews below, you might fear this is such a case. They are indeed, superb reviews, accurate, informative, yet rising to the power of poetry. But the reader need not fear; Leighton's book is honored by the reviews but has earned every such honor. And if the reviews rise toward poetry it is because the language of the book inspires them.

I read Leighton's work carefully, wearing both my hats as Buddhist and Buddhist scholar. I take both hats off to him as he has fashioned a book that scholars will learn from and practitioners will deepen with. Non-Buddhists please take note: this would be a marvelous way to begin learning what Mahayana Buddhism is really about. All persons will grow from reading this book, and I hope they do.

A wonderful introduction to bodhisattva practice and history. Rev. Leighton explores the historical manifestations of the bodhisattvas, but always returns to examples accessable to the western reader (this western reader, anyhow!) and brings the focus to the ways we can learn from the bodhisattvas, not just revere them from afar.

This well written book is inspiring and informative. It is a sourcebook of information about Buddhist iconography, literature and psychology and, at the same time, it makes the seemingly arcane idea of the "boddhisattva" compellingly relevant to our struggle to lead conscious and responsible lives in these complex and morally murky times. Mr. Leighton has served us and the Dharma well with this important addition to the epochal effort to bring the essence of Buddhism to the West.

In this book, Taigen Leighton achieves something that I have rarely found (but am always searching for) in popular Buddhist literature: he matches objective scholarship and illuminating historical, sociological, and psychological observations with religious depth, insight, and sensitivity. In fact, his chapter on Avalokiteshvara and his discussion of Pure Land Buddhist traditions played a determinative role in my own spiritual unfolding. And like the skillful orator Manjushri's, Taigen Leighton own language is clarifying and incantatory at once. To enter into its serene rhythms is to taste something of the presence of the Bodhisattvas. A highly edifying read and radically Mahayana work that is precisely what is needed to lead us into the new millennium.

When I initially started reading this book, I felt it had potential. Simply by describing the archetypes, it reminds us of the principles of an ethical life - that we all seem to completely forget in daily life.

I had some problems though, with the author's forays into explaining issues of race, class and discrimination. At many places, where one least expects it, he stigmatizes people who address the wrongness of discrimination and oppression and seems to think that they should just lighten up and swallow injustice.

I think perhaps in the next edition, if the author wishes to condemn violence, he should select as a case study institutional violence - rather than talking about the ways in which its victims have tried to create a more just society.