I heard about The Search For The Buddha by Charles Allen from puredhamma.net and thought I’d give it a go since I haven’t read a paper book in awhile (my excuses being the time investment and poor eyesight maybe from reading too much prior.) I also chose to do so since I currently spend a significant portion of my time writing, speaking, studying and practicing “Buddhism” but without knowing much about its relatively recent rediscovered roots of which modern day Buddhism stems from. By the way, I’m impressed and grateful for the in depth investigation and analysis at puredhamma.net especially about the likely significant misinterpretations and distortions in Pali translations by early European scholars still perpetuated today.
I’m a fairly slow reader as once I commit to something like this I usually take it in fully and deeply with added reflection, contemplation, analysis and investigation. This time took even longer. Much of the source material is mentioned by name and interwoven in the main text — not relegated to footnotes — I easily sought out digital copies since much of this public domain material is readily accessible from archive.org.
Book description via Amazon:
Buddhism is now 2,500 years old and has about 300 million followers worldwide and almost 3 million adherents in the United States. Yet, until the late eighteenth century when Sir William “Oriental” Jones broke the Brahmins’ prohibition on learning the sacred language of Sanskrit, the Buddha’s teachings were treasures unappreciated in the West. Uncovering clues about Buddhism’s origins from inscriptions on pillars and rocks, Jones pioneered an enthusiastic band whose search for the Indian subcontinent’s secret religion is chronicled in this book of high adventure and monumental historical detection. Acclaimed narrative historian Charles Allen brings to life extraordinary eighteenth- and nineteenth-century characters and travels to lost holy places across the Eastern world as he tells the story of how Westerners found the Buddha. Allen has recorded the Western birth of a religion whose influence in America has increased tenfold in the just the past forty years.
Unless already familiar with the subject matter the nearly 20 following questions and observations may not make much sense since several don’t provide needed context for comprehension. However, I list page numbers (for the hardcover “First Carroll & Graf edition 2003”) so just grab a copy (online):
Continue reading “Observations And Questions For The Book “The Search For The Buddha””
Integrating Presence 