February 12, 2002

Karen Armstrong’s Buddha should have been more appropriately entitled Buddhism since the book deals more with Buddhism than with Buddha. If not the title, the content does justice to Buddha’s philosophy and principles. Buddha was against a personality cult. A book on Buddha would have gone against his teachings. His life and teachings are inextricably linked. It is almost impossible to separate one from the other. Also, not much is known about Buddha. Apart from describing the process of achieving nirvana, what else can one write about a man who left home early, abandoned a normal lifestyle, wondered about seeking enlightenment and twenty years of whose life are almost not recorded.

This book is a short account of the process Buddha went through in his search for enlightenment and a brief introduction to the philosophy and principles of Buddhism. It does not go into the details of the different sects. It is concise, lucid and readable although the use of Pali instead of more familiar Sanskrit terms and spellings is a little cumbersome.

However scarce and contradictory the information on Buddha may be, Karen Armstrong never lets down her readers. Her research is thorough and well documented. As usual the book is not devoid of new insights. In Buddha as in all her other writings, Karen Armstrong interprets religious events within their proper historical context.

A study of Buddha and Buddhism cannot be meaningful without some understanding of the Axial Age, 800 to 200 BCE and the Indian tradition of venerating spirituality. In India at the time, and to some extend even now, ascetics are considered neither feeble nor dropouts. They were and still are revered as explorers in the realm of spirituality. They are looked upon as spiritual healers trying to bring relief to people’s sufferings and pain. In the late sixth century BCE in India people felt the need for a new spirituality. They longed for a Buddha, an enlightened one. Siddharta Gautama set out to find the answers to the spiritual urgency of his times.

Karen Armstrong is courageous and refreshingly original in her interpretation of historical events. She is not afraid of taking on the advocates of long established, yet misguided, beliefs. She challenges the promoters of the “current cult” of family values. In her writings, she projects a wholeness and completeness of vision. In the modern world religion has been made synonymous with family life. Political and religious leaders evoke religion to instil sound family values.

Buddha deserted his young family, wife and son, when he set out in his search for nirvana. As Karen Armstrong asserts, how can this be compatible with family value? She goes on to state that Buddha considered family life incompatible with the highest form of spirituality.

Jesus advised his disciples that they must abandon their families if they wanted to follow him. Buddha renounced domesticity. Christ never married. In other organized religions also many examples can be found where religion has been put ahead of family responsibilities.

In challenging existing beliefs, unlike some other writers, Karen Armstrong is never condemning or threatening. She is humane and sympathetic, yet firm and scholarly. The wholeness of her vision, keeps on making connections and drawing parallels where others may have seen only differences. “Long before Freud and Jung developed modern psychoanalysis, the yogis of India had discovered the unconscious mind and had, to a degree, learned to master it.” She does not find the search for nirvana as nihilistic or negative. Instead, she describes it as “breathtakingly optimistic” and Buddha’s self-abandonment as a radical gesture.

She points out the relevance of Buddhism to the contemporary Western world. Individualism and self-expression in the West has degenerated into self-promotion and a display culture in modern times. There is a spiritual void in the West and it is in search of a new spirituality. The pragmatic approach in Buddhist spirituality should be particularly attractive to Western culture. In Buddhism you cannot dwell on past achievements. It is not based on status quo or external control. Its emphasis on empiricism, inner depth, personal experience, self-reliance, individual and personal independence, and the lack of priestly intervention should appeal to the Western bend of mind and ethos.

Like everything else the road to enlightenment was not accessible to women initially. At first, Buddha refused to let women join the Order. He turned down his aunt and foster-mother. She was ordained later on, but on the condition that she accepts eight strict rules.

Karen Armstrong has written mostly on monotheistic religions. In A history of God, she touched upon Eastern religions. This is her first full-fledged book on a particular Eastern religion.

Buddha
By Karen Armstrong
Viking Penguin
ISBN 0-670-89193-2
205pp. $19.95

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