Customer Reviews

Buddhism

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As can be gathered from other reviews of this series, I do not condone the erosion of others religious beliefs. That said, Yamamoto is one of the better contributors to this series, and does credit to a calm and detailed delineation of Buddhist,Taoist,Confucian and Shinto beliefs.

I have major difficulties with the evangelical imperative in this series, though. As Chinese Communists have been trying to exterminate all traces of Tibetan Buddhism since their occupation of Tibet fifty years ago, I do not believe that it is justified to try to compound that crime through the erosion of Tibetan Buddhist beliefs still further, otherwise that civilisation might cease to exist altogether. Judging from Yamamoto's careful delineation of other Buddhist categories, I suspect that he might have more luck with Amida, Pure Land and Nichiren Buddhists than Tibetan or Zen Buddhists. Moreover, I also question why Yamamoto believes it self-evident that the a priori propositions of his faith are true, and not those of the various East Asian traditions that he cites. I incorporate zen practices into my own syncretist spirituality, and I like the reliance on personal responsibility that is involved here. I also hold that the principle of karmic responsibility means that people are accountable for their actions, and that the boddhisatva principle means that Buddhists are ethically obliged to serve others. Still, stripped of the evangelical propaganda, this is an excellent guide to a major religious tradition. If you read it, ignore the latter portion of the book.

This book sets up Eastern religions as a series of strawmen and then provides tips for knocking them over. As an manual for Christian evangelical chauvinists it undoubtedly would provide a reassuring read. On the other hand, if you are interested in actually learning about these religious traditions Amazon stocks many other books that serve that purpose and are not written with the intent to disparage other faiths.

I found this guide to be an extremely helpful introduction to Eastern religions. In particular, the bibliography at the end of the book, which includes the Eastern classics such as the Tao Te Ching, the I Ching, the Analects, etc., plus other introductory texts of the major Eastern religions and schools of thought, balanced by various analyses from a Christian perspective of the differences between these religions and Christianity, is well worth the price of this brief guide. I have many of the Eastern classics in my library and plan to get them all, along with all the cited books related to these Eastern traditions, as well as the recommended Christian critiques. In this relativistic and pluralistic world, any work that affirms the differences between truth claims is welcome. I highly recommend it as a starting point to begin investigation.

J. Isamu Yamamoto's writings of Buddhism are hardly in any way an accurate understanding of what Buddhism is, but rather, a fundamentalist fun-house mirror version of Buddhism.

There's many good books that someone can read if they want to know about Buddhism. I'd recommend the following authors: The Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, D.T. Suzuki, and Shunryu Suzuki, for starters.

Yamamoto says, for example, that Buddhists "more interested in what they can mystically experience than what they can theologically understand," although apparently Yamamoto doesn't realize that Buddhism's great philosophers, such as Nagarjuna, and Dogen were centuries ahead of Western philosophy.

It is especially clear that Yamamoto's take on Zen Buddhism reveals a profound ignorance beyond the superficial, transmuted into Christian concpets, which, of course, is a gross misrepresentation of a practice, that, as the great Christian Thomas Merton noted, was to theology in the same way that tennis was to mathematics.

Read Merton's Zen and the Birds of Appetite, read Dogen's works, read both Suzukis.

But stay away from this tripe if you want to begin to approach an intelligent, respectful conversation with a Buddhist.

I used this book to write a research on a comparisson between Christianity and Buddhsim and thought it was very informative and well written and set up. Good comparrisons for Christians to use and seen as I am a Christian thought was very Biblically sound.

There may be some strong arguments Christians can mount against Buddhism, but you won't find any here, because the "Buddhism" in this book is a straw man, an absurd caricature. Don't waste your money. - Brian