Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Buddhism (Teach Yourself: Philosophy And Religion)

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

 

 

Although this book does give some basic information about Buddhism, I found it misleading as well. Erricker is obviously an "outsider" looking in on Buddhism and does not seem to have all his facts straight. After researching Buddhism myself, I found that this book was not adequate in teaching someone about Buddhism. I would think twice before buying this book.

This book, in my opinion, concentrates too much on the Western view of Buddhism. It leaves the reader (especially the begginer) with the feeling that England (as well as some of the organizations mentioned in the book) is the authority in Buddhism. However, this book does serve as a begginer's guide to Buddhism. It gives a basic rundown of Buddhism as a whole. What I found most useful was the section on customs and festivals but the book is useful overall. For the reader who is expecting "enlightenment" or just a comprehensive look into Buddhism, this book will not prove very helpful. However, the general reader will find it a valuable foundation. I recommend the book by Donald S. Lopez, Jr., "The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to Its History & Teachings" for readers who are seeking further knowledge of Buddhism.

Not bad but they spent way too much time on western Buddhism. I was trying to learn more about Buddhism but hearing about Buddhists in England doesn't really teach you much. If anyone knows of a Buddhist book that talks about the religion and how it is practiced in Southeast Asia (not North America), please recommend.

A good book on the subject has to convey the spirit as well as the letter of Buddhism.

This book pays lip service to some of the letters but lacks the spirit of Buddhism being unbalanced and innaccurate for a true understanding of the subject.

Some of the picture captions are plain wrong. At my last viewing there was a leaf of Ficus religiosa, of enormous significance for Buddhists labelled as a "palm leaf" anything but! Maybe they'll improve.

I have read several books on Buddhism. Most of them go off into some rather arcane and cryptic territory. This book is straight forward, understandable, and full of information. It is balanced between formal data (5 plus 5 Precepts, etc.) and parables (The Two Monks). I have yellow tabs on many pages, for future reference and/or re-reading. Highly recommended.

This book gives more of a historical and informational account of Buddhism, rather than teachings and beliefs. It talks of Buddha himself, the different flavors and divisions of Buddhism, Buddhism as it exists in different countries, Buddhist practices and ceremonies, and a basic introduction to beliefs centered around the precepts Buddhist monks follow. Again, it doesn't go too deeply into beliefs, and really only gives a few passages from notable belief texts. What other reviewers say about the FWBO is true, indeed the whole of the last 5 pages or so is a complete sales pitch on the organization. However, it certainly didn't pervade the book or cloud the information being presented.

After reading the book, I became interested in finding out more about one of the groups mentioned there. The FWBO is implied to be the representative of Buddhism in the west. Go to your favorite search engine and type in "FWBO". After reading some of the results none of which I'll repeat here, you may think differently about this group as I now do. This might also generate some new opinions about the book, its author, and its editors. Long live freedom of speech and freedom of religion but buyer beware.

I can hardly tell you how fine a primer this book is for those Westerners who haven't had the opportunity to grow up knowing what indigenous Buddhists do. I learned about the basics, the different sects and their philosophies, and the straight dope about what it takes to become a Buddhist. I highly, highly recommend this book for anyone testing the waters and who wants to know what Buddhism is all about.

This horrible book is a left-wing political rant disguised as philosophy. Since I can't give zero stars, I give it one, the lowest possible in the Amazon system.

After starting off on solid enough turf, this book veers into a hectoring and pompous semi-manifesto that is more about politics than Buddhism. When he's not using Buddha to cheerlead for feminism and environmentalism (which are fine with me, but this shows that the book is just a thinly disguised political polemic), he's firing complaint after complaint about his objection to free markets and how they have ruined the world. And his "delightful" anecdote about British murderers in prison finding enlightenment and then fasting in order to provide food for Rwanda (this part of his anti-capital punishment rant) is one of his many pathetic contrivances.

Using Buddhism as a thin wrapper for a political book means that he utterly ignores many historical and contemporary aspects of Buddhism, which is to say, those that wouldn't support his political agenda. This book is worse than bad, it's obnoxious. And, after five minutes, tedious.

It's not the socialist political theme that bugs me, I don't care at all about that stuff or anything related to it. But it's cynical bait-and-switch that this book represents that is objectionable, as it merely invokes Buddhism as a structure on which to hang his left-wing manifesto and hector his readers. I'm sure there are plenty of well-written books on socialism and related politics out there, but this sure doesn't qualify.

And there are many good books on Buddhism out there. This isn't one of them, and is, in summary, a cheesy attempt to sell us one topic (politics) disguised as another (Buddhism). A total rip-off.