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Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide

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Written by some of the most respected scholars in the field, Buddhism the Illustrated Guide is both highly accessible and sophisticated. The authors have managed to present the vast and complex array of beliefs, practices, and relationships constitutive of this world religion with the brevity of exceptional scholarship. Yet, astoundingly, throughout the entire compendium, one is never deprived of the rich texture and depth of lived Buddhism, which is quite rare in objective scholarship. This debasing of religion to trite, and often insipid, historical outlines is, unfortunately, often characteristic of most erudite attempts to impartially summarize religions. On another note, this work also represents a paradigmatic shift in contemporary Buddhist studies away from the western presupposition of Buddhism as primarily a rational quest and a new attempt to "rematerialize" Buddhism by emphasizing the role of ritual, image, and relic. This introduction is simply unmatched in its treatment of Buddhism, and it has enough flavor to get anyone excited about learning. From its exquisite high quality images which adorn almost every page and regular sidebar commentaries, to its easily accessible chapter sections, Buddhism practically comes to life as you flip the pages.

My first exposure to Buddhist ideas was in the 1960s, in California, in what I later realized was a rather self-conscious, thoroughly Westernized form that viewed Buddhism as a philosophy rather than a "religion," compared to Christianity. American and European scholarship regarding Buddhist thought and its application in eastern social systems has changed considerably in the past few decades, however, and this recent volume is a very good introductory overview. Each section is written and edited by a different scholarly authority, beginning with Buddhism's historical and political origins, progressing to its principals and practices and a discussion of its evolved holy writings, and concluding with a section on "Buddhism Today" that points up its diversity from Indian to China to Japan to southeast Asia. The narrative is smooth and frequent sidebars offer more detailed explanations of doctrinal or historical points as needed. The illustrations are numerous and mostly in color. My only gripe, really, is an editorial one: On nearly every page, it seems, there is at least one in-text cross-reference ("see pp. 20-21") which encourage the reader to jump around, which leads one to lose track of what are often very alien ideas.

This book is a stunning look at most aspects of Buddhism. It allocates a 2 (and occasionally 4) page spread to each topic and has beautiful imagery and photography to illustrate the various topics. This looks at such wide areas as Origin, Principles and Practise, Holy Writings and Buddhism Today, with each of these sections further broken down into chapters exploring the ideas of Buddhism in greater depth. This is a wonderful place to turn to learn more about this religion and the images alone more than make up the purchase price. This book covers more topics than most other 'introduction' books i've read and in a way that renders the idea clear and coherent. I highly recommend this in your explorations of this religion and the ideals it teaches.

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A very good book for introducing one to Buddhism. Good history, good photots, good order of events.

This book's layout is quite unique for a text book. Each page details a certain aspect of Buddhism, so it is more of a reference book, not necessarily a great book for beginners with no path to guide them along. Lots of great photos. The binding is pretty poor, after about 5 weeks of owning this book, it's falling apart.

Enlightenment depends on seeing, on waking up, on the visual insight. This practice uses illumination via the mind's eye to the spirit. Its editor, featured on the recent PBS "The Buddha," compiles what's designed to appeal to the eye as text and as image.

It's accessible yet scholarly; a timeline, glossary, and an academically oriented reading list append short articles ranging across the spectrum of what may attract the gaze of the curious investigator. Todd T. Lewis joins Trainor in discussing origins, in the Hindu and ancient Indian contexts, which precede a life of the Buddha. Then, the principals and practices, doctrines and philosophical schools follow. Mark L. Blum and John Peacock add chapters. Holy writings as the sutras and pitakas find elaboration, a feature often skimmed over in introductory texts. Finally, the adaptation of Buddhism across first Asia and then the world gains treatment. Art, ethics, and cultural impacts all gain coverage. It's all presented efficiently, with terms explained and cross-references helping one's own orientation.

As for the illustrations, they can dazzle, as in a two-page sleeping Buddha figure from Burma. The concept of emptiness gets the simple circle from a depiction of the famous Ox-Herding Zen sequence; it matched well the description of what on pg. 140 I spot-checked as a test case of how well the text managed to convey for me a difficult to summarize concept, that of "dependent co-origination." Try this and see if it works: the teaching concludes that "all known realities are constructed realities whose identities are merely intellectual conventions used to order the world so that it can be understood."

It did for me. Kevin Trainor and co-contributors probably faced severe editorial constraints to fit some complicated explanations into short sections on these lively pages. Such topics as the role of women get brief but thoughtful comment, and the links between sections I found especially helpful to connect ideas that otherwise might not have been threaded and enriched. One cross-reference was inaccurate, and the elegant pages can be hard to read in the Oxford UP reprint in paperback as the text falls towards the gutter of the center spine. But these are minor flaws.

The team that produced this guide did so well. I recommend this as a portal into the realms that the Buddhist texts and commentaries and studies in the references at the end continue to elaborate. It's an affordable, engaging, and intelligently sequenced overview that can serve well for a classroom or for one's own study.