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Bodhisattva Archetypes: Classic Buddhist Guides to Awakening and Their Modern Expression
by
Taigen Dan Leighton
3.83 · Rating details · 12 ratings · 0 reviews
Contemporary Westerners look for spiritual guides to help them find the way to a more wholesome, productive lifestyle, and this fascinating book offers an introduction to a particular kind of guide, the Bodhisattva figures of the Buddhist tradition.Explaining the psychology of bodhisattva practice, imagery, and imagination, Bodhisattva Archetypes identifies a number of archetypal figures -- beings dedicated to the universal awakening or enlightenment of everyone. In language that is subjective and reflective -- with fascinating folklore of the Bodhisattva tradition and numerous illustrations of the icons and their sacred sites -- Taigen Daniel Leighton introduces readers to recognizable Bodhisattva archetypes, like Maitreya the future Buddha (often depicted as a fat, laughing Chinese figure) as well as contemporary figures who exemplify Bodhisattva ideals, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau. These familiar personages from non-Buddhist spiritual traditions reinforce Leighton's view that the search for spiritual well-being is global, and that, in today's world, the bodhisattva ideal is a relevant, useful guide. (less)
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Paperback, 320 pages
Published February 1st 1998 by Penguin Books
Franz Metcalf
5.0 out of 5 stars A Book for All Sentient Beings
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2000
Faithful amazon.com patrons know the phenomenon of reading superlative reviews here, reviews that sadly overstate the qualities of the books reviewed. Reading the two reviews below, you might fear this is such a case. They are indeed, superb reviews, accurate, informative, yet rising to the power of poetry. But the reader need not fear; Leighton's book is honored by the reviews but has earned every such honor. And if the reviews rise toward poetry it is because the language of the book inspires them.
I read Leighton's work carefully, wearing both my hats as Buddhist and Buddhist scholar. I take both hats off to him as he has fashioned a book that scholars will learn from and practitioners will deepen with. Non-Buddhists please take note: this would be a marvelous way to begin learning what Mahayana Buddhism is really about. All persons will grow from reading this book, and I hope they do.
14 people found this helpful
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Tanvi
5.0 out of 5 stars Has potential but politics questionable
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2001
When I initially started reading this book, I felt it had potential. Simply by describing the archetypes, it reminds us of the principles of an ethical life - that we all seem to completely forget in daily life.
I had some problems though, with the author's forays into explaining issues of race, class and discrimination. At many places, where one least expects it, he stigmatizes people who address the wrongness of discrimination and oppression and seems to think that they should just lighten up and swallow injustice.
I think perhaps in the next edition, if the author wishes to condemn violence, he should select as a case study institutional violence - rather than talking about the ways in which its victims have tried to create a more just society.
5 people found this helpful
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Michael F. Pavitt
3.0 out of 5 stars Hyperbole can get really annoying after a few hundred pages of it
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2014
Too much gushing and oohing and aahing going on here for my taste. Hyperbole can get really annoying after a few hundred pages of it.
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Steven M Scotten
4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-proking and educational
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2000
A wonderful introduction to bodhisattva practice and history. Rev. Leighton explores the historical manifestations of the bodhisattvas, but always returns to examples accessable to the western reader (this western reader, anyhow!) and brings the focus to the ways we can learn from the bodhisattvas, not just revere them from afar.
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