Buddha

Buddha

by Karen Armstrong

Penguin Books, New York, New York    © 2001    205 pp.

Religious scholar Karen Armstrong has created a compelling account of the life, spiritual inquiry, and teachings of the Buddha. Reaching back into the oldest Pali texts, fleshed out by later Sanskrit writings, she places his life in historical, political, cultural, and geographic context.

This lively and engaging book should appeal to anyone interested in the spiritual path or in learning more about the origins of Buddhism.
Here’s what Armstrong has to say in her introduction:

  "The story of Gotama has particular relevance for our own period. We too are living in a period of transition and change, as was North India during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. Like the people of North India, we are finding the traditional ways of experiencing the sacred and discovering an ultimate meaning in our lives is either difficult or impossible. As a result, a void has been an essential part of the modern experience. Like Gotama, we are living in an age of political violence and have had terrifying glimpses of man’s inhumanity to man. In our society too there are widespread malaise, urban despair and anomie, and we are sometimes fearful of the new world order that is emerging.
Many aspects of the Buddha’s quest will appeal to the modern ethos. His scrupulous empiricism is especially congenial to the pragmatic tenor of our own Western culture, together with his demand for intellectual and personal independence. Those who find the idea of a supernatural God alien will also warm to the Buddha’s refusal to affirm a Supreme Being. He confined his researches to his own human nature and always insisted that his experiences—even the supreme truth of Nibbana—were entirely natural to humanity. Those who have become weary of the intolerance of some forms of institutional religiosity will also welcome the Buddha’s emphasis on compassion and loving-kindness."

-- submitted by Camilla Bayliss


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