Recently read: Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction

[Originally published at the now defunct group blog explananda.com]

Damien Keown. Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction

Keown manages to pack quite a lot into this very short introduction. It’s been popular in the West to see in Buddhism a rational religious alternative that is compatible with a modern secular outlook. While acknowledging that there’s a lot in Buddhism and the Buddhist tradition that lends itself to this treatment, Keown emphasizes just how much of Buddhism this approach manages to sweep under the rug: reincarnation, a belief in spirits, miracles, charms, and so on. Buddhism has a number of schools, and a rich, complicated set of traditions associated with it. This book gives a nice sense of some of that variety.