An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the WorldMacmillan, 2004 M12 8 - 422 pages An End to Suffering is a deeply original and provocative book about the Buddha's life and his influence throughout history, told in the form of the author's search to understand the Buddha's relevance in a world where class oppression and religious violence are rife, and where poverty and terrorism cast a long, constant shadow. Mishra describes his restless journeys into India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, among Islamists and the emerging Hindu middle class, looking for this most enigmatic of religious figures, exploring the myths and places of the Buddha's life, and discussing Western explorers' "discovery" of Buddhism in the nineteenth century. He also considers the impact of Buddhist ideas on such modern politicians as Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. As he reflects on his travels and on his own past, Mishra shows how the Buddha wrestled with problems of personal identity, alienation, and suffering in his own, no less bewildering, times. In the process Mishra discovers the living meaning of the Buddha's teaching, in the world and for himself. The result is the most three-dimensional, convincing book on the Buddha that we have. |
Contents
Prologue | 1 |
The Invention of Buddhism | 23 |
The World of the Buddha | 84 |
The Death of God | 111 |
The Long Way to the Middle Way | 153 |
A Science of the Mind | 174 |
Turning the Wheel | 187 |
A Little Dust in the Eyes | 214 |
A Spiritual Politics | 280 |
Empires and Nations | 293 |
Western Dharmas | 345 |
Overcoming Nihilism | 372 |
The Last Journey | 380 |
Committed to Becoming | 389 |
Acknowledgements | 405 |
Notes | 407 |
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