Buddhism: An Introduction and Guide

Book arrived promptly. In new condition as promised. A very satisfactory and enjoyable transaction. My thanks to the merchant!

Written in the 50's this was one of the first and the most comprehensive introduction on the subject at the popular level. I read it because a 98 year old English lady had become a Buddhist after reading it 35 years ago.Humphries is extremely enthusiastic and his formulation is negatively biased towards certain schools of Buddhism but he is very hot on Buddhist art, Zen and trying to explain duality, multiplicity and unity.It makes a good read as long as you don't swallow all of it and compare it with other more modern texts. C. Humphries own personal integrity shines through which is what makes the book a treasure.

This is a wonderful book about a great religion. It is clearly and beautifully written by a westerner who chose buddhism, rather than being born into it, and who founded and led the London Buddhist Society for many years. This is not a trendy, New Age version of buddhism; this is the real thing, containing the spirit of thousands of years of history in many different Asian cultures. Reading the book was an entrancing experience, combining intellectual fascination and intuitive experiences of beauty. Very little that we read or hear day to day presents us with genuinely new ideas, but Buddhism is the epitome of this; to westerners not yet familiar with it, Buddhism is really something new under the sun, a profoundly different way of looking at the world. Humphreys does an effective, uncompromising, but enjoyable job of ushering the reader through the necessary complexities so that, by the end, we really get it.

This book is one of the best introductions ever written on buddhism. It clearly explains who the buddha is, the infinite powers of the mind, the role of nirvana, karma and other aspects of buddhism. The book is well written and clearly explains all aspects of buddhism. Some books are cryptic when it comes to explaining buddhism. Some books on zen are notorious for this. Others do not know what they are talking about, they take Nirvana to mean extinction of an individuals identity, which it is not. This book clearly explains that buddhism is actually a very simple, but profound philosophy. It particulary explains in an intellegent and easily understood manner the difference between nirvana and paranirvana. It shows that by meditation one can enter nirvana which is the ceasing of suffering and rebirth. Paranirvana is attaining more and more degrees of enlightenment after attaining nirvana. These degrees of enlightenment are infinite. A truly wonderful and excellent book.