Customer Reviews

The Doctrine of Awakening: The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to the Earliest Buddhist Texts

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Buddhism has been called by western scholars "a path of annhilation", a "route of destruction", and a "system of nihilistic life-denial". Modern translators and teachers, such as Lama Surya Das and Robert A.F. Thurman, have attempted to portray Buddhism in a modernistic light, as a progressive route of compassion and evolution. However, according to Evola, both interpretations are incorrect.

Evola digs through the earliest texts of the Pali Canon to expose a tradition of "ascesis"- not life-denying, repressive asceticism as we know in the west, but a tradition of detachment and training towards enlightenment through proper thought, reflection, and action. He puts Buddhism in historical perspective, showing it as a movement that started with the intention of renewing the Brahmanical tradition, one based not on modern equality and humanitarianism but on spiritual elitism and the favoring of a spiritual elect known as the Ariya. Lastly, he tries to show how those of us living in the modern world can attempt to follow the tradition of liberation.

Although I don't accept some of Evola's interpretations or conclusions, he brings up many valid points and exposes a spiritual tradition that still holds validity today- and will perhaps for the rest of the age as well.

Students and admirers of Evola will, of course, wish to read this significant part of the Evola canon. However, for those interested in, but unfamiliar with, Evola should start with his magnum opus, Revolt Against the Modern World, to better understand his decidedly complex and unusual world view. This book is a poor choice for someone looking for an introduction to Buddhism or meditation. The subtitle: "The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to the Earliest Buddhist Texts" suggests that this is something of a practice manual--it certainly is not. Rather, the book purports to set forth the fundamental ascesis of early Buddhism before it degenerated into a religion of the masses. Whether he has succeeded, I leave to the judgment of scholars of Buddhism. I believe that advanced students of Buddhism (or other serious spiritual disciplines)who are unintimidated by dry, scholarly, intellectually demanding writing will find this work to be fascinating and useful. But, of necessity, this is a very small audience. Evola, the unabashed elitist and aristocrat, would not be disappointed to have a limited, but discerning audience.

One of the reviewers said that this is Fascist Buddhism. While some of the views of the book (particularly the Aryan race view) in my opinion are questionable, DO NOT THROW THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATHWATER! This is an interesting book. I am certainly not of Aryan origin and I got plenty of worthwhile things out of this book. The spiritual/awakening elements of this book really got me thinking. And even if you don't agree, this book is a fascinating read. Again, be discerning, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I also think, personally from a non-race perspective, that Evola is somewhat right that with the state of the world as it is, few people of ANY racial stripe can walk this path. Is that elitist? Maybe so on the surface. But just take a cursory glance at the people and world around you....

Rather than repeat the generalities of the other helpful reviews, I recommend this book for its magnificent exposition of two unique topics. Firstly, Evola discusses Buddhism as a form of non-theistic religion or spirituality-- which some may consider a contradiction in terms. Secondly, Evola explores the "Aryan" origins of Buddhism in the form of the kshatriya Siddhartha, who was a member of the warrior caste of ancient India. Practicioners of martial arts may find the development the theme of Buddhism as a spirituality suited to the warrior caste personally meaningful.

Buddhism is the topic, but not the limits of what is discussed. Evola introduces esoteric, or non-standardized, philosophy through this book and explains its basic tenets: all can seek varying degrees of truth, truth is found through experience and contemplation, and all truth relates to a cosmic order and not the individual. Ancient Buddhism was apparently a far cry from the sissified, pacifistic and whine-prone modern variety. Evola's is a warlike Buddhism full of fire for setting the world aright without the ego-drama and stupidity of modernity.

First of all, I would suggest "The Doctrine of Awakening" even to people who know nothing about buddhism and are looking for their first book. Many people think that Evola's works are difficult, but the truth is that he takes difficult subjects and decides not to make compromises on their exposition. As Einstein said: "make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler".

Also, this book should be read by anyone who is disillusioned by the apparent contradictions of buddhism, anyone who doesn't buy the plausibility of the ethical newagey concept of karma, or who has ever wondered why people who affirm to believe both in the doctrine of non-self and in reincarnation never really address the problem of what is that reincarnates.

Evola shows how, usually, this kind of stuff is not to be found in the original buddhist method, but contaminated it in the course of the centuries, first as a popular/exoteric version, and in our times as a way to appease westerners and to make it more marketable.
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The book is organized this way: first Evola explains the meaning of ascetism, defining it as making all intention and efforts subservient to one central principle, and focusing them in one direction. He presents buddhism as an ascetic discipline created in the spirit of the warrior caste, looking for its meaning in the cultural and spiritual context of its birth. Then he presents the basic principles in a way that is both essential and complete. Even if we are still in the theory section, one can tell that he has no interest in explaining it as a void philosophical system.

Finally he steps into the practical section. I think he has done an especially good work here in researching the several methods and tips in the buddhist texts, reducing them to the necessary and arranging them in a logical sequence one can follow almost as a step by step program. He starts with cultivating and protecting the right attitude and discipline, proceeds with the goal of detachment and goes on until enlightenment.

Like reviewer B J Devlin, I have been confounded by Buddhism for a long time, starting with Alan Watts' lecture series, which I listened to on public radio in junior high school. Evola's The Doctrine of Awakening is the most clear exposition I've seen yet, although it is very singular and its accuracy from a scholarly and orthodox doctrinal perspective is up in the air.

The key to understanding Evola's position on Buddhism is understanding his underlying metaphysical outlook. Evola is a Traditionalist (see Against the Modern World) but with his own unique perspective on Tradition that emphasizes activity. As a result, he sees Buddhism not as an original development away from Hinduism but as a re-establishment of spiritual truths found in the older Vedas (Hindu reglious texts) that had been diluted and warped by the time of the Buddha. Evola subscribes to the idea of a universal spiritual degeneration throughout recorded history. For him, the Vedas represent a golden age, when gods walked with men so to speak, parallel to the Iliad and age of heroes in ancient Greece. In this golden age, which he calls "normal civilization," it was easy for men to realize their true spiritual natures through acts of heroism within the context of their own cultures and societies. However, by the time of the Buddha, "normal civilization" had degenerated and "foreign influences" had affected Hinduism so that society and religion were no longer meaningful or useful for men to achieve real spiritual growth. This was the historical context in which, says Evola, the Buddha rejected the religious teachings of the time and engaged in the heroic act of finding his own path to spiritual liberation.

Although this general outline of Buddhism's cultural context (according to Evola) doesn't sound revolutionary on its face, some of the specifics are. For example, Evola contends that reincarnation is not part of the original Vedic or Buddhist teaching. Having read several of Evola's books, I am still not entirely clear what his metaphysical or ontological outlook is, but he seems to think that men are "gods" who have forgotten their true nature and that "this world" is a phase of spiritual development that men pass through in an "upward" journey to greater degrees of power. As a result, the two pinacles of spiritual development possible in this world are (1) for men to realize their nature through conquest (becoming the "universal sovereign"--think Alexander of Macedon) or (2) for men to realize their fundamental difference from and lack of place in the world (becoming liberated--think Prince Siddartha). So, for Evola, reincarnation is a heresy that sees man as fundamentally tied to this world, and he understands Buddhism's references to multiple lives to be about multiple forms, or phases, of existence and not multiple reincarnations on earth. So, he says, the Buddhist idea of extinction is not nothingness (and he claims the Buddha never described the nature of extinction) and that nirvana is not escape from the wheel of reincarnation but the final escape from the ability to be affected ("conditioned," I think Evola would say) by earthly existence. (Remember, Evola is not "correcting" Buddhism but says this is the original and authentic teaching of Buddha before it was changed by generations of Buddha's less than stellar followers.)

For Evola, then, Buddhism is a very "this-worldly" teaching, in that it is completely separate from theological or religious ideas (e.g., karma) and entirely based in experience, the experience of discovering through progressive forms of training the true nature of man's relationship to the world. Evola's book is an explanation of this training, although it is not a how-to manual. It discusses such topics as the general idea of spiritual training, the type of person most likely to benefit from training, and the Buddha's description of the various progressive levels of insight and liberation from the constraints of the world that the trainee goes through while following the Buddha's instructions.

Is Evola's perspective on Buddhism believable? He has used the Pali Canon, the oldest set of Buddhist scriptures, to try to capture the original Buddhist teaching transmitted to the original sangha school that gathered around the Buddha. He has rejected any Buddhist teaching that derives from later scriptures (the various sutras) or from later schools (such as Tibetan Vajrayana). First of all, scholars are undecided to what extent the Pali Canon represents original Buddhism. Second, if you look at the Pali Canon, it is huge, and must contain a lot that is not represented in Evola's work. Since he doesn't discuss his research or his methodology of interpretation, it's hard to know whether he has basically cherry-picked or effectively summarized the Pali Canon. I don't have enough background to make a guess. However I can say that Evola's work on Zen (the Religion of the Samurai), while not an outright distortion, shows signs of lack of exposure to source materials and scholarship. I suspect the same is true here. However, my intuition here is also that Evola has corrected some distortions, such as the idea that Buddhism is fundamentally about universal compassion or is radically egalitarian.

If there is a major contribution to Buddhist study in this book it must be the emphasis on training. Evola is never willing to compromise with modern society and his instance on the importance of preparation and method seems to me a strong corrective to the "Buddhism-lite" idea many people seem to have of gaining "peace" by using certain types of artwork, visiting spiritual centers, and believing themselves above orthodoxies of various kinds.

The book is produced well and the prose of the translator perfectly adequate. I would definitely recommend this book to those interested in practicing Buddhism, although not to those interested in Asian history per se. As Evola says, each one should look inside himself to find out what he really desires, and so this is a book the Buddhist spiritual seeker should contend with.

I'm an atheist, and I can't abide religiosity. I visited Thailand quite often and kept trying to get a grasp on what buddhism was all about, but every text I read about buddhism just seemed banal and uninspiring. Reading individual canonical works also failed to give me any real insight. By chance, I found "The Doctrine of Awakening" in a second hand bookshop in Bangkok, and when just flicking through it, the true philosophical power of buddhism jumped out at me.

This book is by no means an easy read. But it is well worth it (even if is only the first half of the book). But be prepared to discover a buddhism that religious buddhists will fail to recognize. The accounts of buddhism in other books are like faded copies of the original idea.

I'm no fan of Evola (nothing else in his oeuvre appeals to me), but I do respect him for the clarity and originality of his vision in writing this book. By "originality" I mean his preparedness to face buddhism in its original form, before it became just a tool of social control like the other religions.

This is the most powerful book I've read in the last 10 years. And it's the only book on buddhism I've found that makes any sense.

Julius Evola goes deep into the original Pali texts to deliver the minimalist essential core of Buddhism. Timeless synthesis by a free, iconoclastic and extremely cultivated spirit that understood the need for strong individual values as tested by all civilisations and forming Perennial Tradition. Obviously detached from "academia" but nevertheless extremely rigourous, Buddhism in Evola's interpretation looks futuristic. Not to be missed in this same line of looking for original and essential Buddhism is Alexandra David-Néel's "Le bouddhisme du Bouddha".

Julius Evola again comes with one work that are not what the
people who read about Buddhism expect. But he exposes with
magesty a vision less emotive and more strictly logic of the
early buddhist texts. Evola also compare the thinking of the
oriental hindu and buddhist masters with the ocidental way of
thinking, in the religious and philosophical sense. I highly
recomment it.