Buddha

Writing a biography of Buddha is an un-Buddhist thing to do. Buddha means enlightened or awakened one. The process of preserving the traditions of Buddha's life began shortly after his death in 483 B.C.E. About a hundred years after his death the Pali Canon was established. Other texts exist. They do contain reliable historical material. There is no developed chronological account of Siddhatta Gotama's life. Of emphasis are his birth, his renunciation of normal domestic life, his enlightenment, the start of his teaching career, and his death. In the accounts the Buddha is presented as a type. When Gotama was 29 he took to the road. He had a yearning for existence that was wide open and complete. Family life was incompatible with higher forms of spirituality. Attachments to things interfered with spirituality. He was a near contemporary of Confucius and Socrates. He sought Nirvana to overcome the endless cycle of death and decay. 800 to 200 is known as the Axial Age. Socrates, Confucius, and Buddha have been mentioned, and in addition to them, others who established the ethos under which men still live include LaoTzu, Zoroaster, Plato, and the great Hebrew prophets. New religions emerged-- montheism in Iran and the Middle East, Taoism and Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Greek rationalism in Europe. Study and debate became important religious activities. There was a new cult of kingship in Gotama's lifetime. The image of the Universal Monarch became his alter ego. Gotama rode out from the family house when the existence of suffering penetrated his world. He was able to look at Vedic society with the objectivity of an outsider. Gotama joined some of the wandering monks. They had become almost like a fifth caste. Gotama found a teacher who taught that ignorance rather than desire lay at the root of our problems. He was taught to look for holiness everywhere. Even suffering had a redemptive role. An ascetic often finds it is extremely difficult to liberate himself from the material world. It is not known when the first yogic exercises evolved in India. The word Yoga comes from a term to yoke or bind together. The sages and prophets of the Axial Age were coming to realize that egotism was the greatest obstacle to experiencing the absolute. The abandonment of selfishness and egotism would be the basis of Gotama's own dharma. Yoga and ethical disciplines were practiced by him. He practiced withdrawal of the senses and concentration. Gotama did not think the elevated state of consciousness reached through the use of Yogic methods was Nirvana because afterwards he still had the same desires. He tried asceticism and that proved as fruitless as Yoga. In seclusion Gotama found his way to enlightenment. He fostered wholesome states of mind, disinterested compassion. He adopted a habit of mindfulness. The transitory nature of life was one of the chief causes of suffering. The prosperity of one person usually depen

As a student of Buddhism for some 40 years, I found Armstrong's engagingly written account one of the few books I have run across that clearly explains the social and historical context in which the Buddha lived and taught. It provides a basic introduction to the philosophical concepts of Buddhism, but its real focus is to reveal who the Buddha was and how he came to be that way. In this, I think, it succeeds admirably. I was a bit frustrated by the use of Pali rather than Sanscrit, and regretted the lack of a bibliography. But, I think, Armstrong successfully resisted the temptation to "go beyond the evidence," and she has no clear axe to grind or stake in any particular Buddhist sect. Criticisms of the book as "Theravada centered" are off the mark; she describes a period before sects and shows the roots of both Thervada and Mahayana. Her discussion of the Axial Age and her comparisons to other creeds and philosophies were helpful and insightful. I can't wait to read her book on Islam; if it's this good, I can see why it's a best-seller.

I have little background in Buddhism, the study of yoga, or related topics. I read this book because I had lately been reading some of the Dali Lama's thoughts and wanted to understand more about Buddhism. I was surprised to find this book a page-turner! This book about ancient ideas literally kept me up reading for hours, and I don't usually stay up late! Couldn't put it down. Karen Armstrong develops insights about world history and the evolution of human thought through her exploration of the Axial Age and the probable activities of the man, Gotama Siddhatha. She draws upon religious texts, historical knowledge and myth/legend in balanced and creative ways. What I found most exciting was her portrait of the society and times of Siddhatha. She draws cogent parallels between those ancient times and our own time. She explains how yogis and other spiritual seekers were regarded in that society- as respected people and pioneers of the human spirit and potential. This is quite different from Western society, which tends to marginalize and disrespect those who reject the mainstream. It was the vivid contrast of ways of living in society and being human that amazed me. Her description of what yogis were willing to do gave me renewed insight into human potential. The story of the man who dared to do all those things, and question and then reach forward to become a new kind of human avatar- is the focus of a stirring book that helped me understand humanity's potential in a new way!

The Buddha would have been dismayed to find himself the object of a biography. Unlike many other religious leaders, he fought against a cult of personality. He wasn't important, he insisted; his teachings were worth writing and thinking about, but he wasn't. The Buddhist scriptures reflect a legend about Gotama as told three generations after his death, but they do contain some reliable historic information. No incident in the Buddha's life can be proven to be historically true, but Karen Armstrong, the former nun who has taken on the task of writing histories of God, of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, has now written a fine biography, _Buddha_ (Viking Penguin), which may have little to offer the millions of practicing Buddhists, but will inform the rest of us about the basics of Gotama's life, the process by which he came to his understanding, and the essentials of his teaching. Gotama was raised in privilege, an easy, luxurious life into which he felt he did not fit. He saw aging, illness, sorrow, and corruption, and reasoned that there must be some other mode of existence if only he could find it. He always insisted that this other mode was nothing supernatural, that the almost universal feeling that there must be more to life did not mean that "more to life" depended on the divine world of the gods. Leaving his family, he initially encountered forest monks who were interested in finding the absolute self within, rather than speculating about any ultimate reality. From his initial teachers, Gotama absorbed the practice of yoga as a step in such a severance, and he used it all his life. Quickly he achieved the yogic feeling of "nothingness," of complete separation, but with ruthless honesty and skepticism, he realized that this was not the nirvana he was seeking; when he came out of the trance, he still had desires, and nirvana could not be temporary. He then tried enlightenment through asceticism, starving himself, going naked, and even trying to go without breathing. He eventually found his own "middle way" between asceticism and self-indulgence. He was acutely aware of human suffering, and the desire that gave rise to it, but it freed him from even the tiny frustrations and disappointments that occur every hour. He abandoned all personal preference, and adopted a disinterested benevolence.Armstrong can describe such revelations, but of course the description can barely give insight into the mental processes Gotama went through. More importantly, she describes his career of teaching. He had enormous success in attracting devotees in the cities. He eventually retired more and more into the wilds as he became elderly. He reminded his followers that their teacher would soon be gone, but the teachings could remain their teacher forever. "All individual things pass away," he reminded them in his last words before slipping into coma. "Seek your liberation with diligence."_Buddha_ is a useful summary of the life and teachings o

Karen Armstrong has made quite a career out of writing biographies, not only about manifestations of the divine, but the early history of the movements they inspire. If the potential reader is looking for esoteric tracts on yogic practice (and the Buddha would have abhorred such fascination) then this is not the book they need.Rather, this delicious and brief treat of a book explains what Buddha and Buddhism meant in the context of their early history. India had become a place where great business republics were involved in rapid economic growth (like today's global economy) and were being consumed by the new monarchical states. A huge middle class was emerging that could not be pigeonholed into the old caste system, and therefore rejected it; life had become overly materialistic and people were desperately turning to anything for a sense of spiritual well-being (sort of like today.)What Armstrong does simply and wonderfully is reveal this worldwide phase of history and the contribution of the Buddha in meeting its challenges. His teachings are decidedly NOT the mysterious, esoteric bunk that priesthoods of every religion have invented to maintain their exhalted position, but were in fact very practical means for bringing the unhappy people of the age into enlightenment-- sort of like what people are looking for today.I was especially happy to read this book because of these larger, "global" contexts that are expressed or implied. Buddhism belongs in the hall of great world religions, as Buddha belongs among the great manifestations of the divine. Armstrong has delivered a fine portrait of the Buddha's life that puts them both in their proper place, yet she avoids the trap of making them such objects of adoration that the text would become a mere tract.I sincerely hope that Karen Armstrong will see fit to examine other religions and manifestations like this. I would particularly like to read anything she has to say about Zoroaster or Baha'u'llah.