The Buddha: A Beginner’s Guide (Beginner’s Guides) by John Strong (PDF)

Description

Revealing the man behind the icon.From his many births to his deathbed deeds, this authoritative biography unites the Buddha of history with the Buddha of legend in a bid to reveal the lasting spiritual relevance at the heart of the Buddhist tradition. Acclaimed scholar John Strong examines not only the historical texts, but also the supernatural accounts that surround this great religious figure, uncovering the roots of many Buddhist beliefs and practices. Accompanied by helpful charts and tables, and drawing on a vast array of primary sources, the text also features such key topics as: biographical accounts from all the Buddhist schools, an analysis of the Buddha’s enlightenment, the life of the Buddha as depicted by Buddhist art and rituals, and the relics of Siddhartha Gautama, and how they continue his story, even after his lifetime.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is a great biography of the Buddha. There are a few things I think a prospective reader should know in advance about the author’s approach:(1) This is, as the author says, the story of the Buddha’s life “the way Buddhists have told it.” For example, miracles stories…LOTS of miracles stories. Don’t expect this book to be some kind of “quest for the historical Buddha” that attempts to strip away all the legends that have grown up about him over the millennia. The legends are all here. With that said, the book’s approach is scholarly, and variant accounts of the same story are compared and weighed against one another, as well as against other forms of historical evidence, with a critical eye. The author himself says that he has, in true Buddhist fashion, attempt to chart a “Middle Way” approach between scholarly and accessible, between emic and etic perspectives, and I believe he’s achieved this goal admirably.(2) This is strictly a biography of Siddhartha Gautama, a.k.a. the Buddha; it is neither a history of Buddhism, nor an explication of the doctrines and practices of Buddhism. As such, I take issue with this statement on the back cover: “Along the way, [the author] explores the roots of key Buddhist beliefs and practices, making this volume not only a useful study of the life of the Buddha, but a helpful introduction to Buddhism as a whole.” This is simply not true. Even things as central as the four noble truths or the noble eightfold path are only really *mentioned*, not *explained* (much less elaborated). I suspect that the publisher–probably not the author–included this on the back cover in order to boost sales by targeting a wider audience, but it’s simply not a very honest description of the contents. If one is interested in Buddhism’s key doctrines, main practices, and historical development, one will certainly have to look elsewhere for that.With those two things out of the way, I will say that I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I read a lot of non-fiction books, and with a decent number of them, I find myself slogging through them simply because I want the information they contain, while not necessarily enjoying myself all that much. But this book was different: informative, reasonably scholarly, and yet a genuine page-turner. I was sad to be finished with it, and may have to look up more works by the same author.

⭐One of the most comprehensive Academic summaries out there.

⭐There is absolutly nothing wrong with the text, it is a fairly typical college text book. I got this on kindle and was dissapointed not to find page numbers. How can I cite the location of a quote without page numbers. Even following along with the readings was difficult as it was assigned using page numbers. If you want to learn about Buddha this is fine but if your getting it for college, I suggest a different format.

⭐My daughter needed this book immediately for a college class, so I downloaded onto my Kindle for her. I hope you are marketing Kindle to college students, because it can really be a life saver.

⭐Great book, the only thing is if you already don’t have some prior knowledge of the Buddha, reading it may be difficult.

⭐somewhat questionable point of view, not at all the best pick for a beginner

⭐Clearly written and easy to understand. Used it for my Buddhism class at school.

⭐Excelent

⭐Definitely a beginners guide to Buddhism. Gave this to one of my students as too simplistic for me.

⭐Great item thanks

⭐Ho dovuto leggere (e studiare) questo romanzo per un esame. Molto interessante è bello, spiega bene tutta la vita del Buddha con i riferimenti a vari testi e varie tradizioni. Può sembrare un po’ tedioso ma se dovete dare un esame o volete scoprire qualcosa in più su questa figura è un buon manualeAs usual awesome book by mr. Strong sir. Some have many confusion regarding rebirth . It is better for a reader to clear this confusion before reading this book. For this, read “truth of rebirth” by Thanissaro Bhikku .

⭐Good

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