The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Buddhism [Paperback]

One problem I (and many others) have had with other beginning Buddhism books is that the format isn't one that's easy to soak up; the flow isn't as logical as this one's, or not enough detail or context is given to drive points home to a more understandable place. Gach has done a phenomenal job of keeping things simple enough not to overwhelm a newcomer, yet goes into enough detail to keep things interesting and real.

Gach goes beyond teaching the basic belief system into giving examples of how to apply what we've learned in real life, and where else to look for more information. He offers dozens of anecdotes, many koans, a plethora of historical tales and data points, a glossary, and a multitude of other items. One small criticism I have of this book is that he very often doesn't cite his sources when giving statistics.

Throughout the book, Gach returns to important concepts, but not in a manner which I found to be condescending at all - it was merely helpful to be reminded of X, Y, and Z at certain points throughout the book, because they were important to the current subject. The author gives the reader a very solid foundation to build his or her beliefs upon, should the reader desire, including a rich and detailed historical background of Buddhism throughout the world.

I will be unreservedly suggesting this book to anyone who expresses an interest in this spiritual path.

Yeah, that's Right View :-)

In that light, this book is a very good (and most of the time funny)
introduction to Buddhism. It covers the basics: 4 Noble Truths,
8fold Noble Path and covers the basics of the major sects. All in
a relatively easy to understand manner in a conversational tone.

Of course, one can quibble about the depth of detail (and I do),
but again, I don't think that was the purpose of the book.

Yes, the books does slow down and gets less
cohesive once the author gets into the impact on other disciplines
(and that's what makes me take one star off), but overall, I would recommend this to anyone curious about Buddhism overall.

My only major quibbles are that it would have been nice if the
author mentioned where to go for more information about the sect in the text.

In Gassho,

So I will now check out Buddhism For Dummies by Jonathan Landaw, Stephan Bodian and see if it is any different. I am by the way a Buddhist and am always looking for good books to buy on the subject to donate to my local library. Thus the books by the Dalai Lama and Pema Chodron are ones I always recommend. Also Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen.

E-Mail me if you have good recommendations.