Essential Buddhism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs and Practices
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Book Overview
Four hundred million people call themselves Buddhists today. Yet most Westerners know little about this powerful, Eastern-spawned faith. How did it begin? What do its adherents believe? Why are so many Westerners drawn to it? Essential Buddhism responds to these questions and many more, offering an accessible, global perspective on the religion's past, present, and future. It identifies how the principal concepts and practices originated and evolved through diverse cultural adaptations into three basic formats: * Theraveda (including Vipassana, brought from Vietnam in the 1960s and including such practitioners as Jack Kornfield and Jon Kapat-Zinn) * Mahayana (including Zen Buddhism, originally brought to America by Japanese teachers after World War II and popularized by Jack Kerouac and Thomas Merton) * Vajrayana (including Tibetan Buddhism, from the teachers who fled the Chinese takeover of Tibet in the 1950s as well as the Dalai Lama, and embraced by Allen Ginsberg, Richard Gere, and countless others) Essential Buddhism is the single best resource for the novice and the expert alike, exploring the depths of Buddhism's popularity and illuminating its tenets and sensible approach to living. Written in the lucid prose of a longtime professional storyteller, and full of Buddhist tales, scriptural quotes, ancient stories, and contemporary insights, Essential Buddhism is the first complete guide to the faith and the phenomenon.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0671041886
ISBN13:9780671041885
Release Date:June 2001
Publisher:Atria Books
Length:288 Pages
Weight:0.80 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 9.1" x 6.1"
Customer Reviews
3 ratings
Very good for Beginners
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Very good for Beginners I read this book a year ago and I still think of things I read in it, a year ago. It does not lead you down a path of never ending comparisons on how to relate Buddhism theory in every day life, it is very good at explaining the 3 different kinds of Buddhism, a digested version of the history and origin of Buddhism. I recommend it to any one who wants to learn but knows little about Buddhism. John
Very accessible
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
"Essential Buddhism" is a good, well-written, accessible book on the basics of Buddhism. While Maguire's not as thorough as he could be on some topics, he manages to make them very accessible and understandable to a Western audience (which to me seems more important in an introductory text - if you understand the basics, you can learn more from there; if you don't, all the detail in the world won't help you). Another thing I liked about this book was that he treated the different schools of Buddhism pretty even-handedly. Some authors I've read write with a bias towards "their" school, but Maguire doesn't come off that way. And his book has a little bit of everything - theory, history, Q & As, interesting stories, etc. Now, this book isn't going to tell you quite as much as it promises, but if you want an easy-to-understand book about the basics, I think this is a good choice.
Buddhism 101
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
This is a simple, easy-to-read book that I would highly reccommend to anyone interested in learning the basics of Buddhism. This is a great place to start if you are interested in learning about what the Buddha taught, but want it all in plain, straightforward English.
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