Edward Parrinder (1910–2005)

Like many people, I tend to read more than one book at a time. It's a habit that should probably be discouraged; but it has at least one highly desirable effect: if the books are different enough, it's fun to try to see if they can be made to cohere at some level. Recently, I was reading Lawrence Block's Hit List simultaneously with the book under review. Block's novel deals with a professional hit man named Keller and his handler, Dot, who sends him on his assignments and generally takes show more care of the business end. A good deal of Hit List consists of conversations between these two, and more than once they speculate on Death, its meaning and its consequences. They regularly touch on reincarnation and Brahman, usually in a sardonic tone of voice for comic effect. It's instructive to read this kind of smirking trivialization alongside the Upanishads, where the doctrine was formulated and explored, interestingly in the same conversational form, although in the case of the Upanishads, conversations between hermit-sages and seekers of truth. The most pointed of these is actually between a young priest named Nachiketas and Death himself, who has agreed to answer three questions to settle a debt of honor, but who tries to evade this commitment when asked: "When a man dies there are doubts about his fate. Some say that he exists, others that he does not. I want to settle my doubts. This is my third wish." It's interesting how the most profound wisdom of one culture and era, becomes fodder for comedy in another. show less

The book starts off extremely poorly, by describing in detail religious rituals of ancient, prehistoric societies that are presented as knowledge, but cannot possibly be more than speculation. After that, it gets somewhat better, as the author treads a bit safer ground as he gets into historical times. Still, there was a great deal of information that was presented as factual but was in fact speculative. There are better books on this topic.

The historical Buddha, an inspired religious teacher of northern India in the fifth century B.C., left no books of his own for his followers. His wisdom and sayings, however, were collected by his disciples and came to form the basis of one of the world's major faiths. Geoffrey Parrinder's The Wisdom of the Early Buddhists is a selection of traditional instructions drawn from the life of the Buddha himself. The texts used are those of the older Theravada (or Hinayana) branch of the religion, show more which prevails today in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. In Professor Parrinder's retelling, they give us a marvelously clear picture of this great holy man who alone in our era is held to have achieved complete Enlightenment; of the wandering existence he led and advocated; and those of his main concepts which parallel or differ from the Hindus' and Jains'. The introduction provides a lucid explantation of the background of Buddhism and describes how its various brances originated. Of the other volumes in the New Directions Wisdom Series, this book is an excellent companion to Professor Parrinder's own The Wisdom of the Forest: Selections from the Hindu 'Upanishads' and Irmgard Schoegl's The Wisdom of the Zen Masters. Jacket photograph, seated Buddha, c. fourth century A.D., Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, courtesy of Musee Guimet, Paris; design by Gertrude Huston.

Contents The wisdom of the early Buddhists Buddha and Buddhism show less

The writing was not especially engaging, but it was informative, and the photos were nice. I think it would have been better had the book been arranged in a manner that flowed better, but overall it did what it was supposed to do.