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The Monk and the Philosopher is a collection of father-son dialogues between Jean-François Revel, a French philosopher and journalist famous for his leadership in protests of both Christianity and Communism, and Matthieu Ricard, his son, who gave up a promising career as a scientist to become a Buddhist monk in the Himalayas. The conversations recorded in this book took place during 10 days at an inn in Katmandu. The range of their subjects is immense: What is Buddhism? Why does it have such appeal to many in the West? Why do Buddhists believe in reincarnation? What are the differences between Buddhist and Christian monastic life? How do science and individualism make authentic Buddhist practice difficult for Westerners to achieve? Despite the simplicity of many of these questions, Revel and Ricard never give simplistic answers. Their discussions are rich without being dense, and, even more notably, they take every question very personally. The result is a book perfectly suited as an introduction to the elements of Buddhist religion (with a good bit of Tibetan history thrown in) that is also an excellent description of what it has been like for one man (Ricard) to practice Buddhist faith. However, as Ricard wisely notes at the end of this book, "No dialogue, however enlightening it might be, could ever be a substitute for the silence of personal experience, so indispensable for an understanding of how things really are." The greatest strength of The Monk and the Philosopher may be its power to return readers to careful attention to the way we pass our days. --Michael Joseph Gross
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
French philosopher Revel (Without Marx or Jesus) and his son, Tibetan Buddhist monk Ricard, engage in a dazzling intellectual tete-a-tete on metaphysics, morality and meaning. In 1972, Ricard abandoned a promising career in molecular biology and announced his intention to study with Tibetan Buddhist lamas in Asia. Initially, Revel was disappointed with his son's decision to study Buddhism, for, as an atheist, Revel had never taken Buddhism or any other religion very seriously. He and Matthieu remained close, and father and son began a series of conversations about the different and common ways that philosophy and Buddhism describe humanity's search for meaning. The dialogues recorded in this book took place in 1996 in Hatiban, Nepal, "a peaceful spot high up on a mountainside above Kathmandu." The give-and-take between these two lively thinkers ranges from the differences between religious and secular spirituality, "faith, ritual and superstition," and Buddhist metaphysics and the philosophy of mind, and on the violence in the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Each conversation covers an astonishing range of history and philosophy from the pre-Socratics in the West to the current Dalai Lama in the East. Revel concludes from these conversations that the East can provide a system of wisdom or ethics for a West where the triumph of science has largely eradicated these systems. Ricard concludes that Buddhism does provide a "science of the mind" that deals with the "basic mechanisms of happiness and suffering." Although these talks reveal little new about either Western philosophy or Buddhism, they do offer a rare glimpse into the workings of two sparkling intellects.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
JEAN-FRANCOIS-I think the first thing we should emphasize is that the idea of this book was neither yours nor mine. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
JEAN-FRANCOIS-I think the first thing we should emphasize is that the idea of this book was neither yours nor mine. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Explores Every Nook and Cranny,
By
This review is from: The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life (Paperback)
This is real dialectic! The Tibetan buddhist monk, Ricard, has every point of buddhism subjected to the educated critique of his philosopher father, Revel. No Stone is left unturned. As a result we get a great introduction to Buddhism viewed from both the proponent and critic's point of view. TSEAY
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a Find! -- Intellectual Insight into Buddhism,
This review is from: The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life (Paperback)
It's hard to find a good intellectual book on Buddhism. Many of the books out there are either written in the lighter "self help" style, are tartgeted at more serious practitioners or are a little too Zen for me to grasp without building some context first. For someone like myself, exploring Buddhism as an alternative or supplement to my traditonal protestant upbringing, I've been looking for a book that both (i) presents Buddhist philosophy in a Western context that I can relate to and (ii) keeps the discussion on a more intellectual/philosophical level. This book delievers. Make no mistake, the subject matter is pretty dense. However, the book delighfully readable due largely to it's "dialogue" format. Both father and son and eloquent, thoughtful and respectful communicators and tend to get right into the issues of interest to me just as I begin to wonder if they are going to touch on them. As a result, I felt a definite affinity with the authors. After reading several other books on Buddhism, I finally feel as though I have a foundation for understanding it. I have built my context and now I want to learn more. For that I am grateful and highly recommend this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting and unqiue book...,
By
This review is from: The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life (Paperback)
This book records an extended conversation between a top French philosoper and his son, a former PhD scientist that worked for a Nobel Prize winner who gave that up and became a buddist monk and aide to the Dali Lama. I am not sure why, but I found myself drawn to this book -- and have found it to be quite rewarding. For me at least, the book operates on at least 3-levels: first is that this book provides a good insight to what Tibetan Buddism is all about and how it is taught -- something I had come across before, but not in this detail. The conversation basically contrasts various western philosphies with Tibetan Buddism - but the emphasis is on Buddism and you don't have to be a philosophy student to appreciate it. Reading this book puts me in a calm state of mind -- not unlike reading the bible (there are many paths to Nirvana!). Budda and Jesus apparently had similar perspectives -- both being essentially pioneering monks, both placing great emphasis on austerity,compassion, altruism and empathy for others.[Compare this to 50's Jewish-American novelist Ayn Rand who advocates a self-centred, "greed is good" philosophy as an antidote to inefficient, destructive socialism - the contrast is stark. Polar opposites.]The second is the father-son angle which is interesting not least because the son has taken on the celibate life of a monk which has implications for father and son, however this is not a big issue in the book; the father clearly loves his son and has accepted his son's path - somewhat grudgingly I suspect. The third angle is the characters. The father is a larger-than-life big brassy, bold, top French academic, a philospher. [French philophy has itself been criticized in recent years(particular by a top American scientist) as being overly trendy, pompous and ignorant in trying to adopt modern scientific concepts and apply them to philosophy -- while failing to really understand the original concepts involved. This type of issue is not apparent in this book though]. The son on the other hand was a successful and proficient science student that became disillioned and went in search of a more rewarding life [from other sources it seems to me that France, like Britain became fascinated with Himalayaa. For France the 60's and 70's led were times of TV documentaries and slide shows of Nepal and Tibet, and of course the Dali Lama's flight to Paris would have been a huge in the French news]. The son is able to provide a unique insight having the background of a professional western scientist and a trained Tibetan monk with access to the Dali Lami himself. The father-son relationship takes that a step further by providing a philosophical perspective. A triangle then: science, philosophy and religon/Buddism -- the big picture. I pick this book up, read a few chapters and then leave it until I feel in the mood to read it again. I have almost finished it now. You don't have to be a Buddhist or philosopher to enjoy this -- but it is not a light, fast read, it would be easy glaze over reading this if you were not in a receptive mood.
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