BUDDHISM AND MARXISM
AND OTHER BUDDHIST ESSAYS
J. R. JAYEWARDENE
With a Foreword by
Christmas Humphreys
President
LondonBuddhist Society
London
East & West LTD
1957
FOREWORD
I am honoured to be asked to write a Foreword to this excellent series of essays, on the strength, it would seem, of my appreciation of Mr. Jayewardene’s very fine Lecture Buddhism and Marxism given to the Ceylon University Brotherhood in 1950. Here is a third reprinting of this remarkable comparison between these two profoundly different systems of thought, and the time is always opportune to re-examine them. The fifteen other articles, some slight, some long, which cover a wide range of subject, are like the product of a thoughtful mind, and of a man who says what he thinks. Though all within the ambit of Theravada Buddhism they show the impact on a travelled mind of other points of view, as in the all too brief notes on Japanese Buddhism. As these are collected notes and papers there is some overlapping, and in some cases the book reviewed has itself gone into several editions, but in the vast field of Buddhism there is always something new for a vigorous mind to say.
The author is strong in history, and three of the best papers are those on the history of Buddha Gaya and of Sarnath and of the Emperor Asoka. He is likewise at home in the history of the Pitakas, and his long essay on Three Suttas, those chosen being the Sigalovada, the Maha Satipattana Sutta and the Maha Parinibbana Sutta, is excellent.
Here, then, if only for a further study of the best comparison in print between the Marxis and Buddhist ways of life, is a book to be read, and to be bought and given to one’s non-Buddhist friends. When a dozen further articles are added, here is a gift indeed.
Christmas Humphreys
President,
The Buddhist Society, London
CONTENTS
I. Buddhism and Marxism
II. The Ethics of the Buddha
III. The Way to Happiness
IV. Buddhism and Science
V. Buddhism and the Scientist
VI. Buddhism and Politics
VII. A Life of Service
VIII. Buddha Gaya
IX. Sarnath
X. The Tri-Pitaka – The Buddhist Scriptures
XI. Three Sermons of the Buddha
XII. Sinsapa Leaves
XIII. Japanese Buddhism
XIV. Asoka
XV. Sambuddha Jayanti
XVI. This I Believe