The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to Its History and Teachings
by Huston Smith
79 total ratings, 36 with reviews
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Samantha
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and thorough look at Buddhism. It was a ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 March 2017
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Interesting and thorough look at Buddhism. It was a required book on a course. I will definitely read it again.
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Juju
5.0 out of 5 stars Good purchase
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 January 2014
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A very easy to read and understand book. Would recommend to anyone wanting to learn and understand Buddhism and where it began.
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S. T. Munro
4.0 out of 5 stars A excellent place to start
Reviewed in Canada on 6 May 2012
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For those with little or no understanding of Buddhism, this would be an excellent place to start. If you feel you're already quite knowledgable, this book would be helpful when you want to explain key concepts to a friend without using jargon or obscure references.
There's the historical overview plus details about the separate, but connected strands of Buddhism. Buddhism's appeal over the last 2,500 years becomes easier to understand for those unfamiliar with it.
I like to dip into the book from time to time as a way to refresh some of the basics when I think I'm getting too caught up in the minute details.
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bardo
3.0 out of 5 stars Before you buy this, make sure that you know what you're getting into.
Reviewed in the United States on 31 May 2016
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This book has 2 sections. The first is simply theBuddhism chapter from Smith's "World's Religions." The second is a discussion of Buddhism in the modern West by Novak.
If you're not interested in the subject of part two, get Smith's "WR," whose description of Buddhism and all the other major religions has been the best in print for over 50 years.
19 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Profound and enjoyable too
Reviewed in the United States on 22 May 2018
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This work of fine scholarship is not only readable but delightful. The authors’ introduction to Zen is hilarious, and right on target. “Like stepping through Alice’s looking glass… everything seems quite… charmingly mad… a world of bewildering dialogs, obscure conundrums, stunning paradoxes, flagrant contradictions, and abrupt non-sequiturs, all carried off in the most urbane, cheerful, and innocent style…”
I learned a great deal from this book, particularly about Buddha’s life, and about the early teachers of Buddhism in America.
Its discussion of whether Buddhism is a religion seemed strained, valuable mainly to justify why professors of religious studies would write about Buddhism. After all, Zen teachers say the scriptures are mainly valuable for wiping one’s ass. Utter that at your peril re Christian, Muslim, or Jewish scripture! If it’s a religion, it’s one of such a different sort that, well, who cares?
Otherwise, Buddhism: A Concise Introduction is a wonderful reminder of the awesome beauty of Buddhism.
– Fred Phillips, author of The Conscious Manager: Zen for Decision Makers.
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Lara
5.0 out of 5 stars Best introduction to Buddhism I've ever read.
Reviewed in the United States on 19 February 2013
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I've studied Buddhdhamma for over twenty years now, training in Pali in grad school with James Gair at Cornell. So I've read my fair share of primers on Buddhism, the Tipitika, the 8-fold path, etc.
Put simply: this one is the best basic introduction to Buddhist thinking and practice and history I've found. And to my mind, the thing that makes this volume so singularly valuable is how clearly and thoroughly and *accurately* it portrays Theravada.
Most information in the United States about Buddhism up until the early 1990s basically gave the impression that Buddhism was all about Tibetan and Zen practice. No thought or scholarship -- or little *accurate* thought of scholarship -- was given to the older (and to my mind the most helpful and realistic) means of practice: Theravada.
And one of the co-authors of this book, Huston Smith, contributed markedly, earlier in his career, to this oversight. Smith's earlier introduction to Buddhism misrepresented, and effectively ignored, Theravada thought and practice. But Philip Novak, Smith's former student and now his co-author, makes up for this and really sets the record -- and Smith -- straight.
This and Harvey Aronson's _Love and Sympathy in Theravada Buddhism_ are the two best introductions to what I consider to be the most effective and precise method of Buddhist practice and theory: Theravada.
8 people found this helpful
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Mars Burnside
4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview dealing with different branches of Buddhism
Reviewed in the United States on 22 June 2014
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The book talks about the fundamental beliefs of Buddhism and then goes into details on the various types of Buddhism. Helpful for anyone who wants to understand this non-theistic religion. Many people in the world find that it provides the answers they need in their lives.
A Burmese (Myanmar) man I went to church with many years ago once told me that he was from one of the minority groups in Burma and that his people were animists. He said that it was not so hard to convert his people to Christianity because they were animists and didn't have a good religion. He said the Buddhists in his country would not become Christians because they already had a good religion. This book helped me to better understand that religion.
I was dismayed though, after reading that one of the things the Buddha was pacifism, to read in the news that Buddhists in Myanmar were attacking foreign aid groups because they were perceived as favoring a Muslim minority group. But then I'm a Christian and I have to confess that although many refer to Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace, there have been an awful lot of wars fought in the name of Christ. We all ahve a hard time living up to the precepts of our various religions.
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Love and Sympathy in Theravada Buddhism
by Harvey B. Aronson
128 pages
3.17 · Rating details · 6 ratings · 2 reviews
The author in his present work on Theravada was particularly impressed with the meditation of teacher Satyanarayan Goenkaji and the latter's emphasis on love and helpfulness towards others. .
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Kitap
Aug 10, 2009Kitap rated it liked it
Shelves: buddhism, religion, psychology
Metta – love
Anukampa – sympathy
In Theravada discourses, Buddha taught the monks to cultivate love and act out of sympathy.
This does not mean that the highest expression is to work for another’s material well being (rooted in materialist view point?). Rather, “[Buddha’s] and his disciples’ teachings which show the way to end suffering and attain this immortal state [nirvana] are an expression of sympathy for the plight of the world.” (1)
This book is about the context and content of Theravada teachings on love, sympathy and the four sublime states/attitudes (brahma-vihara)
1. universal love
2. compassion
3. sympathetic joy
4. equanimity
This book is also a response to Winston King and Melford Spiro, scholars whose assertion that “the normative ethic of Theravada Buddhism is one of withdrawal from society and abstention from social involvement” (2) permeated much of Western Buddhology.
Chapter 1 “Buddha’s Sympathy”
Buddha was described as sympathetic teacher
Sympathy = anukampa = “being moved” (kampa) “in accordance with others” (anu)
= “preliminary level of love” (mettaya pubbabhaga, DA.ii.456)
= “state of having a tender mind” (muducittata, SA.ii.169)
= “tender care” (anudayya, SA.ii.169)
= “simple compassion” (karunna, SA.ii.169)
The Buddha’s sympathy does not overcome or bind him --- it is not rooted in clinging or grasping, free from attachment
Absence of attachment does not preclude action, from the Buddhist perspective:
- Some attitudes (cetasika) occur in a wholesome mind and serve to motivate wholesome activity. These attitudes are described, in The Path of Purification (Vism.xiv.133-56), as follows:
1.Intention
2.concentration
3.initial application of mind to an object
4.sustained application
5.energy
6.inclination to act
7.decision
8.flexibility
9.adaptability
10.proficiency
11.abstention from wrong activity
12.abstention from wrong speech
13.abstention from wrong livelihood
Buddha’s sympathy is contextual and timely:
“Concerned regard motivates his speech, which is reliable, helpful, and timely but not necessarily pleasant.” (9) --- from “Discourse with Prince Abhaya” (M.i.392-95)
Chapter 2 “Disciples’ Sympathy”
Three fraternal attitudes ---tender care, sympathy, simple compassion (S.ii.199-200)
- They are related:
o tender care is the condition of protecting another
o sympathy is the state of having a ‘tender mind’ (what does that mean?)
o Simple compassion is the same as these prior two
The disciples’ renunciation stem from love, not avoidance:
“It is clear that Mahakassapa, lie Buddha, considered himself to be an exemplar who undertook beneficial activities with the hope that others would follow him and benefit similarly. Though Mahakassapa renounced life in society, he did not renounce concern for society. In fact, his renunciatory life was determined by a wish to be a guiding light to others.” (11)
Love is cultivated at three levels (A.A.i.70) (15):
o “Relating to sentient beings with a wish for their welfare” --- rudimentary level of love (mettaya-sabhubbabhaga) and preliminary level of love (mettapubbabhaga)
o “Access concentration” (upacara-samadhi) --- also called preliminary level of love
o “Placement concentration” (appana-samadhi) --- “during which the mind and its associated mental factors are firmly placed at their object”
“Whereas love --- no matter what strength --- is epitomized by the wish that all sentient beings be happy, compassion is epitomized with the corresponding wish that they be free from suffering (Pa.ii.128).” (16)
“The teachings on sympathy are distinct from the teachings on love and compassion. because the latter are meditative topics, specifically referring to access or placement states. ‘Sympathy’ never occurs as the prominent term in a discourse concerning meditation, nor is it the object of the term ‘cultivate’ (bhaveti), as in instructions on meditation. Sympathy is the fraternal concern that is present in an individual and does not require cultivation or meditative development.” (16)
“Sympathy precedes and sustains mental cultivation, not vice versa.” (17)
“Sympathy as Antidote” --- this section describes the cultivation of the elimination of hostility (18-9):
The practitioner recalls any pure characteristics that the recipient of her hostility may possess---this wholesome mind displaces any unwholesomeness. This is made familiar through daily repetition, even when not hostile, and the practitioner must absorb the full emotional impact---the repetition makes the wholesome mind real.
“Gentle persistence and a tolerance for apparent failure must be maintained. Eventually, one is able to displace anger totally, whereupon one experiences the emotional satisfaction associated with a wholesome mind.” (19)
“Though Gotama advised people to give up unwholesome involvement with others through attachment for hatred, he prescribed wholesome concerns and activity for others.” ( 23)
Chapter 3 “Loving”
“‘Love’ (metta) is epitomized by the heartfelt wish, ‘May all beings be happy’ (Pa.ii.128)” (24)
Distinction made in the discourses between “love” and “loving”
“Smaller Discourse on the Snap of the Fingers”
Buddha explains that sustaining the loving mind for the duration of a finger snap is what defines a monk
“Loving mind” is one that relates to all sentient beings with a wish for their happiness. (AA.i.70) ---- it has a universal scope, it wants ALL beings to be happy
Such a monk is comparable to one who is endowed with correct conduct, who reflects on the nature of donations, who is in the 7 categories of trainees (???), or who has destroyed all the harmful influences --- here we see an emphasis on “loving mind” comparable to the Mahayana emphasis on bodhicitta. (25-8)
“Discourse on the Great Complete Liberation from Cyclic Existence”
Buddha teaches that there are 6 conditions that will lead to gain: offering LOVING physical, verbal and mental activities (those done with a “LOVING MIND”) to fellow practitioners, sharing alms, correct conduct, & possessing the right view --- again it is clear that “loving” is central to the monastic life
The Value of Shame:
“Conscience and shame do not connote neurotic guilt but rather factors stimulating behavior proper from one’s own and other’s point of view, respectively (Vism.xiv.142). . .If one errs in conduct, the remedy is in the recognition of error and the intention to reform and not in neurotic remorse.” (37)
Loving activities for whom?
“In the discourses loving activities, as a group, are discussed only in terms of being extended to religious practitioners. . .The primary recipients of the loving activities discussed in the discourses are the monks. It must be understood, however, that the populace at large would benefit from the monks’ correct conduct and their teaching.” (37-8) ---- this last piece may be problematic, as he begs the question that he set out to argue, i.e. that the monks were acting out of sympathy and love for all beings. Maybe it is not ‘understood’. . .
Chapter 4 “Love”
-Acts of Love for the Teacher --- (love as metaphor for right view)
- It is “through the development of the perception of suffering with regard to all conditioned phenomena” that all “the benefits of being a Worthy One” arise. (39)
- Serving the teacher with love implies destroying the “harmful influences.”
- “Love” has the metaphoric meaning of “insight” (in discourse A.A.,iii,415)
- Love as profound insight --- love in its usual sense cannot occur in the context of this “love” (P.P.xiv.nt.67) (40)
- this is because the mental factors which relate to sentient beings (e.g. love, compassion, etc.) do not occur when the meditator has nirvana as her object of meditation (P.P.xiv.nt.67)
-Love and Anger
- Apart from aforementioned metaphoric use of “love,” every instance of “love” (metta) in the suttas “is associated implicitly or explicitly with the strength of either access or placement concentration.” (40)
- Therefore whereas “Loving” refers to any state or activity of mind that reflects any strength of love, “Love” refers specifically to cultivated states of concentration.
- “the liberation of mind that is love” (metta cetovimutti) names the cause of its effect --- “when love is systematically cultivated to absorption , it decisively and sustainedly liberates the mind from the hindrances.” (41)
o 1st absorption is characterized by the combination of deep concentration and bliss. ---- the image here used is the surgeon learning to cut by slicing lotus leaves floating in the water --- delicate, persistent energy.
o Mental factor “initial application of the mind” (vitakka) “acts as if it were evenly placing the mind and it co-arisen mental factors into the object of absorption” (P.P.iii.nt.4) (42)
o Attachment works differently, by grasping at its object (Vism.xiv.162) (42) --- the former seems to imply the awareness of non-separation, non-duality
o Vitakka is also known as “placement” (appana) because of its ability to place the mind into its object (M.iii.73; P.P.iii.nt.4) (42)
- the process of cultivating the mind of love “involves universalizing and deepening the love already possessed.” (42)
- beginner starts with herself, expands this to include a teacher, a friend, a neutral person and an enemy
-two antidotes to enmity and hostility when contemplating an enemy:
1. Individuals inherit the result of their deeds (Vism.ix.23-24) --- in other words, see that when you hate it only brings negative results and that the object of the hate is already experiencing the fruition of his own past actions.
2. Everyone has been my mother, father, etc. so I should love everyone like I love my mother and father (Vism.ix.36) --- even if you do not accept literal rebirth, this is a powerful thought experiment.
- “Having displaced this [anger] and achieved some mental balance, the practitioner can proceed to develop love toward this [“enemy”] individual by taking the love he has felt for himself, his teacher, and the neutral person, and directing it toward this person.” (43) --- demonstrates how love can be cultivated to liberate the mind from anger.
- If this stage (loving all types of beings equally) is reached, meditator is said “to have broken down the barriers between himself and others (Vism.ix.40-42)” (44) = attainment of “access love”
- Level 2 - “Placement love” where the love increases in its penetrating force [reference to prajna?]
- Range of absorption love is then systematically expanded to include more beings until it is universal.
- One who practices mindfulness is not free from hatred but one who practices harmlessness is:
o Mindfulness is a wholesome mental factor and so to be mindful of a moment of anger displaces the anger and makes the mind wholesome.
o This would create feelings of equanimity and/or mental pleasure
o This would also prepare the ground for further similar states
o It would not displace enmity and anger completely, however; for that mindful individual still holds onto “I am mindful,”subtle ego-grasping.
o Anger is displaced when one “understands that in the ultimate sense there is no substantial ‘I’ to be found anywhere in the constituents of the body or the mind.” (46) --- love is intimately related to the perception of emptiness of persons or anatta/anatman (and also sunyata)
From the “Discourse on the Example of the Saw,” Buddha describes the mind of love as minds “that are untroubled, free from enmity, vast, enlarged, and measureless.” (M.i.127) (46)
o “Enlarged” refers to the mind belonging to different, higher planes of existence (Vism.iv.74; xiii.12)
o “When the mind is cultivated to absorption, it is said to change realms. It enters either the subtle form realm when it is cultivated to the level of the first four absorptions, or the even subtler formless realm if it is developed yet higher.” (47)
o “Enlarged” also refers to the “great (‘large’) ability abandon decisively, though temporarily, the defilements.” (47)
o “Measureless” refers to the first absorption, which is also called “measureless”
o “This epithet [“measureless”], which refers to concentration at the level of absorption, indicates that the mind endowed with love described here is at the level of absorption.” (47)
o The strength of the loving mind is also compared to the vastness and invulnerability of the earth.
o It is implied in this teaching that the cultivation of love in meditation would lead to the presence of love and its attending benefits outside of meditation.
Power of Love (48-55)
- Cultivating the liberation of mind which is love (i.e. meditative love) makes it difficult for the meditator to be disturbed or assaulted by non-human spirits.
- From the “Discourse on Love” (KP.232-35)
“One should cultivate an unlimited mind
Toward all beings
The way a mother protects her only son
With her life.”
- Love has the power to effect the attitudes of spirits
- Note: this protection is not rooted in fear of the spirits, but rather, paradoxically it seems, in the abandonment of fear.
- (Vism.iii.58) --- love is said to affect another person’s attitude beneficially --- “generates a tender-mindedness”
- This love is practiced with balance, understanding., confidence --- hence the aforementioned abandoning of fear, of not tainting the practice with unwholesome factors
- “The meditation on love is the soil within which concentration and, or insight are cultivated.” (51)
- “This teaching [above, Vism.] reveals an extraordinary dimension to love cultivated in absorption: practitioners can help others, not only through teaching, receiving alms, and being exemplars of the religious life, but through their meditative development of love as well. Presumably the same could be said of the cultivation of compassion and sympathetic joy.” (52)
- (Gradual Sayings --- A.ii.72-7) Monks help themselves by developing mindfulness and this indirectly benefits others by making the monks into calm and mindful exemplars of the religious life.
- Practice is also beneficial to others because it is the engine of transformation into an Arhat.
- On the mind of love and social engagement:
“Gotama did not feel required to relate his meditative teachings on love and compassion to subsequent altruistic activity, as the latter was taught in other contexts. Nevertheless, it can be understood that such activity would naturally tend to follow from such meditations.” (55)
Benefits of Love
- Eight types of benefits from sustained, cultivated, committed love:
Sleeping well, waking well, no nightmares, dear to humans, dear to nonhumans, protected by deities, not affected by poisons, etc., earns rebirth into heavens
- Never stated in the suttas or commentaries that these benefits occur under all circumstances
- On the liberation of the mind which is love and its benfits on others:
Sympathy, which is not associated with meditative states, has many social implications. Loving mind also promotes a host of loving activities. Love (meditative love) “is not discussed in terms of its beneficial effects on others, [though] it was no doubt understood, and therefore unnecessary to articulate, that its cultivation would deepen one’s sympathy for and thus affect one’s subsequent activities for others.” (57)
- Direct relation between strength of an attitude and the benefits explicitly expressed:
Sympathy (a natural attitude) is never explained in terms of rewards. Loving mind, if you’ll remember, gives cause for the practitioner to be called a “monk.” “The benefits associated with the liberation of mind which is love are, however, the most diverse and plentiful, for the most attention had to be given to articulation of the uncommon benefits associated with this high level of mind.” (57)
- Two distinct ways of abandoning defilements discussed in commentaries:
o Permanent abandonment by uprooting with insight (samucchedappahana)
o Temporary abandonment by suppressing through concentration (vikkhambhanappahana)
Chapter 5: The Sublime Attitiudes
- in Buddha’s day it was believed that if someone went to Brahma’s world (Brahmaloka) at death then they would become Brahma, immortal
- Buddha disagreed with this --- only nirvana leads to immortality
- “Discourse to Those Possessing the Three-Fold Knowledge” (D.i.235-53)
- according to Buddha, one can be reborn in Brahmaloka not by praising and beseeching Brahma but by giving up involvements with mental difelments and wield power over their minds --- rooted in moral and psycho-spiritual cultivation not theism
- practices to achieve Brahmaloka include renouncing householder’s life/becoming a monastic, guarding senses, practicing mindfulness, being content and abandoning Five Hindrances (from Vism.iv.104):
o sense desire
o anger
o sloth and torpor
o agitation and worry
o doubt
- “He who sees that the five hindrances are abandoned within himself becomes joyous. In one who is joyous pleasurable interest arises. He who has a pleasurably interested mind experiences bodily calm. He who has a calm body experiences happiness. He who is happy becomes concentrated.” (D. i..250) (61)
o in the above quote “Buddha analytically shows the causal sequence that will give rise to concentration, a sequence that comprises a spiritual alchemy.” (61)
- When love, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity are cultivated in relation to everyone, everywhere, with a mind endowed with love they become “sublime attitudes” (A.iii.225) (62)
- “Because of the distinctive characteristics of each sublime attitude, it can be understood that when one is present the others are absent.” (63)
o Love
Characteristic of devotion to the aspect of others’ welfare (Vism.ix.93)
Function of offering welfare (ibid)
Cultivation is remedial for anger (all cultivations are Vism.ix.108)
o Compassion
Characteristic of devotion to removing others’ suffering (Vism.ix.94)
Function of not enduring others’ suffering (ibid)
Cultivation is remedial for harmfulness
o Sympathetic Joy
Characteristic of rejoicing (Vism.ix.95)
Function of being nonenvious (ibid)
Cultivation is remedial for displeasure
o Equanimity
Characteristic of devotion to the aspect of even-mindedness (Vism.ix.96)
Function of seeing beings equally (ibid)
Cultivation is remedial for lust
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Happy Poet
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good for what it is
Reviewed in the United States on 7 February 2014
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Harvey's reworking of his dissertation. It's very good for what it is and a useful contribution to the literature. Here and there I would have preferred more notes to textual support. He relies a lot on commentaries--I wish it relied more on the original Suttas and the Vinaya. Still a valuable resource. Covers the ground adequately and in a professional manner.
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Mary Beth Tremblay
4.0 out of 5 stars Interest in Sangha training
Reviewed in the United States on 28 February 2014
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Don't let the cover fool you. It goes into the individual aspects that students are required to learn and comprehend before ordination, not the workings of the Sangha.
Each area of the body and mind is explored on all sides, showing choices that can be made and the possible kamma.
I did not read the last two chapters as I was out of my depth of understanding. As a beginner, one is faced with the "real" life that is being led. You always have choice to live as you want but this shows where that choice can lead.
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