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Buddhism and the Western Heritage by P. D. Ryan This book sets out to bring the Dharma into the mainstream of western culture, while claiming that it is not an exotic import but has affinities with the West going back to the Greco-Indian successors of Alexander the Great. It seeks to discover what, apart from monasticism and meditation, Buddhism has to offer the West and what, if anything, it has to learn from it. The approach is largely through personalities, the western tradition being represented by Jesus and Socrates, the eastern by the Buddha and his closest disciple Ananda, who is proposed as the model for a western Buddhism based on selflessness and service. A key text from each tradition is examined: the creation story in Genesis and the Kalama Sutta from the Pali Canon. The first, considered from a Buddhist viewpoint, yields some insights at variance with traditional approaches. The second supports the writer's belief that freedom is the highest Buddhist value, and one which is more important today than ever before in view of the age of control which would seem to lie ahead of us. The book is, then, an affirmation in Buddhist terms of the primacy of the individual, the man or woman of integrity, above all groups and systems, domestic or public, political or religious. It is also an appreciation, both loving and critical, of western culture in the widest sense, and its Judaeo-Christian and Greek elements, including the great secularist tradition to which we all owe so much.
The following is for free distribution only. You may print copies of this work for your personal use, provided you charge no fees for its distribution or use. Otherwise, all rights reserved. A copy of the free Adobe Reader may be required to read the pdf files available below. Note: Most of the Buddhist terms used in this book are in their Pali form, e.g. metta, except where other forms are better known, e.g. nirvana, not nibbana, Dharma, not Dhamma. Table of Contents Title
Page 1.
Introduction 2.
Finding a Way 3.
The Buddha and his Message 4.
Figures in the Garden: A New Reading of Genesis 5.
Paradise Reinterpreted 9.
'What Do You Think, Kalamas?' — A Visit from the Buddha 10.
Questions Arising from the Kalama Sutta 12.
Future Heritage 13.
Conclusion
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