Customer Reviews

Buddhism: A Concise Introduction

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have read a number of books about Buddhism, and this is the best of its kind. However, to avoid disappointment, it is very important to understand what its "kind" is!

This is NOT -- as the subtitle and the cover art could misleadingly suggest -- a user-friendly introduction to Buddhist practice. It is not a hand-holding tour of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold way, with beginning training in meditation. If you buy it expecting such things, you may well write another negative review.

The authors are academics specializing in the history of religion (see Smith's other books, which are widely respected), and they are both Buddhist practitioners. In this book they combine these traits to write a deep, sympathetic account of Buddhism as a religion: what its main tenets are -- how it is practiced -- how it fractured historically into different strands. They write analytically and comparitively, but they also write with understanding and sympathy. They treat Buddhism as a living religion to be practiced by modern people - not as an anthropological artifact, the way some non-Buddhist authors do.

Smith and Novak are particularly good at describing, sympathetically and in depth, the philosophical roots of the different practices in each strand. The chapters that compare the differing values of the Mahayana and Theravada strains, and then show their fundamental unity, is worth the book's price. They also tease out the key differences between the four types of Tibetan Buddhism, and explain the sources and values of other schools as different as Goenka and Pure Land.

They are also good at showing and how Western practices were formed by the sheer happenstance of which individuals happened to first import Buddhist thought, and which Eastern school they happened to stumble upon for their initial training.

Finally, they do a good job of showing how Western, and especially American, Buddhism is in many ways a different beast from any Eastern form, and still evolving.

The main problem with the book, aside from its slightly-misleading title, is that it is too short. For some reason, the authors felt they had to restrict the length. At several points they apologize for giving only a "summary" of some important point (like: Buddhism in Europe). And several key concepts are only sketched in the end-notes, when they deserve to be written out in full and integrated into the book. I'm only giving 4 of 5 stars because of this compression.

I've read dozens and dozens of books on Buddhism, but the clarity with which Smith and Novak explain basic principles, distinctions between sects, and the development of Buddhism in America makes Buddhism: A Concise Introduction very special. It's definitely the first book I'd recommend to anyone interested in learning about Buddhism (supplanting Steve Hagen's Buddhism Plain and Simple, a great book itself, but in a different way). Best of all, this book helped me understand which type of Buddhist practice made the most sense for me.

Of the dozens of Buddhist books I've purchased, this book provides the clearest, most understandable introduction to Buddhism. It gives a succinct historical background, complete with context (religions that were prominent where Buddism's roots sprouted). It then lays out the foundations of Buddhism (4 noble truths, eightfold path, etc.).
The authors do a great job explaining some of Buddhism's complex terms (dependent arising, nen-self, etc.), and do not confuse matters by relying to heavily on Sanskrit or Pali terminology.
Although the description of the various branches of Buddhism was a bit short, it did lay out the fundamental thoughts of each branch, and compare/contrast with the others.
The authors detail meditation types(vipassana, samantha) and how the different branches use meditation differently.
Finally, there is a summary of how Buddhism migrated to the western world, and how it is practiced today.
An excellent book, I would highly recommend it.

Part of this book is an excellent introduction to Buddhism. Part of it is not. The first eight chapters are clear, concise and extraordinarily lucid. I have been looking for a long time for a really good introduction to Buddhism. Most of the books I've read either try to do too much or are too narrowly conceived. Huston Smith (not to be confused with Homer W. Smith who wrote Man and His Gods half a century ago) and Philip Novak do an admirable job of showing the reader exactly what Buddhism is all about, how it arose, how it developed and splintered. They make clear the central ideas of Buddhism and how those ideas differ from other religions. These chapters constitute easily one of the best introductions to Buddhism I have ever read.

However in the ninth chapter on Zen Buddhism, written exclusively by Smith, I found myself very much at odds with Smith's interpretation. He warns us that as a Zen student in Japan many years ago his teacher Goto Roshi considered him too philosophic and not as well-grounded in the experiential as he might be. The immediate and experiential, the "be here now" is the essence of Zen of course. And so one might say that Smith was too intellectual. According to a footnote on page 207, the chapter "received its final shape from six weeks of Zen training Kyoto" in 1957 when Smith was a young man. I wonder how thoroughly he reworked this chapter for the present volume copyrighted in 2002. It would appear not much. I should also note that the entire book is a reworking of the chapter on Buddhism from his larger work, The World's Religions.

My problem with his take on Zen is the suggestion, especially on page 97, that it is the rational mind that is holding the student back. But it is not the work of the rational mind that Zen wants the practitioner to overcome. The rational mind is merely common sense. It is instead, the intellectualization of the world that is the problem. It is living the verbalizations we invent as though the verbalizations were the world itself, as though the name were the thing itself. Cooking rice, drawing water, sweeping the porch are events that are preeminently directed by the rational mind. It is rational and logical to eat when you're hungry, to sleep when you're tired. Zen always strives for the concrete, never the abstraction.

I also found myself at odds with Smith's take on the purpose of koan training and how it works toward the aspirant's enlightenment. Enlightenment comes from living with awareness. Being awake, as the Buddha said. Meditation allows us to become very much aware of ourselves and our place in the world. The koan is actually a device that leads the novice to meditation. If you are sitting down and wrestling with the notion of one hand clapping or are contemplating nothingness, after a while it becomes obvious that where you are is inside your head. Once you are able to focus your attention so precisely without distraction, as indeed the Buddha was able to do, then you are on the road to insight, leading to enlightenment, leading to satori and liberation.

I believe that Smith's understanding of the koan experience is too esoteric and frankly cluttered. He speaks of the mind "working in a special way" on the koan and that "reason...must be supplemented by another mode of knowing." (p. 97) This unnecessary mystification strongly suggests that Smith did not get much further in his koan practice than the six weeks he spent with Goto Roshi.

What is really being "upset" and revolted against in koan training is not the rational mind and its logic, but the culturalization that society has imposed on us along with the view of life constructed by the animal mind: that is, the mind shaped by the evolutionary process, a mind that sees everything primarily in terms of its utility to the seer. Freeing the mind from the prejudices of society and from the limits of the evolutionary mindset is really what Zen is all about. That is how we achieve freedom, which was the goal of the Buddha--freedom from the shackles of the purely animal existence with its mind clouded by reproductive, social and subsistence needs. When we are able to do this we become like the Buddha, like the real artist, like the solitary old man of the forest drawing water and stacking wood. We become knowingly part of the process, not separate from it, and at home in the everyday world in a way that is uncolored by previous notions and the prejudices of society and our evolutionary selves.

There is some extensive discussion in this book about the differences between Mahayana Buddhism, the so-called "great" vehicle and Hinayana Buddhism (the "lesser" vehicle, more properly referred to as Theravada), and some hints about the mystical and supernatural Buddhism that is sometimes practiced by the great Buddhist masses. One can easily see that the further one gets from actual teachings as derived from the Buddha, the more adrift one becomes. Zen is a reaction to the needless elaboration and intellectualizing of the teachings, and is an attempt to bring the practitioner back to the concrete and the actual world of experience.

The value of this book is in the lucid and concise delineation of the Buddha's teachings as contained in the first eight chapters. The material in Part II "The Wheel Rolls West" is about how Buddhism is influencing and being influenced by its experience in Western cultures, and is of greater interest to established Buddhists that it is to those being introduced to Buddhism.

As I am writing this I have just seen a new report lamenting the lack of knowledge about religions amongst the youth of America. It's easy to see that ignorance about the core beliefs of others is dangerous, and, perhaps, a bit disrespectful.

This is a marvelous introductory book to the basic tenets of Buddhism by the well-known writer Huston Smith, whose magisterial book The World's Religions has sold more than two million copies. The first half of this book is an expanded and updated version of the sections on Buddhism from the World's Religions. Though there has been a shift in emphasis between the two: the big book focused more on Mahayana Buddhism, in this new book, the emphasis is more on Theravada Buddhism, with a useful chart delineating some of the differences and similarities between the two major schools of Buddhism.

The second half of the book is all new and was largely written by Philip Novak, one of Smith former doctoral students who is now a professor in his own right. His focus is more on the growth and spread of Buddhism in Europe and the amazing way in which Buddhism has evolved in North America. A tribute to its remarkable resilience in the face of cultural forces.

Although many of the basics of Buddhism can be picked up online, or by consulting any decent encyclopedia, the discussion of concepts like the our Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, Nirvana and the Three Marks of Existence goes beyond the essentials and brings out a number of new and important points.

There is an important issue when we examine philosophical or religious matters. There is inevitably a subjective component in how anyone, scholar or otherwise, interprets the teachings and their own experiences. So it is inevitable that not everyone will agree with every interpretation and nuance. Insight meditation, one of the tools of Theravada Buddhism, was one of the first forms of meditation that I ever learned, and the way that I was taught, by a well-known Thai-born teacher, was somewhat different form the interpretations in this book. I have also seen a couple of reviewers take issue with some of the book's comments about Zen Buddhism. They make some excellent points. Though I studied Zen too, and my own teaching was close to the information given in the book.

So this book will not be the final word on Buddhism, but then there probably cannot be a "final word." The system has shown remarkable adaptability over the last twenty-five centuries, and there is no reason to think that it won't continue to evolve in the future.

Highly recommended.

A fantastic book to give one an overview of Buddhism...from the history to fairly detailed explanations of its various "branches" such as Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan, Vispassana, etc. One could almost use it as a "shoppers guide to Buddhism".

It also gives a "who's who" in contemporary American Buddhism, such as Surya Das, Kornfield, Epstein, Goleman, Salzberg, etc.

I couldn't stop reading it. It really drew me in. Fascinating reading.

Great for someone like myself who is very interested in Buddhism, and has had some experience with the different traditions, but needs some help in sorting out the different paths and which is the right one for you. Appears to be written with the westerner in mind, or anyone new to Buddhism.

I really like it since it gives a wholly unbiased introduction to the various types of Buddhism, opposed to most works on Buddhism which are written from the perspective that their path is the best.

I also recommend "Big Bang, The Buddha, and the Baby Boom" - Wes Nisker and "Why Buddhism" - Vicki MacKenzie, and "Buddhism Without Beliefs" - Steven Batchelor.

I have come across a number of introductions to Buddhism and this book alone seems to provide the necessary depth and clarity to a religion that may seem confusing to a novice (such as myself). I feel as though I have gained the proper groundwork to look deeper into paths that I seem to connect with.
The book is split into two sections ("The Wheel of the Dharma" and "The Wheel Rolls West"). The first sections reads well and is thoroughly interesting. THe second, however, reads more like an 8th grade social studies textbook. The amount of information is much more overwhelming and, in my opinion, less fullfilling.
Great book, great read, great beginning...

For those new to Buddhism, Huston Smith and Philip Novak have made a very readable presentation. This book would be recommended for introductory college level, or for those curious about the basics of Buddhist thought. Brevity is its strength for those seeking a fairly comprehensive overview, but also its weakness for scholars looking for more depth.

If you want a introduction to buddhism this is the book. Covers all branches of buddism. Huston Smith part is very well written and easy to read. The second part of the book by Novak isn't as enjoyable it can drag on at points and isn't as well written. All in All though if you are interested in buddhism this is a great book that covers alot of ground for a small 200 page book.

A fantastic book to give one an overview of Buddhism...from the history to fairly detailed explanations of its various "branches" such as Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan, Vispassana, etc. One could almost use it as a "shoppers guide to Buddhism".

It also gives a "who's who" in contemporary American Buddhism, such as Surya Das, Kornfield, Epstein, Goleman, Salzberg, etc.

I couldn't stop reading it. It really drew me in. Fascinating reading.

Great for someone like myself who is very interested in Buddhism, and has had some experience with the different traditions, but needs some help in sorting out the different paths and which is the right one for you. Appears to be written with the westerner in mind, or anyone new to Buddhism.

I really like it since it gives a wholly unbiased introduction to the various types of Buddhism, opposed to most works on Buddhism which are written from the perspective that their path is the best.

I also recommend "Big Bang, The Buddha, and the Baby Boom" - Wes Nisker and "Why Buddhism" - Vicki MacKenzie, and "Buddhism Without Beliefs" - Steven Batchelor.