Borrowed season 1 from a friend, but he needed it back before I could watch season 2. Lame. I guess I’ll have to buy my own copy

Learning Buddhist Beliefs – An Elegant Introduction

In The Heart of Buddha’s Teaching, Thich Naht Hanh introduces us to the core teachings of the Buddha. Namely, he outlines The Four Noble Truths, The Noble Eight-fold Path and several other basic buddhist teachings. Hanh also works into the text well translated ancient buddhist texts as well as several parables from the Buddha himself as well as general buddhist tradition. Hanh references his own life as a monk in Vietnam on occasion, both in times of war and peace.

This is the first book I’ve read on Buddhism, and Hanh, with elegant prose opened my eyes to a new world of spiritual belief. I’ve read quite a bit of Western Philosophy and although I’ve found it both interesting and well grounded, there has always been something of a lack of passion to it. Not so here. Hanh’s writing reminds my old boss, for a job I had a few years ago as a web developer. He managed to inspire my co-workers and I to create great software, with great care and efficiency. No one else since has been able to create that kind of profession motivation in me. Like my old boss’s kind and soft words, Hanh’s prose inspires. The Buddhist ideas he teaches regarding ending suffering, mindfullness and right action are as logical as any philosophy of the time, but they also invoke some kind of true inspiration.

Unfortunately, no book is perfect and this is not without its shortcomings. Primarily, the book is filled with lists of interconnected ideas that are often difficult to keep straight. At points the book mentions something such as the Third Noble Truth while explaining one of the Twelve Links, and how that relates to the second noble truth. After a while, all of these enumerations, some with 40-50 entries can make ones head spin.

Also, the book does seem to assume some prior knowledge of some Buddhist or Hindu culture and beliefs. A few eastern terms we unfamiliar to me and not fully explained. While this was somewhat frustrating, I could figure meaning from context and it didn’t really negatively effect my experience with the book a great deal.

Overall, I would recommend reading this work.

I’ll leave you with the following small sampling of some of the interesting ideas I took from the book and facts about buddhist beliefs:

• Buddhism isn’t in conflict with most other religions. In fact, some of the Buddha’s own students were monks of other “faiths”
• Some beliefs in buddhism relate directly to the symbols of chinese writing
• After years of only oral tradition keeping Buddhism alive, two different groups decided to write down the Buddha’s teaching. Thus, what is known of Buddhism today comes from two sources which can be compared and scrutinized against one another for accuracy.

This review is also available here: Learning Buddhist Beliefs – An Elegant Introduction