Customer Reviews

What Makes You Not a Buddhist

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What Makes You Not A Buddhist is structured around four main chapters, each of which explore the four main truths of Buddhism (Chapter 1: Fabrication and Impermanence, Chapter 2: Emotion and Pain, Chapter 3: Everything Is Emptiness, Chapter 4: Nirvana Is beyond Concepts). Sandwiched in-between these are an interesting and insightful introduction and conclusion (for a change). In each of these chapters, the Buddha's teaching about the nature of impermanence (annica) is set out and explored, as well as how this affects our understanding of everything else. One of the nice things about this book is that unlike many other books on Buddhism I have read, although the story of Siddhartha's quest for Enlightenment is once again included, it is done so within the context of a wider discussion of the Buddha's teaching. One learns about Siddhartha's family, his desire to find truth, and his becoming the Buddha at the same time one learns about what it is to be and become a Buddhist... and the really nice thing about this is that it is done in an interesting and engaging manner, not in a dry text-book fashion as so many other books on Buddhism I have read have tended to do. This really is a brilliant short little introduction to 'Buddhism'.

The range of ways the truth of impermanence is discussed in the book is impressive. For instance, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse reflects on how morality changes, how our craving for moral, scientific and religious certainty is due to a fear of the unknown (grounded in a fear of uncertainty), how any belief in immortality is based on false notions of a permanent self, how we can overcome depression and despair by realising that everything can and does change, why we will never be truly happy (as this can never last), and how killing another life for the preservation of or sake of our own, is the ultimate expression of misguided self-importance. In the end, we are led to see the world as Siddhartha did, whilst he was seated under the tree at Bodh Gaya - this being that nothing is permanent, and that everything we know of ourselves and the world is merely grounded in appearances.

'Ultimately one must abandon to path to enlightenment. If you still define yourself as a Buddhist, you are not a buddha yet.' (p.106)

This is an amazing little book, and I am so glad that I read it; no more so than because I now realise the paradox of actually writing about the notion of 'Buddhism' - for this can only be done if there is something permanent called 'Buddhism' (and 'Buddhists'). However, this is also where I struggled with the whole aspect of 'Buddhism' itself. For if there really is no permanently existing thing, then what is this book about, and how can we speak of the centrality of the four truths? Although this book concludes that the only permanent thing is impermanence, this is surely undermined by the relativity which inevitably accompanies it? I just hope that Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse adds a further volume to address this matter further...

This is a wonderful little book, 130 pages of distilled wisdom from a man who is known most widely as a film maker, the director of The Cup, but who is otherwise a well-respected teacher from the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism. Besides being deeply familiar with Buddhist scholarship, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse has traveled and worked widely in Europe and North America, knows the cultures of the countries, and is able to explicate Buddhist principles with examples that resonate for Star Wars fans and suburban American Republicans.

The purpose of the book, the author notes, is not to make the reader a Buddhist, but to explain what it means to be a Buddhist. It's not a book about how to be, but a book about the implications of being. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse does this through the Four Seals, truths about the physical, phenomenal, and psychological world that the Buddha himself invited his students to examine and investigate. They are:

.....1. All compounded things are impermanent.
.....2. All emotions are pain.
.....3. All things have no inherent existence.
.....4. Nirvana is beyond concepts.

Each seal is discussed in separate chapters and illustrated with examples from contemporary life, as well as from the life of Siddhartha, the prince who gave up his pampered court life to seek greater truth and who later became known as The Buddha, the Enlightened One.

Full of sharp humor directed at everyone from spiritual seekers to corporate suits, from tree huggers to neoconservatives occupying the White House, this witty volume is a pithy introduction to Buddhism and would make a great gift for any one interested in the philosophy. I've already purchased one volume for a friend and suspect I'll be buying a few more in the coming year.

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In a nutshell, this book is 125 pages of putting together people, things and our world in the right perspective, making sense of our chaotic world and how to conquer the biggest problem of our life - ourselves, and the way we run our lives. It is 125 pages of unpatented, non-copyrighted profound but yet simple fundamental wisdom as taught by the historical Buddha. The message is delivered through a hard hitting conversation with the author, wittyly written in the language of our time.

I have got a dozen comments to share on what this book is NOT :
1. NO teaching of new meditation technique
2. NO new mantra to learn
3. NOT a nice soft and motherly conversation with the author
4. NOT propagation & hard selling of religious hocus pocus
5. NOT boring stuff written to replace your sleeping pills
6. NOT not another profound and hard to understand Zen story
7. NOT another story about the Life of the Buddha or a parody
8. NO you do not need to be a Buddhist to read this book or benefit from
reading it (IMHO non-Buddhists get the best value)
9. NO you do not need to read another Buddhist book to understand or benefit from this work
10.NO you do not need to agree or disagree with the author.
11.NO you would not fall asleep reading the 125 pages of gripping truth.
12.NO it is not written to "convert" you or anyone into becoming a Buddhist.

And half a dozen more comments to share on what this book IS about :
i. It is about simple but RAW HARD truth about life according to the FOUR
DHARMA SEALS or FOUR DHARMA IMPRINTS
ii. It is about HARD truth of life that may hurt us & the truth always
hurts. Ouch.
iii. It is about our deluded mind and the problems we create for ourselves
iv.It is about how we, Buddhists & Non-Buddhists alike
cling on and attach to to our delusion.
v. It is about how to live with a pure mind & right motivation in this
increasely chaotic, and seemingly insane world populated with
countless confused and deluded beings like ourselves. The truth is not
out there it is either it is within, it's always been present in our
luminous nature.
vi.It's about becoming a real Buddhist by going back to understanding and
practising the very basic of Buddha's teachings-the four dharma seals.

If you every come across this short and bring us down-to-earth book don't ever give it a miss,take it from the shelf, browse and read it! Whatever views of the author which would not make sense to you after reading the book either in parts or in its entirety, would eventually make sense to you when the conditions arise and would surely impact your life positively.

What Makes You Not a Buddhist is a one-of-a-kind expression of the four basic points of Buddhism written for the sake of the general public, by Tibetan Buddhist master Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse. What Makes You Not a Buddhist presents the tenets of Buddhism as a set of four challenging questions: Can you accept that all things are impermanent and that there is no essential substance or concept that is permanent? Can you accept that all emotions bring pain and suffering and that there is no emotion that is purely pleasurable? Can you accept that all phenomena are illusory and empty? Can you accept that enlightenment is beyond concepts; that it's not a perfect blissful heaven but instead a release from delusion? If one's answer to these four questions is an unambiguous "yes", then according to Khyentse, one is truly a Buddhist. Written in an amiable tone and primarily in plain terms, What Makes You Not a Buddhist is highly accessible to lay readers and enthusiastically recommended for anyone seriously contemplating Buddhism as the faith of choice for oneself.

As a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, I am often asked to explain "what is it about your 'religion' (or 'philosophy') that is so compelling and so different from [name the religion/philosophy of your choice]?" This book answers that question, in language, examples and analogies which are very current, sometimes a bit weird for someone whom one thinks of as being a "holy" person {but very much in character for the author}, and especially because it is, on the surface, quite understandable, it gets to the core teachings, and gets YOU, the reader to get a grasp on the core teachings, very fluidly. It is totally non-technical, short, and most importantly, the author helps the reader to realize that the concepts are universal: One can practice the teachings of the Buddha, and still practice one's religion without any conflict between the two. I am going to buy a bunch of these and give to my Mother and other friends whom, I expect, will truly benefit from these teachings. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

The best feature of this book is that Khyentse presents Buddhist concepts in a current events context. Many classic Buddhist parables aren't understandable to someone unfamiliar with the workings of the Ancient Indian society the Buddha lived in; someone unfamiliar with concepts such as atman, caste, clan, and other aspects of the culture may not understand the Buddha's analogies and humor. Khyentse makes an incredibly insightful, cosmopolitan Buddhist analysis of the modern world. This is something contemporary readers can greatly appreciate.

This book's fatal flaw is that, while it attempts to explain away certain misconceptions about Buddhism, it also uses old, bad translations of classic Buddhist terms that perpetuate those very misconceptions. This leads someone unfamiliar with the original Pali either completely bewildered or put off, as a few other reviewers, it appears, have been.

For example, Khyentse translates the second seal as "All emotions are pain". To his credit, he does note in "Postscript on the Translation of Terms" that this statement loses clarity in translation, and points out that the original statement said something that's difficult to express in English. In my opinion, he chose the most misleading translation possible. Alternate translations of the second seal have read, "All conditioned states are unsatisfactory," which I think is a much more accurate translation. Khyentse's decision to render the word dukkha as "pain" in English was certainly a poor decision in my book; the Pali Text Society's Pali to English dictionary would have something to say on that. Second, the word "emotion" not only is a bad translation, but as far as I have read, an unprecedented one.

If you are familiar with the Pali language and can therefore take the poor translation with a grain of salt by understanding what he's actually referring to, this book can be incredibly uplifting and enjoyable. If you're unfamiliar with Pali or Buddhism, I would NOT recommend this book as a first read. The poor translation of certain terms could give you the wrong impression.

"Pg 3: All methods of Buddhism can be explained with the four seals:
1. All compounded things are impermanent.
2. All emotions are pain
3. All things have no inherent existence
4. Nirvana [Enlightenment] is beyond concepts

"Pg 119: The four seals are like tea, while all other means to actualize these truths - practice, rituals, traditions, and cultural trappings - are like a cup...
:
Throughout the centuries so many brands and styles of cups have been produced, but however good the intention behind them, and however well they may work, they become a hindrance if we forget the tea inside.
:
On a superficial level, Buddhism can seems ritualistic and religious. Buddhist disciplines such as maroon robes, rituals and ritual objects, incense and flowers, even monasteries, have form - they can be observed and photographed. We forget that they are a means to an end. We forget that one does not become a follower of Buddha by performing rituals or adopting disciplines such as becoming vegetarian or wearing robes [but]...
:
Pg: 125: It's also important to understand that as a Buddhist you do not have a mission or duty to convert the rest of the world to Buddhism. Buddhists and Buddhism are two different thing, like Democrats and democracy."

The book is not about how to practice buddhism but why. The teacher presents a revew of the Buddha's life and refers it immediatly to our present preocupations. The words of the text are far from being sweet, but salty and spicy, with a lot of irony and spiteful sense of humor. Super awakening (at least for a short moment!). Of course most of all, the text is about the core buddhist philosophy, like seeing all phenomena as impermanent, understanding that there is no emotion that does not originate from pain/confusion/suffering, observing the world as dream-like/illusionary, and believing that nirvana can not be defined through/by our conceptual mind. Overall, the book carries a very strong message. I foud it very inspirational.

As some reviewers stated, this book is "better for non-Buddhists", "most suitable for someone who is just starting down the path", "for neophyte", or a book for "quick read"......I agree with none of them.

This book is actually for old Buddhists!

This is one of the very rare books which bring you directly into the core of Buddhism--the four seals. Old Buddhists sometimes do forget it.

This is also one of the very rare books saying that the truth is just around us, in this on-going politics, in this on-going pop cultures, etc. The truth Buddhists search for is not something detached from our own very existence. It is here and now. Old Buddhists sometimes do forget it.

Lost for long time in the forest of meditations, retreats, dharma books, dharma activities, dharma centers, different masters......

Thank you, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, for granting me the "eyes" again and again to walk through this forest.

I have studied many writings on Buddhism in a short period of time. This offering presents a clear perspective on the Buddha's teachings. The perspective is a very practical one. I found the emphasis on impermanence to be particularly insightful. Not the usual read on the practice of Buddhism. Sogyal Rinpoche had strong praise for Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse in his book "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying". I am unfamiliar with the author, but his insights run very deep!