What Makes You Not a Buddhist [Paperback]

What Makes You Not A Buddhist is structured around four main chapters, each of which explore the four main truths of Buddhism (Chapter 1: Fabrication and Impermanence, Chapter 2: Emotion and Pain, Chapter 3: Everything Is Emptiness, Chapter 4: Nirvana Is beyond Concepts). Sandwiched in-between these are an interesting and insightful introduction and conclusion (for a change). In each of these chapters, the Buddha's teaching about the nature of impermanence (annica) is set out and explored, as well as how this affects our understanding of everything else. One of the nice things about this book is that unlike many other books on Buddhism I have read, although the story of Siddhartha's quest for Enlightenment is once again included, it is done so within the context of a wider discussion of the Buddha's teaching. One learns about Siddhartha's family, his desire to find truth, and his becoming the Buddha at the same time one learns about what it is to be and become a Buddhist... and the really nice thing about this is that it is done in an interesting and engaging manner, not in a dry text-book fashion as so many other books on Buddhism I have read have tended to do. This really is a brilliant short little introduction to 'Buddhism'.

The range of ways the truth of impermanence is discussed in the book is impressive. For instance, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse reflects on how morality changes, how our craving for moral, scientific and religious certainty is due to a fear of the unknown (grounded in a fear of uncertainty), how any belief in immortality is based on false notions of a permanent self, how we can overcome depression and despair by realising that everything can and does change, why we will never be truly happy (as this can never last), and how killing another life for the preservation of or sake of our own, is the ultimate expression of misguided self-importance. In the end, we are led to see the world as Siddhartha did, whilst he was seated under the tree at Bodh Gaya - this being that nothing is permanent, and that everything we know of ourselves and the world is merely grounded in appearances.

'Ultimately one must abandon to path to enlightenment. If you still define yourself as a Buddhist, you are not a buddha yet.' (p.106)

This is an amazing little book, and I am so glad that I read it; no more so than because I now realise the paradox of actually writing about the notion of 'Buddhism' - for this can only be done if there is something permanent called 'Buddhism' (and 'Buddhists'). However, this is also where I struggled with the whole aspect of 'Buddhism' itself. For if there really is no permanently existing thing, then what is this book about, and how can we speak of the centrality of the four truths? Although this book concludes that the only permanent thing is impermanence, this is surely undermined by the relativity which inevitably accompanies it? I just hope that Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse adds a further volume to address this matter further...

This is a wonderful little book, 130 pages of distilled wisdom from a man who is known most widely as a film maker, the director of The Cup, but who is otherwise a well-respected teacher from the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism. Besides being deeply familiar with Buddhist scholarship, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse has traveled and worked widely in Europe and North America, knows the cultures of the countries, and is able to explicate Buddhist principles with examples that resonate for Star Wars fans and suburban American Republicans.

The purpose of the book, the author notes, is not to make the reader a Buddhist, but to explain what it means to be a Buddhist. It's not a book about how to be, but a book about the implications of being. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse does this through the Four Seals, truths about the physical, phenomenal, and psychological world that the Buddha himself invited his students to examine and investigate. They are:

.....1. All compounded things are impermanent.
.....2. All emotions are pain.
.....3. All things have no inherent existence.
.....4. Nirvana is beyond concepts.

Each seal is discussed in separate chapters and illustrated with examples from contemporary life, as well as from the life of Siddhartha, the prince who gave up his pampered court life to seek greater truth and who later became known as The Buddha, the Enlightened One.

Full of sharp humor directed at everyone from spiritual seekers to corporate suits, from tree huggers to neoconservatives occupying the White House, this witty volume is a pithy introduction to Buddhism and would make a great gift for any one interested in the philosophy. I've already purchased one volume for a friend and suspect I'll be buying a few more in the coming year.

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In a nutshell, this book is 125 pages of putting together people, things and our world in the right perspective, making sense of our chaotic world and how to conquer the biggest problem of our life - ourselves, and the way we run our lives. It is 125 pages of unpatented, non-copyrighted profound but yet simple fundamental wisdom as taught by the historical Buddha. The message is delivered through a hard hitting conversation with the author, wittyly written in the language of our time.

I have got a dozen comments to share on what this book is NOT :

1. NO teaching of new meditation technique

2. NO new mantra to learn

3. NOT a nice soft and motherly conversation with the author

4. NOT propagation & hard selling of religious hocus pocus

5. NOT boring stuff written to replace your sleeping pills

6. NOT not another profound and hard to understand Zen story

7. NOT another story about the Life of the Buddha or a parody

8. NO you do not need to be a Buddhist to read this book or benefit from

reading it (IMHO non-Buddhists get the best value)

9. NO you do not need to read another Buddhist book to understand or benefit from this work

10.NO you do not need to agree or disagree with the author.

11.NO you would not fall asleep reading the 125 pages of gripping truth.

12.NO it is not written to "convert" you or anyone into becoming a Buddhist.

And half a dozen more comments to share on what this book IS about :

i. It is about simple but RAW HARD truth about life according to the FOUR

DHARMA SEALS or FOUR DHARMA IMPRINTS

ii. It is about HARD truth of life that may hurt us & the truth always

hurts. Ouch.

iii. It is about our deluded mind and the problems we create for ourselves

iv.It is about how we, Buddhists & Non-Buddhists alike

cling on and attach to to our delusion.

v. It is about how to live with a pure mind & right motivation in this

increasely chaotic, and seemingly insane world populated with

countless confused and deluded beings like ourselves. The truth is not

out there it is either it is within, it's always been present in our

luminous nature.

vi.It's about becoming a real Buddhist by going back to understanding and

practising the very basic of Buddha's teachings-the four dharma seals.

If you every come across this short and bring us down-to-earth book don't ever give it a miss,take it from the shelf, browse and read it! Whatever views of the author which would not make sense to you after reading the book either in parts or in its entirety, would eventually make sense to you when the conditions arise and would surely impact your life positively.

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