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Contemporary Thoughts on Humanistic Buddhism

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One of the striking things about Humanistic Buddhism is how similar its tenets are to Western religious teachings. As one reads about the sanctity and importance of "filial obedience" to one's parents or that "lusting after beautiful women and raping them" is the wrong approach to love, these notes of familiarity turn acute: The morality of East and West have more in common than we knew.

This, however, raises a serious question: What can Humanistic Buddhism offer the reader that, say, a reading of the Bible or a study of the Koran cannot? The book's subtitle, after all, is "A Blueprint for Life," which suggests that within its twenty chapters are contained step-by-step methodologies for living in our fractured, fear-fraught world. Here the book's accomplishments are uneven. One positive instance can be found in a chapter on good health; citations of the Visuddhimagga's eight reasons for why we fall ill or the six reasons mentioned in the Mohe Zhiguan are the kinds of philosophical statements unavailable in other religious texts.

At the same time, if one is new to Buddhism, citing such texts -- and there are lots of them discussed -- can be a frustrating experience. Indeed, citing this or that Sutra means very little if one does not possess a strong, basic working knowledge of Buddhism, and the more we read and get a taste of the philosophy, the more frustrated we become without a foundation of information to guide us. For this reason, it should be made clear that this is not a primer, despite the impression given by a smart subtitle. This book is more a smart and savvy secondary course guide for the already engaged.

Taken on these terms, the book is exceptionally thorough, and seventy pages of footnotes (plus a long glossary) affirm the book's scholarship.

Finally, two chapters particularly stand out. "On Cause and Effect: The Way of Depending Origination" is a spectacular exploration of the karmic notion -- how actions and reactions have less a positive or negative quality than an interlocking, inevitable one. And "On Life: The Way of Birth and Death" not only demystifies the cycle of existence, but does so by avoiding the use of too many technical terms, opting instead for meaningful metaphors and, perhaps best of all, plainspoken language.

Leonard Jacobs

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