Customer Reviews

An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pankaj Mishra is an excellent writer and in his "An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World" he uses this ability to great effect. He tells the story of Buddhism between accounts of his travels in India, England, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States, weaving a coherent tale that does not spare the negatives, but also presents the positive aspects of Buddhist history. Like other belief systems, Buddhism has been misused, misinterpreted and misapplied, sometimes in the service of quite evil goals, as in Japan's militarism in the 20th Century and in Cambodia's destruction of the city-dwellers during the Pol Pot regime. That said Buddhism at its best is a very civilized religion (or philosophy, if you prefer.) It has no gods, no real holy prophets (Buddha says that he is no greater than any of his followers and asserts that he is only "awake", not holy,) and its texts are considered teachings, not revelations.

In its essence, Buddhism has a number of similarities to early Greek philosophy, but also was more egalitarian, including all sentient beings. The Buddha himself says that women, slaves, and untouchables are all capable of enlightenment, although like any other mortal he sometimes did not practice what he preached, especially in regard to women. Still he was among the first (if not the first at around 500 BCE) to recognize that women could be as good as men in the spiritual realm.

Mishra has told this story with good humor, local color and skill. This is no dry history of Buddhist theology, but a living and charming exposition of both reality (as much as we know it) and myth behind the modern rise in Buddhism. Indeed, Buddhism's attraction lies both in its positive goal of compassion and the ending of human suffering and in its lack of the literalism that dogs other worldwide religions in their too often expressed extreme forms. It is certainly refreshing not to hear absolutist rantings for a change (unfortunately the worst of the three revealed religions seems often to the forefront these days, between bombings, attempts to control national politics and laws and indeed, nihilist longings for the End Times!)

Mishra is a native of the part of the world where the Buddha lived and it is also refreshing to read an account of the history of Buddhism from someone who has experience with the land out of which it arose, someone who knows it intimately.

If you would get the essence of Buddhism, its history, geography, concepts, and failures and successes, this is definitely the book to read!

As the previous reviewers noted. This is a very complex undertaking. It is obvious that Pankaj Mishra is a very talented and original writer and thinker. It is also very obvious that he really needed to sit and contemplate long and hard on what he wants to say in this book.

As previously noted, this is a autobiography of a student in search of a life and a calling. This is also a cultural biography of the Buddha, thirdly, this is also a meditation on the meaning of Buddhism in contemporary society.

I would say that Mishra missed on all three but he aimed so high that upon reflection, the sum of the effort is brilliant. The synthesis of the bits was ragged, which made for rough reading and understanding, which in turn detracted from the intent of the author.

I felt the meditation on the meaning of Buddhism was the weakest part of the three. Not that he lacked valid points and arguments, on the contrary, he did a greatjob of raising questions and ideas for contemplation. The whole section towards the end of the book dealing with our society as we know it and as we saw it metamorphose in the aftermath of 911, seems forced and rushed. It really did not seem like he had much time to really think through his ideas. He had done much hard work, and he needed to do more, but he stopped short.

The history of the Buddha was much more successful, although I think a more pedantic and to the point biography can be found in Karen Armstrong's Buddha.

The autobiography was very interesting, the main disappointment I had with it was that I had expected a linkage between the autobiography, the history of the Buddha, and the meditation on the applicability of Buddhist philosophy. There were parts where he was brilliant in integrating the three, but ultimately he failed.

This does not mean that this book is not a good read, or that it does not raise important and fascinating points, it does. But you finish the book with the feeling that a great opportunity was missed.

"An End to Suffering" combines three books into one. It includes: 1.) the author's autobiographical coming of age amidst the brutalities of contemporary India; 2.) an account of what little is known about Gautama Buddha (the historical Buddha), and how his actual existence only came to light relatively recently (through the odd efforts of various fascinating Western scholars and explorers over the past couple centuries); and 3.) a serious and lucid consideration of the Buddha's practical philosophy, illuminated by comparisons with various ancient and modern philosophers (ranging from Epicurus and Rousseau to Nietzsche and Gandhi). `An End to Suffering' is especially relevant to intellectuals trying to come to terms with our contemporary world's fall into ever-greater chaos and violence (which, according to Mishra, is strikingly similar to the Buddha's India of the 5th Century BC). For example, Mishra's description of the circumstances in which he first saw the 9/11 attack (on a small, blurred black-&-white TV in a Himalayan village) reframe the significance of that event from a perspective unfamiliar to most American readers; his philosophical reflections go far beyond contemporary politics -- as he takes into consideration such things as the Buddha's personal response to the genocide of his times, inflicted on his very own people. If you're looking for a quick E-Z `self-help' fix on Buddhism, then this certainly isn't the book for you. But those who appreciate good writing will find Mishra's style masterfully personable in its presentation of serious subject matter -- bringing it all to life far better than more 'trendy' or academic authors can. This is the ideal `five star' book for earnest readers who understand that the way to deeper understanding can often be more circuitous than direct.

_An End To Suffering: The Buddha in the World_ by Pankaj Mishra is more than an introduction to Buddha's life and philosophy. I recommend this for its clear writing style (even though the narration was bit unorganized few times) and personal anecdotes on how he discovered and learned about Buddha. It was also interesting to read quotes from Nietzsche, Hume along with Marx, Vivekananda, Tagore, Gandhi in a book about the Shakyamuni.

The books is part autobiography, part travelogue. The main focus is how Mishra discovered Buddha and how Buddhism fits into the modern world. This is how he ends the book:

"I now saw him in my own world, amid its great violence and confusion, holding out the possibility of knowledge as well as
redemption -- the awareness, suddenly liberating, with which I finally began to write about the Buddha."

It was pretty clear from the beginning that he hadn't fully came to a conclusion about his feelings on Buddha. As a student he was heavily influenced by Western thinkers such as Nietzsche, Hume and Marx (I was unaware that Nietzsche was a admirer of Buddha) and his first discovery of Buddha was through Western writers (this was the case for me as well). He has an unresolved tension between his relationship between east and west. I can relate to his frustration: modern educated mind (doesn't matter where you are from) is constantly involved with defining the self. On the other hand:

"But the Buddha seems to have rejected more than the Upanishadic idea of an eternal self or soul. He rejected too the self residing in the mind that Descartes assumed when he declared that he was a 'a thing that thinks' -- a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling, and imagines and has sensory perceptions. According to Cartesian view, the self is a single unified substance with the capacity to experience, desire, think, imagine, decide and act. It does not change through time, and is ontologically distinct from other selves.

The Buddha seemed to reject this notion of the individual self as a distinct substance with identity. He said that it didn't
correspond to any reality observable within the mind and the body, and, furthermore, its awareness of itself as separate from the world and other selves was false and the source of craving, pride, selfishness, and delusion. (page 255) .....

Unlike Descarte, he presented the self as a process rather than as a substance, by claiming that what we call a 'being' or an 'individual' is only a physiopsychological machine in which mental and physical energies constantly combine and change".(page 256)

It was also insightful to read about how Buddha's thought differ from the Vedic philosophy. However, Mishra is mostly preoccupied with how Buddha fits within the Western philosophy:

"In a world increasingly defined by the conflict of individuals and societies aggressively seeking their separate interests, he revealed both individuals and societies as necessarily interdependent. He challenged the very basis of conventional human self-perceptions -- a stable, essential identity -- by demonstrating a plural, unstable human self -- one that suffered but also had the potential to end its suffering. An acute psychologist, he taught a radical suspicion of desire as well as of its sublimations -- the seductive concepts of ideology and history. He offered a moral and spiritual regimen that led to nothing less than a whole new way of looking at and experiencing the world." (page 404)

This is not one of your usual run-of-the-mill, watered-down, quacky American dharma books.

Mishra does a brilliant job of examining Buddhism in its contemporaneous historical and cultural context, comparing and contrasting Buddhist philosophy with foundational western philosophers from the pre-Socratics on, inquiring into the contemporary practices of Buddhism in America and elsewhere, all the while making obvious his own subjectivity.

I wish there were more books like this out there. Very smart, informative, provocative and personal.

I first heard of The Buddha in the world durring an interview of the author Pankaj Mishra on NPR. His interview was fascinating discussing what I felt was a subject that could use a freash approach. I picked up the book soon thereafter and tried to get into it. The subject interests me very much but mr Mishra never engaged me. His personal stories and his dry historical accounts were forced. It almost seemed like this was writen as one would a pre-graduate college paper on an assighned subject with mounds of reference books close by. the book has but little continueity or flow. I was dissapointed, but maybe my expectations were too high. Even as a history book I would look elsewhere.

Easily the best book I have read on the topic - I just didn't guess correctly what the topic was! I thought it would be about involved Buddhism. It turned out to be part autobiography, part biography of the Buddha, part Buddhist history and teaching, part travelogue, part history of philosophy (although jumping from Greek to modern/contemporary), all in the service of a look at the world. The more you know of Western philosophy and Buddhism, the easier it is to follow, but the travel narrative and self-reflection of the author carry it along well. I learned a bit and enjoyed it a lot.

In "An End to Suffering", (2004) Pankaj Mishra, has written a personal and eloquent account about the history and basic teachings of Buddhism and about his own life. Mishra, (b. 1969,) a young Indian author,has written a novel, "The Romantics" and a recent collection of essays, "Temptations of the West" (2006) following-up his book about his search to understand Buddhism.

For those new to Buddhism, Mishra offers an excellent, informed introduction. He describes well the Indian society into which the Buddha was born with its moves towards centralization and urbanization with the attendant religious change and skepticism. He discusses what Buddhists texts and legends have to say about the Buddha's life, and he presents a good overview of the Buddha's teachings, with close attention to specific suttas such as the Fire Sermon and the Parinibanna Sutta (which recounts the death of the Buddha.) Mishra also gives a brief and lucid information about how Buddhism was rediscovered in the West as a result of the efforts of a number of European travellers and British colonial officials during the 19th Century. Most importantly, Mishra explains well the appeal Buddhism, a religion without a God, has to him. This discussion will resonate with many contemporary readers who are fascinated with Buddhist teachings.

But what makes this book work is not merely the factual treatment of basic Buddhism which can be learned from many sources. Rather, Mishra relates his interest in Buddhism (not the religion of his birth) to his own life and ambition. The book comes alive as Mishra learns to understand Buddhism through his own experiences. In this book, we meet a young man born into a poor family in rural India with a driving urge to become a writer. Mishra takes the reader through his childhood and college days. We meet his family and companions and share in his travels. At the outset of the book, the reader joins Mishra as he moves to a small hut in a north Indian village called Mashobra where he studies, wanders, and reads in the process of becoming a writer. We meet his landlord, Mr. Sharma, and many of Mishra's friends in the course of the book. I got the feel, in reading this account, of the life of a strugling young author, who is committed to his chosen path in life, and who achieves a degree of success and fame and still finds the need to ask spiritual questions.

Mishra's book alternates chapters dealing with autobiographical matters with chapters dealing with the Buddha. This juxtaposition is convincing for showing his growing understanding and appreciation of Buddhism. The book also displays an impressive degree of learning and reading, as Mishra discusses and relates his interest in Buddha to Plato, Thoreau, Emerson, Toqueville, Schopenhauer, and, in particular, Nietsche, among others.

I found some of the portions of this book that deal with world politics rather short, free-wheeling and superficial. Perhaps Mishra was overly-ambitious in his aims. But in discussing the teachings of Buddhims and in showing the author's reflection on these teachings, Mishra's book is moving and successful. It struck deep chords with me.

Robin Friedman

I bought this book on a hunch because of my long standing interest in India and in Buddhism (I am a Vipassana meditator). Mishra's book is simply stunning. Not only does it constantly surprise, intrigue and move the reader, but it is also surprisingly scholarly. All aspects of the Buddha's life and teachings have been researched here quite extensively but the novel and fresh format of this work makes the reader forget the scholarship that sustains the book while Mishra imparts reals wisdom based on experience really, an approach that I feel the Buddha would not have found uncongenial! By mixing personal history, consideration on Indian society, on modernisation and its impact on world society, stories about the Buddha and his time and place, as well as a look at the Buddha's ideas and how they relate to some of Europe's leading philosophers of the post-enlightenment era, Mishra has created a work that defies categorisation into any particular genre but that consistently illuminates its subject matter and touches the heart of his reader. I will cherish this book and read it again for years to come and think that over time it could/should become a classic.

I picked up a short stack of books about the history of Buddhism before flying to Delhi on a two-week vacation. I read this book on a train ride from Delhi to Varanasi and was very, very thankful I had.

If you're visiting India, Mishra's introduction to Buddhist thought, history, and geography is invaluable. It casts Northern India in a new light and provides meaning to travels through the cradle of Buddhist thought, from the Ganges valley to the Himalayan foothills. It's also a very accessible introduction to Indian religious culture that touches on the history of the Hindu faith and the Brahmins. I was happy to pass this along to another traveller as I left.