What Buddhists Believe

by Elizabeth J. Harris

Based on interviews with Buddhists living in both the West and the East, this is an accessible overview of the history, beliefs, practices, and rituals of the Buddhist tradition.

Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Joseph Chandra]

I have read a few writings by this author. She tries to please those Buddhists in Sri Lanka who rewarded or awarded her with a PhD. Her writings are very shallow and contain anti-Hindu and anti-Tamil elements that are interspersed in a subtle way.
She was a propagandist of Sinhala Buddhism in Europe and uncritically justified the murder, mayhem and mutilation of Tamil women and children by the blood-thirsty monks from the many Buddhist political camps in Sri Lanka. It is one thing to write about the different belief-systems in Buddhism
and completely another thing to write on "what Buddhists believe?". Many Buddhists believe in sheer nonsense as Buddhism, e.g. Many Sri Lankan Buddhists believe that killing infidels, i.e. Christians, Hindus etc. in their thousands is equivalent to killing only half a human being - Elizabeth Harris' professor Walpola Rahula Thero--a warrior Buddhist monk justified this in his book. Elizabeth Harris perhaps accepts this as an important aspect of Buddhist believe.
Her book is certainly not a "good read".

[Talent · Rating 2 out of 5]

In terms of the writing and scope, this book is not the best "overview" of Buddhism. It is certainly journalism in that it documents people's beliefs rather extensively and presents the individual understanding of Buddhism in thematic style. However, this leads to plenty of flaws - - it is not a scholarly systematic theology by any means. Also, it is quite repetitive.

Secondly, you can clearly infer an agenda from the authors and the interviewees to present themselves and their religion in the best light possible. Being based on interviews, it is light on actual facts and objective analyses, or historical context. There is alot of talk. From a journalistic standpoint this non critical stance is poor journalism, but it is also unhelpful for people who are actually trying to understand Buddhism to present a one-sided story. The only exception to this is the part in women and Buddhism where Buddhist practices are somewhat challenged, but again, apologized for.

Thirdly, in trying to synthesize the various views of Buddhism, you get contradictory opinions which get overlooked or plastered over. There is an unrealistic picture of harmony, peace, and congruity of belief that doesn't actually exist in modern Buddhism, especially in traditionally Buddhist countries like Thailand.

Also, attempting to paint Buddhism as logical and scientific in contrast to theistic religions fails because Buddhism has dogmatic rules and basic requirements of belief, e.g. a belief in the need for salvation from the cycle of rebirth, karma, and best of all, most westerners interviewed actually had mystical conversion experiences. This is perhaps the most contradictory aspect of the book.

All in all, there is some good material about Buddhist beliefs in a few chapters of this book, but be prepared for a lot of repetition. Don't expect a systematic or critical explanation, but expect a lot of rationalization and harmonization of diverse and incongruent beliefs in a diverse and ancient religion. This book is a flawed approach to a great world religion and I do not recommend spending much time with it.