Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Understanding Buddhism

Author: Nolan Pliny Jacobson

Narrator: Jeremy Donahue

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-01-13

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Religion & Spirituality, Buddhism & Eastern Religions

Publisher's Summary:

"Understanding Buddhism is one of the most beautiful and least-known books on Buddhism in English, a series of fresh, often stunningly original, essays." (Huston Smith and Philip Novak, Buddhism: A Concise Introduction)

"Understanding Buddhism is at once historical, philosophical, dialogic, and humanistic. Jacobson's approach is profoundly intercultural and universal." (Kenneth K. Inada)

The book is published by Southern Illinois University Press.

Critic Reviews:

Understanding Buddhism is an extremely well organized study, reflecting clear thinking and lucid style. The scholarly approach is outstanding. The width and depth of the author's knowledge of both Western and Buddhist traditional ideas are far beyond what is often presented as a comparative study. (Herbert Guenther)

Members Reviews:

Avoid!

Confusing and not to the point. You read over and over again, wondering if the author was high on drugs when writing or just too eager to cover up his unsubstantial arguments with a mystifying language.

Instead of footnotes there are endnotes, which makes it hard to immediately see Jaconsons sources, which at times are very dated, and even the endnotes are incomplete, so you have to skip to the bibliography to find the year of the sources.

It's not a scienticic study, but more of a dishonest propagandistic writing, directed toward practising buddists who have the desire to be confirmed in their beliefs, a few examples being:

1. Buddhism is described as merely a philosophy, which it's not. Buddhism is full of magic, belief in former buddhas if the shape of animals and men, gods and heavens. Nothing wrong with that at all (makes it more interesting), but leaving that aspect of buddhism out, even denying it, is dishonest.

2. Buddhism is idealized, and the good bodhisatvas are compared with non buddhist persons like Napoeon. Ergo: buddhism is better than anything else. No wonder only Jacobson's friend Guenther is almost the only one reviewing it on the last page.

3. Buddhism is described as the only thought system that can liberate people from egoism, which shows that Jacobson hasn't studied other religions. When Christianity is mentioned it is always misrepresented.

4. Buddhism is described as being ahead of its time. Only in the 20th century thinkers like Wittgenstein came up with ideas of relativeness. I think Jacobson has missed Heraclitus, Plato and the Christian or Islamic mystics completely.

5. Full of long quotes that aren't commented.

6. He mixes theravada with mayayana when it pleases his argument, making the whole book almost unreadable.

7. He keeps repeating that buddhism is the only religion or theory that is not self-centered, but begins the book with an autobiography.

That is only the first 50 pages or so. I find it very difficult to read this lousy book, although I enjoy reading about buddhism. I would recommend any other book on buddhism.

Fabulously brilliant author

This "reviewer" is obviously disconnected from this subject in a self distructive way. Having attended many lectures by Jacobson, rest assured he was one of the greatest philosophers of religion of our time. He is highly regarded within his field and beloved by colleagues and students world wide. He was received at the highest levels of academia in his field and was an amazingly compassionate and brilliant writer and lecturer.