Review of The
Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Buddhism
by Bradley
Hawkins,
adapted by Nancy
Lewis,
reviewed by Tom
Miguel Blaise Shepherd
April 16, 2008.
This 200-page
pocket-handy 4” X 7” introduction to Buddhism is, in my opinion, one of the
best little books available on the subject. I have covered my own copy of the
book with black vinyl adhesive-backed paper and I keep a copy in my jacket
pocket.
The authors
explain how Buddhism evolved – from the Vedic religion, practiced by the
ancient Aryan people – those who migrated south from Russian into India
sometime between 2000 and 1500 B.C.E. The earliest Aryans, the author explains,
spoke a language that was the remote ancestor of other present-day European
languages, including English. That language developed in India into Sanskrit,
the sacred language of Hinduism. Today Sanskrit, much like Latin, is not
spoken, but read by priests in its ancient written form.
When the
semi-nomadic, cattle-herding Aryan tribes arrived in India, they dominated the
agricultural people who were already living there, creating a social division
known as the caste system, which consisted of the following, from the highest
caste to the lowest: priests (Brahmins) and scholars, (2) warriors and nobles
(Kshatriyas), (3) farmers and merchants (Vaisyas) and (4) slaves and serfs
(Sudras).
Buddha appeared
in about 500 B. C. E. His father and ancestors were of the warrior-noble caste.
He thus was reared in a privileged, sheltered environment. However, as he
attained his majority, he began to examine and then question the accepted
beliefs of his own parents, especially with regard to the caste system that
denigrated the lowest caste, the slaves and servants as “the untouchables” and
forbade members of the other castes from socializing with them.
The authors of
the book explain that Buddha’s message was that all people are a part of one
another, that all sentient beings are therefore morally obligated to share with
one another and that the highest good is generosity and caring for one another.
There thus is no caste system for the Buddha.
The authors
explain that Buddhism is no different from other world religions in that it
faces challenges as well as opportunities in the modern world. However, the
Buddhist does differ from the major religions in that the Buddhist does not
believe in the supernatural. The purist Buddhist does not believe in a god, in
a devil, in a soul, in heaven or in hell.
The twentieth
century, the authors explain, was not kind to Buddhism. Large areas of the
Buddhist world disappeared due to political and social changes. A good example
of this is in China, where Buddhism had once been widespread. After the
communists took power, Buddhism was so systematically suppressed (along with
all other religions) that it is difficult today to discern how many Buddhists
still remain in that huge country.
The Communists
carried their suppression of Buddhism to Tibet in 1951 where they attempted to
stamp out Buddhism entirely, often by extraordinarily violent means. Likewise,
during the hideous excesses of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia between 1975 and
1979, virtually the entire Buddhist Monastic Order was murdered along with
perhaps as much as half of the entire population of this Theravada Buddhist
country. Many estimate that by the end of this period, out of an initial 80,000
monks, only a few hundred managed to survive.
Terrible as this
overt attempt to destroy Buddhism has been, it is eclipsed by a more concerted
and subtle assault on the religion through the medium of Western culture.
Smuggled in on the backs of Mickey Mouse and Michael Jackson, the author
explains, the Western gospel of consumerism is entirely at odds with Buddhist
values that preach simplicity, tranquility, and turning away from the
relentless acquisitions of goods. But the Coca-Colonization of Asian societies
ha left them awash in rock videos, Western nightclubs, and expensive electronic
consumer goods. Although certainly not bad in themselves, these things provide
a not-so-subtle counterpoint to the traditional Buddhist values of simplicity
and disengagement with the world of the senses.
These Western
capitalist forces have created this counterpoint by attempting to replace
Buddhist ideals with their own vision of the nature of human happiness as the
pursuit of “stuff”: the idea, as one sardonic philosopher has observed, that
”the person who dies with the most toys wins.” Along with these cultural values
comes the worldview that supports them. This Western scientific worldview, with
its discounting of religious values and its emphasis on the material here and
now, has had a powerful effect on many of the Buddhist countries’ educated
classes. In many cases, these groups have rejected Buddhism, equating it with
the superstitions of the rural agriculturalists. This, too, has had an adverse
effect on Buddhism.
Should we fear
that Buddhism, like so many religions before it, would disappear? Probably not,
say the authors. Such an event is very unlikely. Over the centuries, Buddhism
has shown itself to be highly adaptable to new cultural conditions. As we have
seen, it spread from its original home in India throughout most of Asia, coping
with new cultures and new languages as it encountered them. In the process, it
became an integral part of these cultures. Even now it is changing and
adapting. The Buddhism that came to America and Europe from various Asian
cultures is being reconceptualized and revitalized in such a manner as to make
it uniquely a part of those cultures.
Reviewer’s
bottom line: Excellent, concise history and description of Buddhism.
Book title: The
Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Buddhism
Adapted from:
Religions of the World by Bradley K. Hawkins. 1999.
Publisher: Alpha
– A Pearson Education Company. 2003.
Adapted by:
Nancy D. Lewis
Reviewed by: Tom
Blaise Shepherd. 2008.
The Pocket
Idiot’s Guide to Buddhism can be purchased at Amazon.com/books