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Title: Skillful Means: The Heart of Buddhist Compassion (Monograph of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, No. 18) by John W. Schroeder, Thomas P. Kasulis ISBN: 0-8248-2442-3 Publisher: University of Hawaii Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent but non-consensual book on the principle of Upaya
Comment: This is an academic book, which focuses on the idea of "skillful means" (upaya) in Buddhism. Very broadly speaking, the idea is that the teachings of Buddhism are intended as means to an end, the end being the liberation of all sentient beings from suffering (dukkha). The book argues that the idea of Upaya, though more prominent in Mahayana Buddhism, was in fact present and central even in early Abbhidharma-period Buddhism. Moreover, the book explores the idea of Upaya in other periods of Buddhism, such as Nagarjuna's teachings and Chan/Zen Buddhism. The foreward by the excellent Zen scholar T. P. Kasulis is also interesting. However the book is not for the general audience and will only be useful to readers familiar with the history of Buddhism and its primary schools and teachers.
Rating: 4
Summary: Do Buddhists believe in anything?
Comment: The title of the book is misleading. It is not about compassion and not especially about Upaya or skilful means. These topics are however touched on as regards to the title at the preface area.
This book is really about what Buddhists believe in or not as the case may be, pointing out that what appear as metaphysical statements in most strands of Buddhism, are little more than skilful means, designed to fulfil an objective but not to be taken as concrete propositions.
The Buddha said that his teachings were a raft to enable getting across and not to be clung to. However, the Theravada school appears to have developed a highly elaborate metaphysical system of mind or Abhidhamma, and this book leads us through criticisms of this approach illustrating this through Buddhist philosophies such as by Nagarjuna and the Vimalakirti Niddesa. It then takes you to Mahayana and Zen approaches which expanded the role of skilful means and absolute vs conventional truth.
The book is modest and provides excellent vignettes and tasters of samples of Buddhist teachings through the spectrum of its development and evolution. One highlight is the description of the arising and ceasing of mind moments contrasting the essentialist school with the "only the present is real" school. This lends itself to descriptions of such concepts as Emptiness and non-duality. It is however clear that some of these contrasts are based on a simplification of what were a train of arguments and teachings through a host of groups of which the evidence is substantially lost. An important point the book makes is that unlike Western philosophy, Buddhist philosophy can not be divorced from a soteriological function.
This book is not very conclusive and seems to leave the reader to work it out for himself. It is clear from the writing that the author is not an expert on early Buddhism and that his sources are sometimes secondary. Buddhism did not avoid taking up a position, but this "position" was ultimately dependant on the mind of the disciple. Anathapindika, an early disciple when asked what his view is says: In so far as views are impermanent, I see the danger in them and see the higher liberation. In other words, views have their place (though not dogmas or fixed views) but they are secondary to the arising of wisdom and the cultivation of the path by an evolving mind which needs guidelines to begin with. Eventually, the practitioner may see beyond views.
Having said this, by rubbing in Upaya as the essential teaching of Buddhism (or position), one is falling in to the trap of views. The Buddha did say: What do I teach? Answering with the 37 factors of enlightenment to more simpler summaries. Schroeder certainly makes a virtually unassailable case in chiselling out a rather slender and packed volume.
Above all I congratulate him for helping one to think and exposing one to some excellent quotations, but like Shroeder I say, this is not the answer, we're still looking.
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Title: Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (Philip E. Lilienthal Book in Asian Studies) by John R. McRae ISBN: 0520237986 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Buddhist Monks and Business Matters: Still More Papers on Monastic Buddhism in India (Studies in the Buddhist Tradition) by Gregory Schopen ISBN: 0824827740 Publisher: University of Hawaii Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.00 |
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Title: Zen and the Modern World: A Third Sequel to Zen and Western Thought by Masao Abe, Steven Heine ISBN: 0824826655 Publisher: University of Hawaii Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $32.00 |
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Title: The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts by Steven Heine, Dale S. Wright ISBN: 0195150686 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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