© Roger M Tagg 2010-2011
Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web" . This website is under continuing development.
This is a book deliberately written for English-speaking westerners, primarily living in the UK, who were interested in finding out more about Buddhism. This was at a time when people were becoming dissatisfied with traditional western religion, and were looking for something that offered more useful answers.
The list of highlighted quotes below does not necessarily include something from every chapter, just ones that I feel are most significant.
| Chapter | Page | Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Life of Gotama (the man who became the Buddha, or 'Enlightened One'. This chapter is primarily just historical. | |
| 2 | What did the Buddha teach? | |
| 7 | Only men can be monks or novices, but both sexes can be lay followers. | |
| 8 | 'Four Noble Truths': 1) Life is full of frustration - we don't get what we would like; 2) 'Desire' is the cause of this frustration; 3) if we remove the desire, we lose the frustration; 4) the way to do this is to follow the 'Eightfold Path'. | |
| Happiness and prosperity also require charity and morality. | ||
| 9 | But, desire is a driving force that brings progress - so in worldly existence we can't suppress it totally; we should just keep it under control. | |
| Our minds need tranquility, just as our bodies need physical rest. | ||
| Restlessness of mind is triggered by too much desire. | ||
| 10 | The eightfold path: | |
| P1. Right understanding, i.e. of the basic equation of life, the 4 noble truths and the "true nature of existence" (RT: i.e. we are all part of a unified whole, and we don't 'own' our bodies or minds) | ||
| P2. Right intention - no revenge, hatred, harmfulness | ||
| P3. Right speech - no lying, tale-telling, talk causing discord, harsh language, and vain, irresponsible or foolish talk | ||
| P4. Right action - no killing, torturing, theft, misappropriation, adultery | ||
| P5. Right livelihood - don't follow evil professions | ||
| P6. Right effort - strive to avoid evil, repair bad situations, move to better situations and maintain good states | ||
| P7. Right mindfulness - i.e. contemplation | ||
| P8. Right concentration - on whatever matter is in hand | ||
| 11 | Three Characteristics of Existence: 1) impermanence; 2) change and decay; 3) non-self (RT: "what I want doesn't matter") | |
| 11-12 | Four Sublime States of Consciousness: | |
| S1. All-embracing kindness, a desire to make others happy | ||
| S2. Assistance or sympathy to those who suffer | ||
| S3. Rejoicing with (rather than envy of) other peoples' success or good fortune | ||
| S4. Composure of mind, equanimity | ||
| 12 | Nirvana ('Nibbana') - the ideal of 'non-self happiness' = perfection. [RT: or is it an extreme, not seriously realizable for most of us?] | |
| 3 | Moral conduct | |
| 14-21 | There are laid down moral rules, but grey areas at the extremes, e.g. is it OK to kill microbes, confiscate enemy property, tell white lies, drink alcohol responsibly? | |
| Alcohol is not approved of, nor is bullying or forcing other people into having sex. | ||
| 16 | There are multiple schools of thought about eating meat (as it involves killing). | |
| 4 | The Dhamma - This is the Buddhist 'bible' - it's much longer than the Christian one, and yet it doesn't contain historical material. Also, it's a 'once off for all time' document, so can't be updated. | |
| 25 | Buddhism does not involve faith in, or worship of, a supernatural being. There's no "being saved". | |
| "We ourselves are directly responsible for our purification.". | ||
| There is no 'self-surrender, no sacrifice of freedom of thought. | ||
| 25-6 | One should not accept things on hearsay, nor 'by tradition', nor just because it's written, nor just because a good person says so. | |
| 26 | Buddhists don't worship their images, they are just triggers to contemplation; they 'represent' the good way. | |
| There's no petition or intercession in Buddhist prayers, they are just meditation. | ||
| 27 | There is no "cosmic potentate", controller of destinies, supreme judge. | |
| Morality is not an end in itself. | ||
| Consideration for animals should be included. | ||
| Pain or happiness are the inevitable results of one's actions [RT: I think "one's" here has to include all one's previous incarnations, so Karma is a 'necessary' concept to justify this] | ||
| 28 | Buddhism isn't dogmatic [RT: that rather contradicts the previous statement and its implications]. | |
| "Seek no external refuge" [RT: sounds like Existentialism]. | ||
| 5 | The Need of Buddhism - perhaps it should be 'The need for Buddhism'! | |
| 29 | The author of this thought a third world war was "almost certain". | |
| 30 | Materialism has become rampant in the west [RT: and now, in most of the east too!] | |
| 31 | "The fact" of ESP strongly suggests that we can bypass our 5 senses in achieving an understanding of "objective reality". [RT: I think this is a very dubious claim.] | |
| 31-2 | There is too much concern in the west about the past and the future; we should appreciate the here and now more [RT: William James would agree]. | |
| 33 | "The West ... is now ready to understand the Laws of Karma ...". [RT: I doubt this; I suspect most people would dismiss the idea as fanciful invention.] | |
| " ... life is not just one single show, but consists of a long chain of renewed existences in the various realms of existence, each individual life being the result of his thoughts, words and deeds, the consequences of which he inevitable has to bear." [RT: So Karma has to depend on a theory of repeated re-incarnation of one's 'character'. If one can't believe this, does the whole of Buddhism become irrelevant?] | ||
| 6 | Kalamasutta - this is just a translation of part of the Dhamma. | |
| 7 | Buddhist Activities | |
| 39 | The author implies that if Europeans had all been Buddhists, we would have avoided World War 2. [RT: what did the Buddhists in Japan do to help stop it?] | |
| There is a danger when one has "scientific knowledge in advance of national morality". [RT: one can sympathize with this!] | ||
| 40 | The Buddhist reply to the question, put to Jesus about the man blind from birth, "Who did sin, this man or his parents?" is "This man", presumably in a previous life. [RT: That's logically safe because we can't prove otherwise, but many would find this unsatisfactory.] | |
| This explains apparent injustices, e.g. undeserved bad or good luck. | ||
| "All action has its due result, and the chain of cause and effect is complete." [RT: and, it seems, simple. But to say that Buddhism doesn't require faith is not true if one needs to accept this theory on trust.] | ||
| Karma is Buddhism's deterrent - and both it's 'stick' and 'carrot' in one. | ||
| 41 | The author has a tirade against Communism, but it's really a tirade against totalitarianism. | |
| 42-3 | Buddhists are not meant to abstain from social and political life, except for monks, who can't even vote. | |
| 8 | Retreat into Buddhist Monkhood | |
| 45 | Becoming a monk (for a time) isn't compulsory, but it is 'customary'. It's considered part of one's education, and it should happen before marriage. | |
| 46 | 'Salvation' is a personal matter. One doesn't become a monk to evangelize. [RT: but one requires support from the public to allow one to duck out of the problems of this world to contemplate "objective reality".] | |
| 9 | Buddhism and the Common Man - by an English-educated Thai lawyer. It's a transcript of a talk given to a group of ladies. It's the most fun part of the whole book. That's not to say one can agree with some of it, but at least he doesn't labour the Karma assumption. | |
| 51 | Thais have never waged a religious war - but they have had many coups d'état! | |
| 52 | Of some people's desire for immortality, he says that this goal "appears vaguely to be a place a long way ahead where he can sit on the right hand of some angel and do all the naughty things he has refrained from during his life ... in order to reach immortality". | |
| 52-3 | He characterizes hunger as 'sorrow' and 'imperfection' [RT: I think that's a rather obtuse approach]. | |
| 53 | The true Buddhist doesn't care whether his house is insured or not. | |
| 55 | How to get rid of household dust? Pull the house down, then there's no more dusting. [RT: not an ideal analogy, I'd say.] | |
| 56 | Nirvana is "no matter creating matter, no causation and no regenerating effect". [RT: this makes it sound like just a logical way out of a situation (i.e. Karma and re-birth) created artificially in the first place.] | |
| Detachment often helps practice, e.g. his golf swing. | ||
| 10 | Buddhism in Thailand - just historical | |
| 11 | Buddhism in England - also just historical |
I have a lot of sympathy for Buddhism, as it seems to avoid several idiocies which I feel are present in both traditional Western religion and the modern default philosophy of scientific materialism. But it seems to have its own set of difficult concepts, namely those surrounding Karma and reincarnation.
In my personal opinion, the notion of reincarnation is just an illusion, perpetuated from a long time ago (e.g. early Hinduism). As for Karma, I think it is built on a way-too-simplistic view of cause and effect. It doesn't consider notions of risk and probability; and I don't think it recognizes the several different meanings hidden in the word 'why?'.
Having said that, I am not sure that I can say that 'Karma + reincarnation' is any worse an idea than 'Heaven + Hell' (as in Christian and Moslem theology). To me, they are just 'carrot and stick' mechanisms to control a non-thinking majority, liable to be appropriated by power-seeking oligarchies. And I would suggest that Buddhism is more tolerant of other views than Christianity or Islam.
In my mind, I feel that we don't need all this stuff to achieve a reasonable level of enlightenment (in the oriental, not the 18th century western sense) and to live a good life. I feel we can do good for its own sake (as with Existentialism), and if that isn't compelling enough, for pragmatic reasons (as with Pragmatism).
I think the change between then (when the Dhamma was written down) and now is that so many more of us are educated enough to think through these issues sensibly. Unfortunately, I have to recognize, though, that many people don't do this thinking. It's not just a matter of "desire" or "self-interest" that causes our problems, but factors like mateship (highly regarded in Australia, but it quickly leads to laddishness, exclusivity and fashion-following); mass hysteria (not just Hitler rallies or student riots, but even the Diana phenomenon of 1999); information overload (leading to people getting bogged down with no chance of mental relaxation), and so on.
Index to more highlights of interesting books
Some of these links may be under construction – or re-construction.
This version updated on 22nd January 2011
If you have constructive suggestions or comments, please contact the author rogertag@tpg.com.au .