Identity and Experience: The Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism. [Paperback]

S. Hamilton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 218 pages
• Publisher: Luzac Oriental (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1898942234
• ISBN-13: 978-1898942238
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,752,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good English - The 5 aggregates, October 4, 2000

By 

Sarakani (Harrow United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Identity and Experience: The Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism (Hardcover)

Dr Sue Hamilton in an up and coming Buddhist Scholar in Kings College London and this is an analysis of the 5 aggregates, the constituents of being according to early Buddhism.

These are body, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness. This book is a somewhat exhaustive appraisal of each in turn from a scholarly vantage seeking to explain what they are. The book represents an analysis of the idea of no-self, much misunderstood.

It should be good reading for students philosophers and psychologists interested in self and various views of self.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Scholarly Book Uncovering New and Profound Interpretions, August 6, 2008

By 

Frederick E. Watt IV "Mr. Papisito" (Redmond, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Identity and Experience: The Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism. (Paperback)

Sue Hamilton has done a great service to Buddhist studies with this book. Well written and penetrating, she sets out the goal of examining the five khandhas or aggregates that the Buddha laid out as key to understanding what a human being is.

Examining primarily the suttas contained in the four nikayas of the pali canon, Dr. Hamilton makes strong arguments for the case that the five khandhas were described more as "processes" than "things." From this insight, she shows how the Buddha was interested in more how things work rather what they are as part as his soteriology.

The book does a great job in elucidating difficult technical terms in the pali canon and draws attention to very important metaphors, loka or the world for instance, that do not have the emphasis they observe.

Overall this is an excellent scholarly work, and those who have a more scholarly interest in early buddhism will find it a treasure house of ideas and insights.