Customer Reviews

THE WAY THINGS ARE - By: , 21 May 2001
Coming to see things the way they really are, is the path of Buddha Dharma, the Buddhist doctrine, that leads to enlightenment, as clarified by the author Paul Williams. Ironically,in the Western world Buddhism itself is still very far from being adequately seen the way it really is, despite the considerable amount of popular & academic studies which were being pursuedin the last century. The ever increasing interestin Eastern philosophy & religion notwithstanding, the vast majority of peoplein Europe & the US is still merely acquainted with a rarely coherent & sometimes motley patchwork of woolly catchword outlines regarding the supposed teachings of Buddha. Especially the obtrusive invasion of zeitgeist esoterica, which have been cramming the bookshops full of shelf-metres of oh so edifying & devotional tomes since the late 1960's, their authors daring to claim to have grasped the only true essence of Buddhism, contributes to the maintenance of confusion & ignorance about thisin fact not so easily understood religious philosophy. Accordingly, it was mostly by sheer luck, whenever an interested & unbiased layman happened to come upon an objectively informative & authoritative work on Buddhist thought, before losing track within the maze of all those fashionable titles on the market concerning Buddhist topics. More than anything else, suitable up-to-date introductions to the sophisticated field of academic Buddhist studies have been virtually inexistent. Fortunately, this poor situation has now changed for the better through the publication of an outstanding work that meets perfectly all requirements reason & logic impose to my greatest satisfaction: "Buddhist Thought" by Paul Williams & Anthony Tribe, two internationally leading scholarsin the field of Buddhist studies. Their brilliant, well-written book is undoubtedly by far the best introductory summary available, shedding bright light of objective comprehension & knowledge on the complex spiritual world of Buddhism by laying bare & concisely expounding its quintessence, to whose fascinating intellectual power many great men like, for instance, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer have succumbed. If you intend to gain a first, yet thorough & actually reliable understanding of the extensive realm of Buddhism, choose this book as your indispensable guide without the slightest hesitation & forget about all those unscholarly & sorry esoteric efforts producing the kind of joss stick literature hardly worth the paper, that will make your mind swim & won't get you any further with your quest for clear information. As I cited at the beginning, the Buddha is the one who is seeing things the way they really are. Correspondingly, Williams & Tribe are the ones who are seeing Buddhism the way it really is. So we have come full circle. Your awakening is awaiting you! ;-)