Customer Reviews

Sacred Books of the East

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Professor F Max Muller was a doyen amongst the 18th century intellectuals whose open-mindedness and quest for knowledge led to the availability of many Eastern Religious texts and philosophy in translated form to Western intellectual and other interested sources. The Sacred Books of the East Series is a set of several volumes translating original materials related to Indian,Chinese, Tibetan and other religions. It was completed under the direction and coordination of Professor Max Muller but the translations themselves are the products of several luminaries. What is conspicuous about this series is the painstaking effort taken to cull and collate different versions/editions of the original (untranslated texts)and translate them in a manner which seeks to faithfully portray the real spirit of the religious ideas, concepts, practices and philosophies that were embodied therein. An enormous amount of scholarship and commitment have gone into these translations. The result is a series of books that can be treasured for generations to come, which one can dip into and get absorbed in for hours at a time and which immeasurably exalts the spirit! Amongst the first books in this series that this review read was that pertaining to the translation of the Buddhist Suttas which conveys the sermons and religious teachings as well as the life and movements of The Great Buddha and are the primary sources of the Buddhist doctrine and philosophy. No person who has read this book can fail to be struck by the vast difference between the Buddhism as taught by its founder and what is most often practised today. Gotama (the Buddha) emphasised the concepts of right living, right thinking and right meditation. Here was a religion free from prejudice and superstition, bare of dogmatic rules and rituals and characterised by an uncompromising inflexible adherence to Truth! The Mahaparinibbana Sutta which deals with the last period of the Buddha's life and his last sermons and teachings is an unforgettable and immeasurably moving part of the book which draws one to read it again and again. It and other suttas have been translated by Professor Rhys Davids one of the foremost Indologists of his time. To summarise, despite the steep price of this series, it is something no serious student or lover of Eastern religions should be without.