Buddhism: A Concise Introduction

by Huston Smith, Philip Novak

A concise and up-to-date guide to the history, teachings, and practice of Buddhism by two luminaries in the field of world religions.

Genres: Buddhism, Religion, Nonfiction, Philosophy, History, Spirituality, Ebooks

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Smith was born in Suzhou, China to Methodist missionaries and spent his first 17 years there. He taught at the Universities of Colorado and Denver from 1944–1947, moving to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri for the next ten years, and then Professor of Philosophy at MIT from 1958–1973. While at MIT he participated in some of the experiments with entheogens that professor Timothy Leary conducted at Harvard University. He then moved to Syracuse University where he was Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy until his retirement in 1983 and current emeritus status. He now lives in the Berkeley, CA area where he is Visiting Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

During his career, Smith not only studied, but practiced Vedanta Hinduism, Zen Buddhism (studying under Goto Zuigan), and Sufism for over ten years each. He is a notable autodidact.

As a young man, Smith, of his own volition, after suddenly turning to mysticism, set out to meet with then-famous author Gerald Heard. Heard responded to Smith's letter, invited him to his Trabuco College (later donated as the Ramakrishna Monastery) in Southern California, and then sent him off to meet the legendary Aldous Huxley. So began Smith's experimentation with meditation, and association with the Vedanta Society in Saint Louis under the auspices of Swami Satprakashananda of the Ramakrishna order.

Via the connection with Heard and Huxley, Smith eventually experimented with Timothy Leary and others at the Center for Personality Research, of which Leary was Research Professor. The experience and history of the era are captured somewhat in Smith's book Cleansing the Doors of Perception. In this period, Smith joined in on the Harvard Project as well, an attempt to raise spiritual awareness through entheogenic plants.

He has been a friend of the XIVth Dalai Lama for more than forty years, and met and talked to some of the great figures of the century, from Eleanor Roosevelt to Thomas Merton.

He developed an interest in the Traditionalist School formulated by Rene Guenon and Ananda Coomaraswamy. This interest has become a continuing thread in all his writings.

In 1996, Bill Moyers devoted a 5-part PBS special to Smith's life and work, "The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith." Smith has produced three series for public television: "The Religions of Man," "The Search for America," and (with Arthur Compton) "Science and Human Responsibility." His films on Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism have all won awards at international film festivals.

His latest DVD release is The Roots of Fundamentalism - A Conversation with Huston Smith and Phil Cousineau.

Reviews

[Miss Murder · Rating 4 out of 5]

“‘Are you a god?’ They asked.
‘No.’
‘Then what are you?’
‘I am awake.’”

If you’ve been on Goodreads within the last 12 hours, you can see I’ve added about four more books that relate to Buddhism. So you can say Novak and Smith did their job correctly.

I began this book with pretty basic knowledge of Buddhism. Ever since learning about it, I’ve been interested in pursuing this religion further. This book did not disappoint. This book thoroughly dissects Buddhism in a way that anybody can understand, although it is a complex religion like any other.

The first nine chapters themselves garner five stars. It’s intellectually stimulating, knowledgeable, and is readable unlike most books that tackle such complex issues and ideas. That is, until you finish those first nine chapters.

When you reach the 10th chapter, it starts to become repetitive and contains long winded sentences that make you wonder what you just read. It begins listing so many names and lineages that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of who is who. It’s not language that should be in a “concise introduction” novel about a religion. It was very disappointing for a book that began so strong to end in such an unsatisfactory way.

Despite the somewhat unfulfilling second half of the novel, this book still deserves 4 stars. It has definitely pushed me to pursue Buddhism further and I am definitely walking away from it having learned a lot. This is surely a book that can model many people’s beliefs and spirituality, including myself.

[Dennis Littrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Partially excellent

Part of this book is an excellent introduction to Buddhism. Part of it is not. The first eight chapters are clear, concise and extraordinarily lucid. I have been looking for a long time for a really good introduction to Buddhism. Most of the books I've read either try to do too much or are too narrowly conceived. Huston Smith (not to be confused with Homer W. Smith who wrote Man and His Gods half a century ago) and Philip Novak do an admirable job of showing the reader exactly what Buddhism is all about, how it arose, how it developed and splintered. They make clear the central ideas of Buddhism and how those ideas differ from other religions. These chapters constitute easily one of the best introductions to Buddhism I have ever read.
However in the ninth chapter on Zen Buddhism, written exclusively by Smith, I found myself very much at odds with Smith's interpretation. He warns us that as a Zen student in Japan many years ago his teacher Goto Roshi considered him too philosophic and not as well-grounded in the experiential as he might be. The immediate and experiential, the "be here now" is the essence of Zen of course. And so one might say that Smith was too intellectual. According to a footnote on page 207, the chapter "received its final shape from six weeks of Zen training Kyoto" in 1957 when Smith was a young man. I wonder how thoroughly he reworked this chapter for the present volume copyrighted in 2002. It would appear not much. I should also note that the entire book is a reworking of the chapter on Buddhism from his larger work, The World's Religions.

My problem with his take on Zen is the suggestion, especially on page 97, that it is the rational mind that is holding the student back. But it is not the work of the rational mind that Zen wants the practitioner to overcome. The rational mind is merely common sense. It is instead, the intellectualization of the world that is the problem. It is living the verbalizations we invent as though the verbalizations were the world itself, as though the name were the thing itself. Cooking rice, drawing water, sweeping the porch are events that are preeminently directed by the rational mind. It is rational and logical to eat when you're hungry, to sleep when you're tired. Zen always strives for the concrete, never the abstraction.

I also found myself at odds with Smith's take on the purpose of koan training and how it works toward the aspirant's enlightenment. Enlightenment comes from living with awareness. Being awake, as the Buddha said. Meditation allows us to become very much aware of ourselves and our place in the world. The koan is actually a device that leads the novice to meditation. If you are sitting down and wrestling with the notion of one hand clapping or are contemplating nothingness, after a while it become obvious that where you are is inside your head. Once you are able to focus your attention so precisely without distraction, as indeed the Buddha was able to do, then you are on the road to insight, leading to enlightenment, leading to satori and liberation.

I believe that Smith's understanding of the koan experience is too esoteric and frankly cluttered. He speaks of the mind "working in a special way" on the koan and that "reason...must be supplemented by another mode of knowing." (p. 97) This unnecessary mystification strongly suggests that Smith did not get much further in his koan practice than the six weeks he spent with Goto Roshi.

What is really being "upset" and revolted against in koan training is not the rational mind and its logic, but the culturalization that society has imposed on us along with the view of life constructed by the animal mind: that is, the mind shaped by the evolutionary process, a mind that sees everything primarily in terms of its utility to the seer. Freeing the mind from the prejudices of society and from the limits of the evolutionary mind set is really what Zen is all about. That is how we achieve freedom, which was the goal of the Buddha--freedom from the shackles of the purely animal existence with its mind clouded by reproductive, social and subsistence needs. When we are able to do this we become like the Buddha, like the real artist, like the solitary old man of the forest drawing water and stacking wood. We become knowingly part of the process, not separate from it, and at home in the everyday world in a way that is uncolored by previous notions and the prejudices of society and our evolutionary selves.
There is some extensive discussion in this book about the differences between Mahayana Buddhism, the so-called "great" vehicle and Hinayana Buddhism (the "lesser" vehicle, more properly referred to as Theravada), and some hints about the mystical and supernatural Buddhism that is sometimes practiced by the great Buddhist masses. One can easily see that the further one gets from actual teachings as derived from the Buddha, the more adrift one becomes. Zen is a reaction to the needless elaboration and intellectualizing of the teachings, and is an attempt to bring the practitioner back to the concrete and the actual world of experience.

The value of this book is in the lucid and concise delineation of the Buddha's teachings as contained in the first eight chapters. The material in Part II "The Wheel Rolls West" is about how Buddhism is influencing and being influenced by its experience in Western cultures, and is of greater interest to established Buddhists that it is to those being introduced to Buddhism.

--Dennis Littrell, author of “Understanding Religion: Reviews, Essays and Commentary”

[Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is easily the best introduction to Buddhism I've ever read. It discusses the history of the Buddha and then gets into the basic teachings. Not much time is spent on this, and yet he covers all the basics: the four noble truths, the eightfold path, and even nirvana, anatta, the three marks of existence, dependent arising, and emptiness.

The rest of the book discusses the verious Buddhist traditions around the world, with a special emphasis on American Buddhism. There is so much variety available to American Buddhists, never before seen in history. They each vary significantly in emphasis, practices, traditions, rituals, and teachings, but they all share the basic core teachings. This book discusses Zen, Tibetan, Vipassana, and Pure Land.

All this in 200 pages. No kidding, they don't waste a word, and yet they don't miss a beat. This book will give you the gist--nothing more and nothing less. It's not a self-help book, a meditation guide, or a guide for how to apply the teachings to your life. Other books do that. This just explains what this Buddhism thing is all about.

My favorite part of this book is the afterword on Pure Land, which surprised me. Of all the Buddhist traditions, this interested me the least. It almost seems like Buddhist version of Christianity, with god, prayers, redemption, ritual, and heaven. But this book's explanation of Pure Land is so beautifully written and insightful that it really helped me understand and appreciate the draw of not only Pure Land, but that kind of transcendental religion in general. It even helped me understand why some people need a higher power!

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s wild how much is fit into this book, and how informative it is. At the end of the book it was mostly filled with different sects of Buddhism and branches and people who helped found it in different areas, so most of it was wordy names and dates, but the essence of what was being taught in that section still stood strong. A very good book for anyone looking to understand more about the history of buddhism and it’s many branches

[Joelle Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a well-written book, though the last four chapters became overwhelming when they switch from doctrine to proselytizing; the names were overwhelming.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent introduction to Buddhism by Huston Smith, the author of the well-known The World's Religions, and Philip Novak, who was one of his students. The authors have written in a way that I found very accessible, not with the dryness of most textbooks. This small book (only 242 pages) contains a brief description of the life and legend of the Buddha, an overview of the important Buddhist teachings, some of the history of the beginnings in India and Asia, description of the kinds of Buddhism throughout the world, and the history of the evolution of Buddhism in America. The chapter comparing the two largest schools of Buddhism -- the Theravada and the Mahayana -- was one of my favorites because there are a myriad of sub-schools, teachers, and practices that I have previously found very confusing.

The book ends with a quote about Buddhism's future from historian Steven Batchelor: "If Buddhism is to survive in the West, it has to avoid the twin dangers of excessive rigidity, which will lead to marginalization and irrelevance, and excessive flexibility, which will lead to absorption by other disciplines and a loss of distinctive identity." And the authors add, "We may be witnessing what may prove to be the besetting issue that multiculturalism is posing for religion at large in the twenty-first century."

[Peter Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book was quite helpful to me, serving as a basic introduction to Buddhist thought and practice. The second half, a history of the Buddhist movement into the West, was of little interest and so was largely skimmed. The bibliography is amazing and will be helpful in my future studies of Buddhism.

[Alex Furst · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buddhism: A Concise Introduction by Huston Smith and Philip Novak.
3/5 rating. 256 pages.
Book #27 of 2021. Read April 4, 2021.

This is an overview of Buddhism and its many forms.

If that doesn't necessarily sound like the most riveting book ever, you kinda got the gist. It wasn't bad, and was interesting in the fact of learning more about the different branches, as well as some different doctrines. As a powerful force in today's budding meditation practices and a non-deistic "religion" it is a good comparison to the common religions in the US.

I am a huge fan of Buddhism as a contemplative tradition - though the metaphysical claims lose me as much as any other religion. But looking at the Buddha's quotes, it's hard to not love the heart and wisdom he possessed:

- "Be lamps unto yourselves."
- "As irrigators make water go where they want,
As archers make their arrows straight,
As carpenters carve wood,
The wise shape their minds."

And some of the beautiful statements by past adherents of the religion are no less profound:

- "If you cannot find the meaning of life in an act as routine as that of doing the dishes, you will not find it anywhere."
- "I pray only that I may feel the pain of others, as if I were residing within their bodies, and that I may have the power of relieving their pain and making them happy." - Prayer from the Bhagavatam
- "Civilization, in the real sense of the term, consists not in the multiplication, but in the deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants."
- "[A Buddhist monk] sleeps quietly without worries, having none in his possession." - Nyogen Sensaki

If you are looking for a short, academic look at Buddhism, you could do worse than this book, but I personally have read plenty better, so I probably wouldn't recommend you picking this one.

Other Quotes:
"When shall we come to recognize that health is as contagious as disease, virtue as contagious as vice, cheerfulness as contagious as moroseness?"
"'Ask me for a certain number of dollars if you will,' [Thoreau] said, 'but do not ask me for my afternoons.' He tells us that he could sit alone for hours, listening to nature, doing nothing, just being."

[MykÆ G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frustratingly shallow and orientalist. Smith has an amazing knack for making the history of Buddhism out to be the history of white people reading about Buddhism.

The first half of the book is an introduction to Buddhist thought and it's prominent sects. Smith assumes uncritically that there is a pre-sectarian Buddhism that we can draw upon that would allow us to say who the Buddha really was and what he taught. Smith expresses great affection for the person of the Buddha, but it's light on content and lacking in historiographic awareness.

The second section is mostly a list of white people who became interested in Buddhism along with an overview of how many Buddhist temples and meditation centers are in America and Europe. I found Smith's decision to consider American Buddhism to be the history of white people reading about Buddhism to be shameful. Smith often says that he is writing the way he is because he wants to appeal to his target audience. Perhaps I am not his target audience.

I would not recommend this book to anyone who already has any knowledge of Buddhism, however the first half of the book might be an easy overview for someone with little preexisting knowledge on the subject.

[Eric Shaffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

In no way a fan of the mumbo-jumbo that believers make of even the simplest and plainest human realizations, I am still a fan of Huston and friend, who, here, set out the basics of the "religion" or "practice" known by the name Buddhism. I donʻt care at all what Buddhists think of Buddhism, but I am delighted that even Huston, who appears to be a Buddhist, can set out clearly the "tenets," "beliefs," or "knowledge" by which those adherents try to live. There is nothing new here except the clarity with which as much as can be explained about these "beliefs" is explained. Especially excellent on the overwhelming and fairly shocking spread and growth of Buddhism in America, the book is a relief to those like me who just want to know what the hell Buddhism is, as well as astute between-the-lines commentary on how the American people accommodate Buddhism to themselves since most Americans cannot seem to effectively accommodate themselves to Buddhism, no matter how long each sits on a pillow and stares at a wall. Cheers! This is good information.

[Adam Zuwerink · Rating 4 out of 5]

I join in the consensus of quite a few of the other reviews - the first half is an admirable overview of the history and basic teachings of the historical Buddha and the various offshoot branches. The writing style reminds me of something a high school student would read while studying in a comparative religion class, which means it is a very fact-based, third-person, Western-style timeline of Buddhism from start to present day. But I don't mean that as a a critique, as I left it feeling like I had a much better understanding of how Buddhism has grown and spread throughout the world for the past 2,500 years.

In contrast, the second half is an ad nauseum biographical recitation of those who brought Buddhism to "the West." The problem with the second half is that because of the heavy reliance on numbers and dates of how many Buddhist centers there are here and there, it does not age well over time.

[it me · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended for the first 9 chapters alone. They describe the founding basics in a clear way. The last few cover Buddhism in America. They provided some interesting insights into the Buddhism most people are exposed to today (lay person and meditation based), but can sometimes read like a list of names and places of all the different people and schools that came to states. Overall the book felt like a great introduction and it filled a lot of gaps in my knowledge. Comes with further recommended reading which I will no doubt dive into.

[Benjamin Van Vliet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part gives a very clear and well written overview of the different lineages and discussions in Buddhism - which I had been looking for for a while, and this was excellent.

Then more and more it start shifting in tone. The chapter on Zen suddenly loses all of the objectivity from before, and things get more and more messy and subjective, all ending in a kind of love letter to one specific lineage.

A pity, because the first half is really good, and I would still recommend it for that reason.

[Clio · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the summary of Buddhist beliefs in the first half of this book, but the second half, especially the name-dropping section on lineages, was pretty much a slog to read. It did reference some of the books on my to-read list and give me some perspective on where they come from but otherwise it was a waste of time for a beginner to read the second half of this book.

[Gabriela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book. The first half is fascinating and you can really learn a lot about the basics of Buddhism. The second part was irrelevant to me as it discusses Buddhism in the United States (extensively) and it’s just a really long list of names that’s nearly impossible to keep track of. Maybe those pages could have been used to expand a bit more on the first part? It’s good as an introduction.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introductory with some blandness

I don't want to give Buddhism itself a mediocre review, but this book is part fantastic, part dry and very boring. I also found the chapters on Zen to be a little disappointing, as in "we can't tell you what it is, it's beyond words". It's a book, don't be lazy, try to explain it.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. It's a great beginning for everything regarding Buddhist history and Buddhist practices. Nothing compares to being on the pillow though. I would recommend it to any person new to the practice. Very insightful and full of knowledge as well as some of the teachers of the modern area that have written more on the subject as well.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good catalog of the differences between different Buddhist schools/sects. A bit too much minutia for most readers when it comes down to the different individuals that have influenced Buddhism in the West.

[Juan Ruiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to Buddhism. It is very well structured and organized, and it is easy and fun to read. I would have loved a deeper philosophical analysis, and maybe more detailed history.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to study with both of these gentlemen.
Both were insightful and made their subjects interesting.
My only complaint if you can call it that, is that I would have included a chart denoting the different "schools," leaders, etc.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 8 chapters read like a great novel. But then I hit a wall with chapter 9 on Zen, which I struggled to understand, and like many other readers it seems, I got much less out of the remaining chapters.

[Ramana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine way to get an overall picture from the "dean of religion studies," and especially including its arrival to the West & the US in particular.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does a good job at explaining.

[Anthony Mazzorana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific book. The second half is a bit more drab but it's perfectly skimmable. Overall an excellent overview of Buddhism and its evolution.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hoped for more techniques.

Hoped for more techniques. Was a good history of Buddhism and it's spreading around the world. Worth reading it though...

[Alex Jester · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I could give half stars. Not quite a 4 but definitely not a 3. Informative and well written. Some of the history of the western proliferation of Buddhism was too dry.

[Kaitlyn Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative but difficult to read for long periods of time

[Alaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay book, I guess. It was assigned reading for the worst class I have ever taken so that's clouding my view of it.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and recognisable as having worked for NGO’s and UN myself. 13 years later it’s still difficult to fight the urge to leave to work where disaster has hit

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting analytical take on Buddhism. I wish it included more of the cultural practices, but learning about its conception and how it spread was fascinating!