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The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture
From Greek kings to nineteenth-century adventurers, from missionaries to monks, the encounter of Buddhism and the West is filled with intriguing personalities in Awaking of the West.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 28, 2015
"The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture", by Stephen Batchelor, is a book whose basic thesis...well, doesn't exist. There is basically no thesis. How Zen.
I had previously read (and liked) his book "Buddhism Without Beliefs", a book which was recommended to me by Susan Blackmore (in a personal email, which I treasure like the geek I most certainly am). I expected to like "The Awakening of the West". I began it with interest, and read it through to the end of its nearly 400 pages. I found it deeply unsatisfying.
It may be that I had the wrong expectation, and you can draw what Buddhist conclusions you like about the wisdom of being dissatisfied with the way the world turns out when it doesn't match what you had in mind beforehand. But, you know, I expect a book to have a point, and if Batchelor had one, I couldn't find it.
In some ways, it appeared that what I had stumbled upon was Batchelor's notes for a book. We are told anecdote after anecdote about a long parade of characters who resulted from the encounter of the West with Asian Buddhism. Anecdote after anecdote after anecdote after...until I was ready for the introductory exposition to end and the actual book to begin. It was like reading a book that went straight from the introduction to the appendices.
It may be that my reaction was more or less the same as Batchelor's; perhaps he found his topic too big and far-flung to throw a net of pattern around, in order to have something coherent to say. In which case, I have to say, the thing to do would be to bite off a smaller piece of it. A mountain of data does not make science, a mountain of dialogue does not make a play, and a mountain of anecdotes does not make a history. There may be a great book to be written about how the post-Enlightenment West and Asian Buddhism regard each other, and this may provide much of the raw material needed for one. But this, isn't it.
I have just looked up his bibliography, and found that "Buddhism Without Beliefs", his book which I had read previously and liked, was written four years after this one. So maybe that was the book that "The Awakening of the West" was preparing him to write. My advice to others would be to skip this one and go straight to that.
I had previously read (and liked) his book "Buddhism Without Beliefs", a book which was recommended to me by Susan Blackmore (in a personal email, which I treasure like the geek I most certainly am). I expected to like "The Awakening of the West". I began it with interest, and read it through to the end of its nearly 400 pages. I found it deeply unsatisfying.
It may be that I had the wrong expectation, and you can draw what Buddhist conclusions you like about the wisdom of being dissatisfied with the way the world turns out when it doesn't match what you had in mind beforehand. But, you know, I expect a book to have a point, and if Batchelor had one, I couldn't find it.
In some ways, it appeared that what I had stumbled upon was Batchelor's notes for a book. We are told anecdote after anecdote about a long parade of characters who resulted from the encounter of the West with Asian Buddhism. Anecdote after anecdote after anecdote after...until I was ready for the introductory exposition to end and the actual book to begin. It was like reading a book that went straight from the introduction to the appendices.
It may be that my reaction was more or less the same as Batchelor's; perhaps he found his topic too big and far-flung to throw a net of pattern around, in order to have something coherent to say. In which case, I have to say, the thing to do would be to bite off a smaller piece of it. A mountain of data does not make science, a mountain of dialogue does not make a play, and a mountain of anecdotes does not make a history. There may be a great book to be written about how the post-Enlightenment West and Asian Buddhism regard each other, and this may provide much of the raw material needed for one. But this, isn't it.
I have just looked up his bibliography, and found that "Buddhism Without Beliefs", his book which I had read previously and liked, was written four years after this one. So maybe that was the book that "The Awakening of the West" was preparing him to write. My advice to others would be to skip this one and go straight to that.
November 16, 2015
Along with Rick Fields' How The Swans Came To The Lake, this book deserves to be on any practitioner's book shelf. Whereas Fields' book details in a more or less chronological narrative how buddhism came to the United States, Stephen Batchelor's The Awakening of the West, as it's subtitle declares, offers a mandala-like study of "The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture," specifically European Western Culture.
Batchelor's text has a sprawling, sometimes confusing plethora of names, places and inter-relational narratives, eschewing the fairly linear narrative of Fields' book. And Batchelor offers more critique and analysis, which makes this book even more worthwhile reading as his perspective is engaging and thought provoking.
Indeed, if Batchelor's ruminations about "The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture" were excerpted from the history and presented as a separate volume, I'd give it a full five-stars!
Batchelor's text has a sprawling, sometimes confusing plethora of names, places and inter-relational narratives, eschewing the fairly linear narrative of Fields' book. And Batchelor offers more critique and analysis, which makes this book even more worthwhile reading as his perspective is engaging and thought provoking.
Indeed, if Batchelor's ruminations about "The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture" were excerpted from the history and presented as a separate volume, I'd give it a full five-stars!
January 3, 2009
A very good historical examination of the repeated and intriguing encounters between east and west. A good introduction to Buddhism and a very valuable reminder of inter-religious influences.
October 30, 2023
A very insightful presentation of the different branches of Buddhism and their impact on western culture!
July 30, 2021
I pick up this book at a bus stop just because it was written in Italian and I was learning the language. For that purpose, it worked fine. I was indifferent to the book's content, but I enjoyed it a bit after finishing it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews