The Faithful Buddhist edition by Tom Pepper Religion Spirituality eBooks
Download As PDF : The Faithful Buddhist edition by Tom Pepper Religion Spirituality eBooks 
This is a collection of essays written over the course of three years, and previously published on blogs or in an online journal. The essays are part of an attempt to reconsider Buddhism as it begins to grow in the western world. The title of the book is the title of Tom Pepper’s blog, and refers to the attempt to be “faithful” to what he considers the core truths of Buddhist thought.
Although these essays are mostly available on the internet, this collection was put together to make them more easily available in a convenient format, and without the expense and waste of printing the more than 250 pages of texts collected here.
It is the author's hope that those who have been interested in the projects that generated these essays will find in them some inspiration to continue and expand the critical exploration of Buddhist thought that is barely begun here.
The Faithful Buddhist edition by Tom Pepper Religion Spirituality eBooks
I came across a link to this book on Tom's website, and it seemed like a worthwhile read. I'm an avid meditater and have read dozens of books that explore Buddhism and other 'spiritual' themes. However, I haven't read much in the area of 'applied Buddhism,' and I was curious as to how a 'faithful Buddhist' might use Buddhism to look at macro-issues. This book seemed to fit the profile perfectly; it muses on the intersection of Buddhism with political and social issues- or rather aims to explore how and whether a Buddhist approach can be used to bring about social and political change.Tom comes across as intelligent, well-read, and writes very clearly. Unfortunately, he seems to have (deliberately) missed the entire thrust of Buddhism, which is about ending personal suffering. Period. All of the ideas and practices that are associated with Buddhism - meditation, insight, virtue - are certainly worthwhile to engage in and think about, but they are somewhat tangential to the ultimate goal, which is to transcend suffering.
Tom seems to get it precisely backwards, and seems to argue that working for social change will necessarily result in a more enlightened populace. I suppose that Tom's intentions are noble enough - and social justice is certainly an admirable goal - but it has very little to do with the spiritual path, as far as I understand it. I know plenty of social activists, and many of them are petty, mean-spirited, and not particularly friendly. If that's Buddhism, frankly, I want no part of it. Buddhist practice is about working on oneself, mainly through a process of meditative observation that should ultimately lead to insight into the way things really are.
Building a better society which is just and fair and respectful of human dignity is certainly a worthwhile pursuit. But this kind of society would not magically result in instant enlightenment for all of its citizens- which is why every good Buddhist teacher (including the Buddha himself:) devote most of their teachings to spiritual work, rather than to fulminating about societal injustice. Moreover - and this is an important part - spiritual work has very little to do with 'thinking' or discursive analysis. Using this approach would be extremely unlikely to result in real spiritual insight, and is probably even counter-productive. That doesn't mean that to embark on the Buddhist path is to stop using one's mind/brain - far from it! But rather to see that the mind/brain is a tool, and one that must be deployed in a very specific (and somewhat counter-intuitive) way if one is to achieve real insight.
On a related note, Tom comes across as someone who embodies none of the qualities of a 'faithful Buddhist,' the way most people would probably understand this idea. In his writing, he shows no compassion, and is arrogant, contemptuous, and closed-minded. In a particularly distasteful section, he seems to mock David Foster Wallace for embodying views that he disagrees with, and then gloats over his eventual suicide. In short, I think Tom should consider spending more time looking inward, and less time analyzing and criticizing.
Product details
|
Tags : The Faithful Buddhist - Kindle edition by Tom Pepper. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Faithful Buddhist.,ebook,Tom Pepper,The Faithful Buddhist,RELIGION Philosophy,RELIGION Buddhism General
People also read other books :
- Landmarks in the History of Early Christianity Kirsopp Lake 9781141767885 Books
- Programming and Mathematical Thinking A Gentle Introduction to Discrete Math Featuring Python Allan M Stavely 9781938159008 Books
- The Wheels of Chance A Bicycling Idyll Herbert George Wells 9781296890346 Books
- Bonded By Water Memoirs of Family and Friends eBook David R Olson
- The House on Blackstone Moor The Blackstone Vampires Book 1 edition by Carole Gill Paranormal Romance eBooks
The Faithful Buddhist edition by Tom Pepper Religion Spirituality eBooks Reviews
Tom Pepper's ideas are important and should be read.
This is a remarkable set of essays that has profoundly influenced my thinking and activity.
This small but extremely valuable book collects essays originally published on Tom Pepper's blog The Faithful Buddhist and in other online formats. The blog, which Pepper operated from September 2013 until July 2014, is as of this writing no longer available, so this may now be the only form in which much of this material can be obtained.
Persons unfamiliar with Pepper's work would likely find this title misleading. The faith Pepper urges is to what he calls the "truth event" (a term conscripted from Badiou) of Buddhism. In describing the mission of the blog, Pepper identified this truth as "that we must always have an ideology, but that it is possible to consciously choose our ideology....We can escape determinism and suffering if we can learn to be conscious of, and consciously choose, the beliefs and practices with which we engage in life in the world."
This e-book includes the twelve essays Pepper posted on The Faithful Buddhist blog before announcing, in March of 2014, the end of the project. All explore aspects of Buddhism as an insight into ideology, with titles ranging from "Anatman and Collective Agency" and "Conventional Reality and Social Construction" to "Nirvana and Depression" and "A Buddhist Reads The Hunger Games." It also includes eleven earlier essays, published on the blog Speculative Non-Buddhism and/or in the online journal non + x. (These remain available online as of this writing.) Pepper is generous and careful about providing citations to books he has relied on in developing his ideas, and these citations suggest much fruitful further reading.
While the twelve essays from The Faithful Buddhist blog represent Pepper's most recent thinking, the most comprehensive introduction to his ideas is his long essay "The Radical Buddhist Subject and the Sublime Aesthetics of Truth" in the book Cruel Theory | Sublime Practice, co-authored by Pepper, Glenn Wallis (founder of the Speculative Non-Buddhism blog), and Matthias Steingass.
If you are already acquainted with Pepper's work, you need this book. If not, try reading a bit using the "look inside" feature, either from this book or from Cruel Theory | Sublime Practice, or try one of his essays on the journal website (nonplusx.com). It will be easy to determine whether you have a use for his discourse. Many of those who consider themselves Buddhists find Pepper merely irritating. Some of us who worry that Western Buddhism especially is being marketed more as a soporific than a stimulant to thought have found in him an inspiration.
I came across a link to this book on Tom's website, and it seemed like a worthwhile read. I'm an avid meditater and have read dozens of books that explore Buddhism and other 'spiritual' themes. However, I haven't read much in the area of 'applied Buddhism,' and I was curious as to how a 'faithful Buddhist' might use Buddhism to look at macro-issues. This book seemed to fit the profile perfectly; it muses on the intersection of Buddhism with political and social issues- or rather aims to explore how and whether a Buddhist approach can be used to bring about social and political change.
Tom comes across as intelligent, well-read, and writes very clearly. Unfortunately, he seems to have (deliberately) missed the entire thrust of Buddhism, which is about ending personal suffering. Period. All of the ideas and practices that are associated with Buddhism - meditation, insight, virtue - are certainly worthwhile to engage in and think about, but they are somewhat tangential to the ultimate goal, which is to transcend suffering.
Tom seems to get it precisely backwards, and seems to argue that working for social change will necessarily result in a more enlightened populace. I suppose that Tom's intentions are noble enough - and social justice is certainly an admirable goal - but it has very little to do with the spiritual path, as far as I understand it. I know plenty of social activists, and many of them are petty, mean-spirited, and not particularly friendly. If that's Buddhism, frankly, I want no part of it. Buddhist practice is about working on oneself, mainly through a process of meditative observation that should ultimately lead to insight into the way things really are.
Building a better society which is just and fair and respectful of human dignity is certainly a worthwhile pursuit. But this kind of society would not magically result in instant enlightenment for all of its citizens- which is why every good Buddhist teacher (including the Buddha himself) devote most of their teachings to spiritual work, rather than to fulminating about societal injustice. Moreover - and this is an important part - spiritual work has very little to do with 'thinking' or discursive analysis. Using this approach would be extremely unlikely to result in real spiritual insight, and is probably even counter-productive. That doesn't mean that to embark on the Buddhist path is to stop using one's mind/brain - far from it! But rather to see that the mind/brain is a tool, and one that must be deployed in a very specific (and somewhat counter-intuitive) way if one is to achieve real insight.
On a related note, Tom comes across as someone who embodies none of the qualities of a 'faithful Buddhist,' the way most people would probably understand this idea. In his writing, he shows no compassion, and is arrogant, contemptuous, and closed-minded. In a particularly distasteful section, he seems to mock David Foster Wallace for embodying views that he disagrees with, and then gloats over his eventual suicide. In short, I think Tom should consider spending more time looking inward, and less time analyzing and criticizing.
0 Response to "⇒ PDF Free The Faithful Buddhist edition by Tom Pepper Religion Spirituality eBooks"
Post a Comment