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Buddhism Is Not What You Think: Finding Freedom Beyond Beliefs

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Overview

"If it's Truth we're after, we'll find that we cannot start with any assumptions or concepts whatsoever. Instead, we must approach the world with bare, naked attention, seeing it without any mental bias -- without concepts, beliefs, preconceptions, presumptions, or expectations. Doing this is the subject of this book." Renowned Zen teacher and bestselling author Steve Hagen penetrates the most essential and enduring questions at the heart of the Buddha's teachings: How can we see the world as it comes to be in each moment, rather than merely as what we think, hope, or fear it is How can we base our actions on Reality, rather than on the longing and loathing of our hearts and minds How can we live lives that are wise, compassionate, and in tune with Reality And how can we separate the wisdom of Buddhism from the cultural trappings and misconceptions that have come to be associated with it Drawing on down-to-earth examples from everyday life and stories from Buddhist teachers past and present, Hagen tackles these fundamental inquiries with his trademark lucid, straightforward prose.

Editorial Reviews

Zen Buddhist priest and longtime teacher Hagen makes his central point emphatically and repeatedly throughout this book: Buddhism is about direct experience, not about the thoughts people habitually entertain about experience. A student of Japanese Zen master Dainin Katagiri authorized by his master to teach, Hagen cites the Buddha's one-word summary of the goal of Buddhist teachings: awareness-awareness of whatever is taking place in the ever-changing present moment. Hagen's Buddhism is oriented toward big questions, strongly ontological and epistemological, and concerned with reality and how reality is ordinarily perceived (or, as he argues, habitually misperceived, because it is overlain with hopes, desires, concepts and other delusions). So the author is not given to a lot of specific examples or stories from present life, though the book is peppered with the ancient-master stories that Zen teachers always draw on. The tone of the book is strongly didactic and abstract. Unlike Zen writers given to simplicity or poetry or startling paradox, Hagen relies on typographical conventions-italics and capital letters-to articulate and underscore his central point about Buddhist awareness ("to see Reality"), which contributes to a ponderous tone. His Zen exegesis of Emily Dickinson is provocative, and the book would have benefited from more such surprises and re-readings of the lessons of everyday experience. That Hagen isn't a poet of prose doesn't detract from the worth of his content, but it does make his book harder to read. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Steve Hagen

Steve Hagen has studied Buddhism for thirty years, including fifteen years with Zen Master Dainin Katagiri, from whom he received Dharma Transmission (endorsement to teach). He is best known for the national bestseller Buddhism Plain & Simple, and is a Zen priest currently teaching at the Dharma Field Meditation and Learning Center in Minneapolis.

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Additional Info

Imprint

HarperCollins

Filesize

651.51 KB

Number of Pages

272

eBook ISBN

9780061149658

Excerpt from: Buddhism Is Not What You Think by Steve Hagen

Chapter One
Paradox and Confusion
If you visit a Buddhist temple in Japan, you'll likely encounter two gigantic, fierce, demonlike figures standing at either side of the entrance. These are called the guardians of Truth, and their names are Paradox and Confusion.

When I first encountered these figures, it had never occurred to me that Truth had guards -- or, indeed, that it needed guarding. But if the notion had arisen in my mind, I suspect I would have pictured very pleasing, angelic figures.

Why were these creatures so terrifying and menacing? And why were the guardians of Truth represented rather than Truth itself?

Gradually, I began to see the implication. There can be no image of Truth. Truth can't be captured in an image or a phrase or a word. It can't be laid out in a theory, a diagram, or a book. Whatever notions we might have about Truth are incapable of bringing us to it. Thus, in trying to take hold of Truth, we naturally encounter paradox and confusion.

It works like this: though we experience Reality directly, we ignore it. Instead, we try to explain it or take hold of it through ideas, models, beliefs, and stories. But precisely because these things aren't Reality, our explanations naturally never match actual experience. In the disjoint between Reality and our explanations of it, paradox and confusion naturally arise.