Customer Reviews

Ordinary Wisdom

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

 

 

Ably translated by John T. Davenport, Ordinary Wisdom: Sakya Pandita's Treasury Of Good Advice is a compendium of profound, down-to-earth, and practical Buddhist advice on the art of living, as pertinent today in the West as has been for many centuries past in the East. Sakya Pandita uses proverbs and stories to address the basic questions of human existence and purpose. His inspiration and advice are hallmarked with humor and grace as he comments on such universal issues as achievement and failure, anger and kindness, deceit and desire, intelligence and foolishness, wealth and wisdom. Ordinary Wisdom is an extraordinary contribution to the growing library of Buddhist literature available for the Western reader.

I cannot recommend this book enough. As a work of philosophy, it belongs up there with the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the Dhammapada, anything by Plato, Balthazar Gracian, and the Book of Proverbs in the Bible. And like the Meditations or the Dhammapada, it can be applied to one's daily existence in truly important ways. It should be included in Philosophy courses in college or even High School courses if at all possible. Get this quote: 'These days negative karma is causing the entire environment to be filled with evil, and individuals are preoccupied with unwholesome influences. This produces deceptively attractive situations that are a mixture of good and bad, where words and actions contradict each other.' Britney Spears, are you listening?
This is a reference book for life.