What Makes You Not a Buddhist, 1st Edition

by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse

Hardcover, 2006

Collection

General & Beginners

Status

Available

Call number

KHY-202

Publication

Shambhala (2006), Edition: 1, 128 pages

Description

So you think you're a Buddhist? Think again. Tibetan Buddhist master Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, one of the most creative and innovative lamas teaching today, throws down the gauntlet to the Buddhist world, challenging common misconceptions, stereotypes, and fantasies. With wit and irony, Khyentse urges readers to move beyond the superficial trappings of Buddhism--beyond the romance with beads, incense, or exotic robes--straight to the heart of what the Buddha taught.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Meredy

Six-word review: Without the Four Seals, no Buddhist.

Extended review:

During the past 18 years I've read my way through a quantity of Buddhist literature, most of it of the Zen variety. I've seen and heard numerous discussions of the Four Noble Truths.* But this is the first time I can remember

encountering the Four Seals, to wit:

All compounded things are impermanent.
All emotions are pain.
All things have no inherent existence.
Nirvana is beyond concepts. (page 3)

The premise of this book is simply that a person who does not accept these four truths is not a Buddhist, regardless of what other practices that person might follow or ideas he or she might embrace. And a person who does is:

Once you have intellectually accepted the view, you can apply any method that deepens your understanding and realization. In other words, you can use whatever techniques or practices help you to transform your habit of thinking that things are solid into the habit of seeing them as compounded, interdependent, and impermanent. This is true Buddhist meditation and practice, not just sitting still as if you were a paperweight. (page 119--little dig at Zen there.)

Each of the four statements in turn is the subject of a chapter, followed by a conclusion that enlarges upon the subject of what Buddhism is and what it is not, as well as what prevents Buddhism from being a religion, despite some superficial trappings:

Buddhist disciplines such as maroon robes, rituals and ritual objects, incense and flowers, even monasteries, have form--they can be observed and photographed. We forget that they are a means to an end. We forget that one does not become a follower of Buddha by performing rituals or adopting disciplines such as becoming vegetarian or wearing robes. But the human mind loves rituals and symbols so much that they are almost inevitable and indispensable. Tibetan sand mandalas and Japanese Zen gardens are beautiful; they can inspire us and even be a means to understanding the truth. But the truth itself is neither beautiful nor not beautiful. (page 121)

For me, the most arresting and valuable passage is the one on page 115 that includes the statement: "when you see that you will never come to the end of problem solving, that is the beginning of the search for inner truth."

Sometimes all it takes for something to sink in is to hear it a different way. For me this presentation was a different way and one that served to open my mind a little more. I can't say that I am yet in full possession of the Buddhist view or even close to it, and I may never reach that point; but I don't think I understand less than I did before I read this book.

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*The Four Noble Truths (approximately):

Life is suffering.
The origin of suffering is desire (craving).
There is an end to suffering.
The Eightfold Path is the way.

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LibraryThing member Sorrel

What Makes You Not a Buddhist is a very readable and accessible introduction to the core of the Buddhist philosophy. It is structured in four parts corresponding to four (fundamental) seals of Buddhism. It turns out that why I am not a Buddhist is in fact four-fold: I didn’t identify with any of

them. While this book was written in a mostly engaging and interesting way, the author’s pop culture references were sometimes a bit cringe-worthy, and will probably date badly.

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LibraryThing member lente

I did not like it. The message of the book is not at all clear. On the one hand the author seem to promote the four dharma seals as the core of buddhism, yet at the same time he refers to many other teachings throughout the book. To make matters worse sometimes these seem to contradict,

unfortunately no convincing explanation is given for these contradictions. At the end it becomes clear why this is the case, the author is a teacher in the tibetan tradition of mahamundra, which I personally feel is a rather magic based and authoritarian teaching, and confusing as hell.

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LibraryThing member AndresF

"What is a Buddhist? some one who understand and lives the truth of impermanence".

This straight forward books takes you from the basic principles of Buddhism and encourages
you to analyze its roots and share the view that far from the shaved heads, robes, meditation and peaceful smiles, Buddhism has

a more practical approach to our everyday existence.

The book is divided in four main chapters explaining the "four seals" or truths followed by all Buddhists:

All compounded things are impermanent.
All emotions are pain.
All things have no inherent existence.
Nirvana is beyond concepts.

Personally I would recommend this book to anyone with the slightest interest in knowing a little more
about what people really talk about when Buddhism comes up. Give it a try.

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LibraryThing member bordercollie

All things are impermanent; all emotions bring pain and suffering; all phenomena are illlusory and empty; and enlightenment is beyond concepts, release from delusion. If you can remember these four seals, you're a Buddhist. If not, no amount of ritual or vegetarianism will make you one. Inspiringly

well written by the western-raised film director ("Travelers and Magicians") whose familiarity with Tibetan and western culture enables him to explain principles in language that resonates with Americans.

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LibraryThing member Heduanna

After attending Sangha most Monday nights for the past couple of years, people are starting to assume that I'm Buddhist, and I really don't consider myself to be, so I got this book looking for arguments to support my position. And I really didn't get that: I got a very readable treatise on the

Four Noble Truths and how anyone who accepts them is a Buddhist, regardless of pretty much anything else. Including eating meat. (Not that he encourages that, but he seems to put it a bit more in the 'trappings' category than in the 'matter of faith' category.)

But then, in the very last paragraph, he writes that anyone who kills so much as a single insect, or who hears of one who calls themself 'Buddhist' and kills so much as an insect and does not protest, is no Buddhist at all. Which would rule out all but a few people alive today, I think. And, since I believe the recent campaign to eradicate malaria, which I'm certain involved killing lots of mosquitoes, was an excellent idea, I can never be a Buddhist. And I'm OK with that. But I do find it to be a bizarre turn in the text.

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LibraryThing member robinmusubi

Initially I thought this book might try to be a gatekeeper of Buddhism, as the title suggests. However, I believe that this is the book to recommend to people interested in understanding the core philosophy of Buddhism, the "Buddhism in a nutshell." No meditation or mindfulness practices are

described, only the four truths of Dharma, in a concise yet thorough manner.

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