Customer Reviews

Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism

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After almost one hundred years, this work still remains the single best introduction to Mahayana Buddhism written in English. While it contains a number of idiosyncrasies - consistent with the times in which it was written - it commends itself as one of the most comprehensive and authoritative studies of the major tenets of this tradition. In particular, its exposition of Buddhist metaphysics is without peer in the modern period. It is also much more helpful in understanding the Mahayana as a whole than the numerous books on Zen that Suzuki wrote in subsequent years. This is not the work of a mere scholar but a magisterial treatise of profound spiritual insights written by a man who had actually experienced what he was talking about.

This is a good, all-round introduction to Mahayana Buddhism. There's no talk of Zen, but alot of Buddhist metaphysics are clearly explained. It is typical Suzuki, and contains almost no info on practice. There's alot of near sermon-like dirges, and also some interesting parallels (and criticisms) of christianity.

This is for the kindle edition: basically it looks like someone scanned in the paper version of this book, but never bothered to proof the text. Full of typos to the point of being hard to read. I guess for .99 beggars can't be choosers, but if you are the type of person who is offended by typos, find another version.