Customer Reviews

A Buddhist Bible (Beacon paperback 357--Religion)

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

 

 

Dwight Goddard's collection of Buddhist Sutras and related texts, first published in 1932, is available in paperback with introductions by Robert Aitken and Houston Smith. The importance of this book lies in its role in the development of American Buddhism as well as, of course, in the texts themselves.

Dwight Goddard, according to Aitken's introduction, was an enigmatic figure with training first as an engineer (where he became wealthy as a result of an invention) and as a Christian minister. In the latter role, he travelled to the East and became interested in Eastern Religions -- a seeker in the true sense of the term. In the 1930s, while in his 60s he produced this collection of texts, many of which he translated himself, which give a broad view of the nature of the teachings of Buddhist schools. The book helped teach Buddhism to Americans beginning in the 1930s.

In the 1950s, Jack Kerouac, then living in San Jose, California discovered Goddard in the public library. He carried the book with him wherever he went and used it as the basis of whatever knowledge of Buddhism he had. The beats in the 1950s were one of the sources leading to the growth of American Buddhism, and Goddard's book was Kerouac's teacher.

The main value of this book, though, is not in its role in Buddhist History in the United States but lies in the texts themselves. Goddard presents in one volume a selection of primary source materials from the Theravada, Manayana, Zen, Tibetan, and and other Buddhist traditions. Many of these texts have been more recently translated, but the translations in this book are readable, at the least and they are all in one volume. They are not easy reading and will require many rereadings, but they do present a compliation of basic Buddhist materials for those wishing to benefit from them. My own familiarity with Buddhist texts is primarily with the earlier texts in Theravada Buddhism. This book is comparatively light on Theravada texts but gave me the opportunity to read the texts of other Buddhist Schools.

This is a very fine anthology and is of historical interest for the transmission of the Buddha's teaching to the United States. I have found that many people interested in Buddhism restrict themselves to the practice of meditation or to books setting out Buddhist teachings rather than availing themselves of the original source materials. This book is a great way to read the original texts. There will be something of meaning in them for you.

I have to agree with the reviewer below me (even though he stole most of it from the book's introduction). The language the translators use is sometimes less than modern and more often nonstandard, but the sutras just feel right. It's hard to find a better collection of introductory sutras than this. A warning: the texts focus on Mahayana Buddhism (though not exclusively), and even the Tao Te Ching is in here, so old-time Theravadans might feel a little left out, but I think the diversity is a good thing.

Don't take this book as a literal bible--it's too personal to Goddard. It's also not the best intoduction to Buddhist thought out there: if you want a basic intro to Buddhist thought, I'd suggest Rahula's _What the Buddha Taught_. If you like what you've seen elsewhere and want to start delving into the sutras, this is the place to start.

The copy right on this little gem has not been renewed and the full text is available online at sacred-texts dot com. Free - is the Buddhist ideal for the cost of dharma.

I read this anthology for the first time when I was sixteen years old, which is much longer ago than I care to elaborate on. At the time, I thought it was electrifying. The book no doubt was one of my inspirations for taking up Oriental Studies in college.

I lost my original copy years ago, no doubt the victim of a book sale, and I finally purchased another one about five years ago. While I still value the book, I realize now just how eccentric Goddard was in his choice of material that he included. He chopped up many of the pieces that in the book, deleting many portions and rearranging the parts that he left in. A lot of the texts that he did include are not very readable, in my opinion. And why is the Dao De Jing in a book of Buddhist scriptures?

In short, I think that there's a lot of other good stuff out on the market now, and this book has been eclipsed. The would-be Buddhist enthusiast will find little in this book to show her what contemporary Buddhism is like. However, I guess that one has to start somewhere, so perhaps there is still a market for this book.

This book is unlike the other books I've been reading on Buddhism. Its much more like it's title than I expected...a Bible! If that challenges your approach, I say try it! It's written with much more spiritual/evangelical language than most Buddhist manuals. It's certainly a labor of love and it crosses a wide variety of topics and sources! A must have to balance out those intellectually focused manuals that crowd the shelves.

I have read "The Buddhist Bible" by Goddard many times and continue to do so often. To me it is a constant and easily availabe source. I believe it is one of the best books out there. Still, it is often hard to follow and seemingly contradictory as the Sutras are themselves at times.It is however, a must, and will take ongoing study throughout a persons life, as most worthwhile books do.Of course, there is also the "little" issue of putting into practice what we "understand".
The reason I am once again looking at this site is to purchase this book again.The cost is cheap, and so is the binding. This is my third or fourth one. They fall apart constantly, and so I am looking and hoping there is a hardback edition available. Perhaps its binding will last longer.

This book is by far the best collection of Buddhist scriptures I've ever seen. While it is perhaps not the best book to serve as an introduction to Buddhist teachings, it does an outstanding job of introducing the westerner to Buddhist scriptures. I recommend that you have some basic understanding of Buddhist teachings before delving into the sutras, but the translations presented here do not require you to know much beforehand.

Goddard uses a variety of English translations of the sutras, some of them his own. Generally speaking I consider them to be relatively easy to read while also being (as far as I can tell) scholastically accurate. There seems to be a good balance between scholastic accuracy and poetic sensibility. In my opinion both the letter and the spirit of these works are presented in these translations.

Goddard includes various sutras from different Buddhist schools: Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan, Chinese, and more. These include such notable texts as the Dhammapada, Diamond Sutra, Heart Sutra, Tao Te Ching, and many more (even including a couple of more modern texts).

The primary shortfall of this book is that it was first published well over 50 years ago when there was not as much Buddhist scholarship in the west. Today I imagine we have more texts and better scholarship that would give us better translations. Still, I could not recommend this book more.

It would be nice to have a companion book featuring modern Buddhist writings by people such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Alan West, and the Dalai Lama.

While this book has some historical value, the translations of the original texts are extremely poor. I purchased this book a long while back when first learning about Buddhism and I did not know better. The first issue I have with the book is that the title is misleading as there is no Bible in Buddhism or single book. The Tripitaka (the name for the full Buddhist Canon), would, if fully printed, occupy a small library and much still has yet to be translated into English. However, the translations in this text were made nearly a century ago and Goddard himself had a somewhat poor understanding of Buddhism. This led him to do some egregious things in translating the text. If you read the notes, he completely rearranged the Diamond Sutra (which has a specific intended structure that needs no rearranging) into a text that barely resembles the original. Just about every text in the book has much better and more modern translations, many of which can be found online for free. It is unfortunate that this book is still in print as it is highly misleading to intent and true meaning of the original texts.

This book is like the armchair or sofa someone gave or that you bought on impulse at a yard-sale; it's comfortable, but it's ugly and much too big for the room it's in; still you've become too fond of it to consider throwing it away.
It was first published in 1938(!) when there was nothing quite like it. There is Still nothing like it. Despite the tsunami of Buddhist publishing over the last seven decades, many of the dated translations found here are still in print separately with prettier covers.

This is surprising at first; but when you think about it... The Sutras are not exactly the most riveting reading. In East Asian monasteries the Sutras were monotonously chanted like endless mantras, often in a language that was difficult or impossible for the monks to understand. In the West people are happy to read all kinds of books on Buddhism: except the Sutras - which are meant to be where you Start from.

The selections from Tibetan and Theravada (South-East Asian) Buddhism can be ignored: so many excellent texts and compilations have now been translated from these sources.
So it's mainly for those interested in Zen. ( I know, the Zen Masters said, Burn the Sutras, but, you know, they Said stuff like that. If you're going to take Everything that people tell you literally...) Most Sutras important to Zen are in here: the triple-distilled Heart Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Lankāvatāra-Sūtra, the Shūrangama-Sūtra, the Sutra of Hui-Neng.

You really should read the Sutras. Yes, they're as dry as talcum powder and at times you feel you're going to scream if you have to read through one more mind-numbing litany of repetitions. Part philosophical text, part meditation guide, part visionary narrative, they are unique creations, and the effort it takes to read them is intrinsic.
You'll also find some interesting meditation texts and the important "Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna". Though it creaks with age and is unsatisfactory in several ways, there is nothing even resembling a substitute for this book.

I purchased this book almost a year ago. I had read some things on Buddhism before and it seemed interesting. I also found other religions i looked into unfullfilling and decided to try something new.

I picked up this book to learn about Buddhism and along with the learning I gained much insight. I read it and after reading it had a lightness of mind and i rested easier (i had a problem sleeping sometimes, this somehow helped hahaha). The texts in this book are for the most part worth reading, re-reading, and thinking over. Even if you are not a Buddhist it may help offer insight on your mind and life.

While this book will probably seem like the same old thing to an experienced buddhist (and perhaps they have already read some of the stuff) and unorthodox due to the editing of some sutras i highly reccomend it to new Buddhists or people looking to learn more about the religon. The only reason this book gets a 4 star instead of 5 star rating is the fact that some of the stuff in it probably could of been left out. One section of it reads morel ike an instruction manual rather than a religious text. Also, in that section especially, it is extremetly repetitive. It could of done without aobut two sections but i advise you check it out and maybe you will find more in those places (and the book in general) than i did.