What Do Buddhists Believe?
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
'I believe that every human being has an innate desire for happiness and does not want to suffer. I also believe that the very purpose of life is to experience this happiness' The Dalai Lama
Buddhism is one of the world's oldest and most widespread belief systems. Its history spans two and a half thousand years and Buddhism today has over 500 million adherents throughout almost every country in the world. Virtually unknown outside Asia until the last century, it is now the fastest-growing religion in the West. What is it about Buddhism that attracts so many in an age when people seem to be turning away from organized religion?
The teachings of Buddhism are voluminous and varied, and it has a well-developed philosophical and mystical dimension; but at its core is a simple set of propositions and practices designed to meet the practical day-to-day concerns of ordinary people: how to live a compassionate, creative, wise and, above all, happy life. Tony Morris explores Buddhism's appeal and gives an acute insight into its essential beliefs.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This book, meant to be a short and understandable introduction to Buddhism in a series about the world's belief systems, succeeds in many respects. It contains plenty of instructive material, including maps, a chronology and a relatively lengthy glossary. It sorts the four noble truths, the five precepts, the three poisons and all the other numbered teachings that Buddhism offers, and generally covers a lot of ground. The author bravely treats the subjects of rebirth and karma, two central Buddhist teachings often overlooked by those who want to flatten Buddhism into a system of ethics and introspection. Some of the book's weaknesses are almost inevitable. Books that simplify easily shade into oversimplification; the four noble truths are dispatched in six swift pages. The author, a British Buddhist, tends to idealize Buddhism as a perfectly rational system of practices, giving short shrift to its elaborate and esoteric side, especially the deities and practices to be found in Tibetan Buddhism. The book's final chapter about the future of Buddhism is particularly weak and speculative. If it offered more contextual information about other world religions, the ending would be more informative with less guesswork. Still, as beginner books go, this is one of the better ones.
