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Title: How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings by Ricgard Francis Gombrich, RICHARD F. GOMBRICH ISBN: 8-1215081-2-6 Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Ltd. Pub. Date: 04 February, 2002 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $27.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Skeptical look at Pali texts
Comment: This book is extremely valuable because his approach is so rare: he looks at the Pali texts of the Theravada from a skeptical, scholarly point of view and uncovers what he sees as the overly literal and simplistic readings of many famous passages.
Theravada is, in my view, plagued with scriptural literalism, and this small book is a brilliant antidote.

If you are already familiar with some of the Pali texts, get this book get a fresh perspective. If you are new to Buddhism, on the other hand, this would likely be a bit over your head.

Rating: 5
Summary: How the Buddha Taught
Comment: This book is a revised version of Gombrich's 1994 Jordan Lectures delivered at SOAS, in which he explains a number of key strategies the Buddha employed in order to convert his listeners, many of whom were adherents to other religious persuasions, most notably Brahminism. Gombrich's theses, resulting from a close analysis of the earliest extant Buddhist canonical texts, that the Buddha deliberately used Brahminical concepts such as "karma" ("kamma" in Pali) in his sermons but covertly twisting their meanings to expound his doctrines, and that the Buddha used "satirical allegory" through, e.g., parodying Brahminical texts such as the B.rhadaara.nyaka Upani.sad, are utterly original contributions to the history of early Buddhist thought. Seen in this light, the Buddha was far from the solemn, straight-faced preacher many would have assumed; instead, his humour and clarity of mind shines through the pages of this book, as it would through the pages of the Pali passages on which Gombrich gives his inspirational interpretation.

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