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good starter texts & understanding controversy

expatCanuckexpatCanuck
edited October 2009 in Buddhism Basics
Greetings -

Am new to this fourm and relatively new to Buddhism -- no knowledge but for a review of Rahula's What the Buddha Taught back in college far too long ago.

I was browsing through the texts on Amazon, and found some noteworthy 'friction' between readers of the Rahula text and readers of Living Thoughts of Gotama the Buddha.

It would seem, to this ignorant observer, that (at least) two (polar opposite) schools of Buddhist thought exist.

Enlightenment welcome, as would be any references to good scholarly introductions to Buddhism/Buddhist thought.

Thanks kindly.

- Richard

Comments

  • sambodhisambodhi
    edited October 2009
    Two major branches of Buddhism are recognized: Theravada ("The School of the Elders") and Mahayana ("The Great Vehicle").

    Someone correct me if I am wrong, but Mahayana is more 'spiritual' whereas Theravada is more conservative and closely follows the Buddhist texts and doctrines.
  • JackusJackus
    edited October 2009
    sambodhi wrote: »
    Two major branches of Buddhism are recognized: Theravada ("The School of the Elders") and Mahayana ("The Great Vehicle").

    Someone correct me if I am wrong, but Mahayana is more 'spiritual' whereas Theravada is more conservative and closely follows the Buddhist texts and doctrines.

    Thats exactly how i would i would put it :) im too sure either but Theravada is definatly more conservative in its views and practices.
  • RenGalskapRenGalskap Veteran
    edited October 2009
    This has nothing to do with Mahayana vs non-Mahanyan. Living Thoughts of Gotama the Buddha was written by A. K. Coomaraswamy, a well known member of the Perennialist movement. Perennialism was popular among intellectuals during much of the 20th century, but it's not taken seriously by religious scholars these days. Perennialism has a single round hole for all the various shaped pegs in the world, and many of those pegs can only be forced into the Perennialist hole with considerable violence.
    It would seem, to this ignorant observer, that (at least) two (polar opposite) schools of Buddhist thought exist.
    Coomaraswamy wasn't a Buddhist and his beliefs are not a school of Buddhist thought.
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited October 2009
    RenGalskap wrote: »
    Coomaraswamy wasn't a Buddhist and his beliefs are not a school of Buddhist thought.
    Brousing through this book now, it has some interesting thoughts but is very archaic.

    :)
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited October 2009
    expatCanuck wrote: »
    Rahula's What the Buddha Taught.

    Enlightenment welcome, as would be any references to good scholarly introductions to Buddhism/Buddhist thought.
    Hi Canuck

    As you have a scholarly bent, you can try Handbook For Mankind.

    Or PDF version with larger text here.

    :)
  • RenGalskapRenGalskap Veteran
    edited October 2009
    Dhamma Dhatu wrote: »
    Brousing through this book now, it has some interesting thoughts but is very archaic.

    : )

    I have to admit that Coomaraswamy could be very interesting. And having bashed the Perennialists, it's only fair to point out that they were at least sympathetic towards the religions they studied, and were miles ahead of the sort of "Islam is a religion of death" bigotry that some people are currently publishing.

    I had forgotten that I. B. Horner coauthored the book. Like her mentor Mrs. Rhys-David, she made important contributions to the study of Buddhism. There have been Buddhist schools with views concerning the self that were similar to theirs, but I don't believe that their views represented any school of Buddhism.

    At any rate, the book was an attempt to rewrite our understanding of Buddhism, and it failed. One thing the Theravadins and current scholars agree on is that the Buddha wanted us to abandon the notion of self.

    I'm not Theravadin, but the following two books by Theravadin monk/scholars are both good introductions to Buddhism.
    What the Buddha Taught, by Walpola Rahula
    In the Buddha's Words, by Bhikkhu Bodhi
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