Buddha at the Apocalypse: Awakening from a Culture of Destruction

by Kurt Spellmeyer, Robert Thurman (Foreword)

Timely and audacious, Buddha at the Apocalypse challenges us to look directly at the devastating assumptions underlying the very mechanisms of the modern world - and offers a clarion call to awaken from a pervasive culture of destruction into a natural, sustainable, and sane peace. Kurt Spellmeyer references the Bible, popular culture, Zen, and Western philosophy in addressing two how did we get here, and what can we do now. An answer to pervasive cynicism and decline, Buddha at the Apocalypse shows how to accept and connect with reality in dark times.

Genres: Buddhism, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first part of this book was disappointing, and I almost stopped reading it. I'm glad that I kept with it though, since the second part is much longer and *much* better! The author's premise is that western culture suffers from a particular view of time (apocalyptic) which has led us to nearly destroy the world. The first part of the book summarizes how this has been true through history, starting with the Old Testament and stretching through Stalin. The second part of the book contrasts the Buddhist world view with the western and explains why the former would be far healthier for us. Reading about Buddhism as directly compared to the prevailing cultural modes was much more illuminating (at least for me) than reading about Buddhism in isolation. I think that I gained a much deeper understanding of some of the concepts, and will be mulling over ideas from this book for quite some time!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basically examining our cynical, ironic and nihilistic age--that's focused on decline, linear progression, acceleration and apocalypse and pointing out an alternative through more cyclical and less epic lens of Buddhism. It talks about Marxism, the environmental destructiveness of Christianity/Capitalism.

It's kind of "Let's Cancel the Apocalypse" talk, which is a nice change of pace for right now.

[Tom Booker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The central idea of this book is fascinating and very important. In terms of a critique of Christianity, it's a poor man's Genealogy of Morality (so still very good). I agree that we need to question the idea of progress and the apocalypse, and Buddhism offers a good philosophical basis and system of ethics to counter these ideas.

However, I don't give this 5 stars because I think the critiques of Christianity are not entirely fair or accurate. You can cherry pick anything from the Bible to support your ideas. Ultimately I will say any critique of a religion that is not your own is going to be over-simplified and misrepresent the religion in some way. Think of Richard Dawkins and his terrible books attacking religion. If I were to write this book, I would have focused much more on the Buddhism.

[George Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent critique of American culture and nice description of Zen as an alternative.

[Todd Mayville · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2010/0...