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Buddha
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(2 Votes)Amazon.com Review
Books on Buddhism may overflow the shelves, but the life story of the Buddha himself has remained obscure despite over 2,500 years of influence on millions of people around the world. In an attempt to rectify this, and to make the Buddha and Buddhism accessible to Westerners, the beloved scholar and author of such sweeping religious studies as A History of God has written a readable, sophisticated, and somewhat unconventional biography of one of the most influential people of all time. Buddha himself fought against the cult of personality, and the Buddhist scriptures were faithful, giving few details of his life and personality. Karen Armstrong mines these early scriptures, as well as later biographies, then fleshes the story out with an explanation of the cultural landscape of the 6th century B.C., creating a deft blend of biography, history, philosophy, and mythology.
At the age of 29, Siddhartha Gautama walked away from the insulated pleasure palace that had been his home and joined a growing force of wandering monks searching for spiritual enlightenment during an age of upheaval. Armstrong traces Gautama's journey through yoga and asceticism and grounds it in the varied religious teachings of the time. In many parts of the world during this so-called axial age, new religions were developing as a response to growing urbanization and market forces. Yet each shared a common impulse--they placed faith increasingly on the individual who was to seek inner depth rather than magical control. Taoism and Confucianism, Hinduism, monotheism in the Middle East and Iran, and Greek rationalism were all emerging as Gautama made his determined way towards enlightenment under the boddhi tree and during the next 45 years that he spent teaching along the banks of the Ganges. Armstrong, in her intelligent and clarifying style, is quick to point out the Buddha's relevance to our own time of transition, struggle, and spiritual void in both his approach--which was based on skepticism and empiricism--and his teachings.
Despite the lack of typical historical documentation, Armstrong has written a rich and revealing description of both a unique time in history and an unusual man. Buddha is a terrific primer for those interested in the origins and fundamentals of Buddhism. --Lesley Reed
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Armstrong's esteemed works, including such standards as A History of God and The Battle for God, have primarily focused on the monotheism of the Middle East. Now she turns farther eastward to craft this short biography for the Penguin Lives series. Armstrong carefully ties the Buddha's time to our own and champions his spiritual discoveries with an understated dignity that even the Buddha might bless. While exercising a scholar's restraint, she reveals a detectable compassion for Sidhatta Gotama, the radical who walked away from a pleasure palace because he refused to "remain locked in an undeveloped version" [of himself]. Armstrong overcame peculiar challenges to write about this historical figure who became "a type rather than an individual," as his personality and life particulars evaporated into the power of his selflessness. She turned this lack of details for a conventional biography to our advantage, opting to enhance Gotama's story with the broad canvas of his time and culture, thus making him accessibly human. This handsome and solid portrait is sure to become a classic; it is a refined and readable biography of a pivotal character in human history. It is likely true that when the 80-year-old Buddha died he had, as the sutra says, "gone beyond the power of words," but in this thoughtful and revealing study, Armstrong has come near to proving the scriptures wrong. (Feb.) Forecast: Despite the plethora of Buddhist books on the market, few recent Buddha biographies have been written for a general audience. Armstrong's superb reputation should help sales, and Viking plans a six-city author tour and national publicity.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
15/04/2001
You will be disappointed if you read this 187-page biography expecting Karen Armstrong to bring Siddhartha Gotama to life, or if you are hoping to understand the man in the Buddha. She acknowledges that the Pali canon and other Buddhist scriptures leave the biographer with "little to work with," and the last twenty years of her subject's life "are almost entirely unrecorded" (p. 122). My criticism with this biography is not that Armstrong fails to reveal any "controversial new facts about the Buddha's life" (p. xxi), but that she treats her subject with distance.
Few Buddhists would disagree that any history of the Buddha's life is irrelevant (p. xix). "He who sees the dhamma (the teachings) sees me" (p. xx), the Buddha said. He preferred only to be remembered "as one who has woken up" (p. 161). Despite its shortcomings, Armstrong's biography succeeds in showing us that any attempt to examine the Buddha's life "can help us all to understand the human predicament" (p. xxi). As one would expect, she follows Siddhartha Gotama's life from his birth in 563 B.C.E, to his decision to leave his wife and newborn son at age 29 in search for liberation from the suffering of the world. Armstrong observes that in repudiating the "meaningless and trivial" (p. 3) life of a householder, Siddhartha also renounced the life of "the married man [who] kept the economy going, produced the next generation, paid for the all-important sacrifices and took care of the political life of society" (p. 28). After his "six year quest" (p. 85), resulting in Siddhartha's enlightenment at age 35 under a bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, Armstrong follows the Buddha to Deer Park, where we find him beating "the drum of deathless Nibbana" (p. 97), committed to saving the world through his teachings. Before he died at age 80, the Buddha offered final words to live 23).
I finished Armstrong's book in a single sitting today. (Noticeably missing from its final pages is a bibliography, or a suggested list of dharma books for further reading.) Although Armstrong's biography provides interesting reading, it is not as engaging as Walter Nelson's BUDDHA: HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS (2000).
G. Merritt
10/03/2001
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 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.
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