Customer Reviews

Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution

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I do not call myself a Buddhist, but that's certainly not because I haven't felt an almost life-long calling towards its teachings. I don't call myself a Buddhist because I am unsure of religion's place and legitimacy in the modern world. Religion, even dear Buddhism, seems divisive and small-minded, so I resist.

Money Sex War Karma, first and foremost, is an insightful, well-written and suprisingly critical look at Buddhism. I found the short book completely riveting and full of useful criticism. As a person who has always been interested in the teachings of the Buddha and never in the religion of Buddhism, this book articulated many vague notions that have been swirling around in my head for many, many years. How refreshing to see one of Buddhism's own teachers and practitioners offer such an insightful and well-reasonable approach to finding an authentic Buddhist path. Loy's analysis has the potential to make Buddhist teachings not only relevant to the 21st century, but indispensable.

These essays possess the wisdom to help transform not only one's day to day practice, but Buddhism as an institution. Buddhists are wise to pay attention to Loy's sage and sane words.

Thoughtful, deep, clear, beautifully-written. I had the privilege of doing a workshop with David Loy and he is a brilliant, humble, gentle soul. This book is a masterpiece and David shows amazing insight (and vision- as this was written before the present recession/depression) as he explains the sources, expressions and solutions to our many societal ills.

A simple reflection of the Buddhist philosophy as it applies to "Money, Sex, War, Karma". In light of the current economical downturn the "Money" section of this book rings so very true.

The sensational title, Money Sex War and Karma, belies a scholarly work of the first magnitude; an incisive down-to-earth Buddhist-based critique of our troubled culture as it wanders in samsara - confused, bewildered, ig-norant, and delusional.

You are always more than you think and less than you think. This is a brilliant analysis of the relationships between individual virtues and social institutions. Very thought provoking.If the world isn't working for you and you want to know what you can do personally, this book gives you a lot to think about.

A lot of books about Buddhism deal with concepts on a very personal level. Although one of the goals of "awakening" is to benefit all sentient beings, exactly how an "awakened" being can benefit a society in turmoil is not often discussed in a practical, realistic way. Conversely, when discussing the false perceptions that cause humans to suffer, most books about Buddhism deal with this in a very individual way, as opposed to discussing how human delusion causes problems in our collective consciousness, aka human society.

"Money Sex War Karma" tries to tackle the effects of human delusion on a societal, even global scale, and tries to posit how principals of Buddhism can help bring some healing and peace to a very sick world. Clearly, this is a huge undertaking, and you could make the argument that the author bit off more than he could possibly chew. Well, so what? If the point of Buddhism is, ultimately, to wake up from our suffering, deluded state and benefit the world around us, isn't it time someone started talking about the possible ways to do that?

One of the more interesting discussions in the book involves comparing the "three poisons" of Buddhist philosophy (greed, ill will, delusion) with three major human institutions that serve as direct manifestations of it (corporations, the military, and the media, respectively). Critics may call David Loy's essays naive, simplistic, liberal, or worse, but I'd prefer the dialog he is trying to perpetuate to the snarky, finger-pointing childishness that passes for most discourse.

I originally bought this book for a class and I loved it. A lot of great insights but you have to understand the Buddhist religion prior to reading this book.

The book attempts to apply Buddhist thinking to current problems: environmental degradation, war, greed, poverty, ignorance, and cultural decline. Few will seriously dispute that these are important and pressing issues. And there can also be little doubt that these problems would be alleviated if people followed Buddhist teachings and became less greedy, angry, and deluded.

The subject thus deserves a serious treatment.

While Loy has a friendly and endearing style, and is knowledgeable about Buddhism, his account of the global economic and political system and what ails it is superficial. It is painfully clear that he has only a limited understanding of economics, history, or foreign and military affairs. His ideas about how specifically Buddhism might improve the current world situation thus remain unconvincing.

I guess putting an edgy title on a pop Buddhist book is considered a way to improve sales. Despite the self-aggrandizing subtitle, "Notes For A Buddhist Revolution", this volume is all too commonplace.

If your taste runs to predictable politically correct platitudes served up with a thin, tasteless sauce of Buddhism-lite then you might enjoy this volume. If you want something more sustaining I'd suggest looking elsewhere.