Buddhist Scriptures (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Anonymous (Author), Edward Conze (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: July 30, 1959

Striving to understand the truth of the human condition and determining the path to spiritual enlightenment is the fundamental nature of Buddhism. Lighting this path is the Buddha, committed to guiding human beings to pure and happy lives. This beautiful hardcover gift book is the ideal introduction to the amazing ideals and beliefs of Buddhism. Containing dozens of selected Buddhist teachings, quotes and commentaries, this book offers guiding words of wisdom on how to find peace, harmony and happiness within yourself. Discover the meaning of truth, love and hate, and learn to find tranquility and contentment in your everyday life. With messages of inspiration and insight from canonical Buddhist texts on every page, Buddhist Scriptures is your first step on the road to spiritual enlightenment.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (July 30, 1959)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140440887
• ISBN-13: 978-0140440881
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid introduction, July 3, 2001

By 

Jack Arnold (Columbus, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buddhist Scriptures (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

The translator, Edward Conze, in attempting to include what is common to most Buddhists rather than concentrating on what separates them, has made some difficult choices and has made them well. Though readability is not too highly stressed at the expense of accuracy, the resulting work is accessible to readers of varying education and interest levels. (Given the difficulty of the ideas expressed in many of the selections included, this is no small accomplishment.) I would recommend this book as an introduction to Buddhist thought and as an aid to further study (though I would not necessarily recommend it as an end to the matter for one whose interests tend toward the academic). The glossary and the list of sources included at the end are both quite helpful.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview, July 14, 2005

By 

CH "CH" (Malaysia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buddhist Scriptures (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I had been looking for a book that would give me a good overview on the Buddhist sutras, and stumbled upon this one. Initially sceptical, Conze's book turned out to be an indispensible companion which I still refer to contrantly. I am reading it through again the second time, as once is never sufficient to grasp the contents.

The strength of this book is that it keeps external commentaries to a minimum and lets the sutras and scriptures speak for themselves. Where Conze interposes is where the book is weakest, eg in his summary of the "Morality" passages where his own moral standards ultimately impinge on the translation.

Conze is also a good guide to some of the main scriptures and his selection covers a sufficiently wide enough array of topics to provide any reader with a good starting point for understanding Buddhist teachings.

What I found most invaluable was the introduction, which mapped out roughly the timeline of the past and future Buddhas. I have not seen this elsewhere, and here Conze does a good job of putting the historical Sakyamuni Buddha in perspective of the buddhas of the past, in particular Dipankara, and the next Buddha Maitreya.

The selections of the Past Lives and Birth Stories also gives a good overview to the historical Buddha Sakyamuni's past incarnations and his life story, which include many fantastical details which the Western writer has often obliterated in order to make the Buddha more believable to readers, at the expense of His true magnificence (sadly, even our Asian writeups on the Buddha Sakyamuni in English often sidestep the more supernatural aspects of the Buddha and in this way has led to much ignorance even amongst Asians of the greatness of the Buddha's powers). Reading these chapters was thus a real eye-opener.

Also very interesting were the chapters on Doctrinal Disputes, which give some perspective into how the differences in schools have been tackled in a positive way.

The sections on Meditation are perhaps a bit too brief, as is the section on Other Worlds, but there is enough here to entice the reader to delve deeper into the scriptures, for which a book such as this will necessarily serve mainly as a taster.

This does not mean, however, that the contents do not have substance. Conze does a good job of extracting the pith from the scriptures he offers, so that the core messages from the scriptures come through pretty complete. And that is why this book is an invaluable companion to anyone interested in Buddhism.

The only aspect that could do with some improvement is the referencing of sources, which could be more detailed. For example, when Conze tells us that he extracted from Ashvaghosa, there is nothing in the book to tell us which edition, the exact title, bibliography etc, so that hunting down the exact text has been a challenge.

Otherwise, Buddhist Scriptures is both essential reading and a good spiritual companion.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A concise collection of important Buddhist works, August 30, 1998

By 

David Evseeff ([e-mail]) (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buddhist Scriptures (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Conze's book represents a good introduction to the Buddhist tradition by utilizing translations of a number of important works covering a broad range of topics, from the Legend of Shakyamuni Buddha to an excerpt from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Completely comprehensive it is not, but then no single text could ever hope to cover the entire spectrum of the tradition. It does, however, present the beginner with a good introduction to Buddhist doctrine and exposure to some of the most important Buddhist literature available in English translation.