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Buddha Climbs to 5th Place on Best-Sellers List

Arthur J Pais

For several weeks, Karen Armstrong's lucidly written and engagingly narrated Buddha has been making inroads into regional best-selling lists across America. This week, it shot into the national best-sellers list, occupying the fifth slot.

One of the more successful writers on world religions, Armstrong was a former Catholic nun. In her books such as The Battle for God and Islam, the international best-selling writer has offered liberal insights into religions and ethos.

She says she found Buddhism as an "essentially psychological religion," and for years she has been marveling at its "mindfulness, compassion". She values it particularly because she says it helps us to "understand what it means to be human."

In her 205-page book, Armstrong is not satisfied with retelling the story of Buddha. She seeks to connect the ancient faith to our age. Islam Why is it difficult for the West to understand the Buddhist concept of Nibbana, she asks?

"The freedom of Nibbana was inconceivable because it was so far removed from our everyday experience," she writes.

"We have no experience to describe or even to envisage a mode of life in which there is no frustration, sorrow or pain, and which is not conditioned by factors beyond our control."

But to Buddha and other Indian sages this was a genuine possibility.

"Western people often describe Indian thought as negative and nihilistic," she continues. "No so. It was breathtakingly optimistic and Gotama shared this hope to the full."

Armstrong, who visited half a dozen American cities recently to promote her newest book (published by Penguin), says when she decided to take up the project, she was well aware that the bookshelves in Europe and America are full of Buddhist works. Dalai Lama's own books, for instance, are best-sellers in more than a dozen languages. But she wanted to offer a book that told the story of the Buddha. And it wasn't going to be a mere biography. For she was also interested in examining the social, political and religious climate of the day that created an extraordinary new faith.

What are some of the most compelling traits she found in Buddha? For one thing, Armstrong notes his thinking was very modern -- something that was relevant not only 2500 years ago but even today.

"Unlike many religious people, however, he did not regard this panacea (Nibbana/Nirvana) as supernatural," she notes. "He did not rely on divine aid from another world, but was convinced that Nibbana was a state that was entirely natural to human beings and could be experienced by any genuine seeker."

"Gotama believed that he could find the freedom he sought right in the midst of this imperfect world. Instead of waiting for a message from the gods, he would search within himself for the answer, explore the furthest reaches of his mind, and exploit all his physical resources."

And like the best of teachers, he insisted his followers learn about life the hard way.

"He would teach his disciples to do the same, and insisted that nobody must take his teaching on hearsay," Armstrong writes. "They must validate his solutions empirically, in their own experience, and find for themselves that his method really worked. They could expect no help from the gods. Gotama believed that gods existed, but was not much interested in them."

For those in our times who dislike institutional religions, Armstrong suggests Buddha offers a radical course -- and a challenge to find Nibbana on one's own.

"Gods could not show Gotama the way to Nibbana; he would have to depend upon his own efforts."

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