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BUDDHISM FOR TODAY

M. O’C. WALSHE

George Allen & Unwin

The way to self-help for modern man,

A way by which he can extricate himself

From the mess he has got into

PREFACE

Buddhism is not something to believe but something to do. It has been aptly termed a ‘do-it-yourself religion’, and this is an aspect which should appeal to modern Western man, who is now seeking ever more desperately to find a way out of the mess he has got himself into.

In the following essays, most of which are based on lectures given at the Buddhist Society and elsewhere, I have tried to present Buddhism not as something romantic, airy-fairy or widely esoteric, but as an eminently practical way – the cool, level-headed middle way between the extremes to which man normally runs. But here a word of warning is perhaps needed. Some Western exponents of Buddhism have gone out of their way to emphasize its ‘commonsense’ or ‘scientific’ character. It should therefore be stressed that such a presentation is one sided. Buddhism cannot be properly grasped from this side alone. It is not merely a ‘religion of reason’: its inner kernel is transcendental. There is, in some sense, a Beyond to which the Buddhist path leads. This path has been described as the Middle way, and it may reasonably be suggested that it starts from a point somewhere near the exact midpoint between the warring camps of ‘science’ and ‘religion’ as the West understandings these terms. In order to start on Buddhism, therefore, it is probably necessary to make the mental effort to put oneself at this midpoint.

CONTENTS

Preface

         I     Having Taken the First Step

         II    Karma and Rebirth

         III  The Origin of Suffering

         IV  Faith, Hope and Charity

         V   Detachment

         VI  The Buddhist Conception of Immortality

         VIIDualistic Thinking

         VIII Theravada and Zen

         IX  From Kierkegaard to Zen

         X   The Heresy of Holiness

         XI  The Unity of Buddhism

Appendix

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