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What The Buddha Never Taught: A 'Behind The Robes" Account Of Life In A Thai Forest Monastery (1990)

by Tim Ward(Favorite Author)

3.91 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1782792031 (ISBN13: 9781782792031)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Changemakers Books

review 1: I found this an engaging and easy to read account of time spent in a Thai Buddhist monastery by a western Christian. For me it highlighted how wise religious teaching, when surrounded by structures set out to preserve individual interpretations can lead to perversions of the teachings and often to hypocrisy and strivings for power. The downfall of most organized religions, in my experience and opinion.
review 2: This book in and of itself raised some very interesting questions about what it means to be a monk, and whether or not it would be more useful if monks were out in the world, rather than hidden away in monasteries. However, I was put off by the personality of the author. He comes across as something of a know-it-all. I think it must have been quite ann... moreoying to be around him in Thailand: the perpetual cynic who tells everyone that he thinks what they're doing is wrong...and by extension, he is right.I felt like much of his criticism was in fact cultural, aimed at a society that he is not from and perhaps doesn't understand all that well. I also thought the dialogue was often speech-like and less effective than it could have been. I did appreciate his descriptions of monastic life and I'm certain I could not have been as stoic as he was about the scorpions and mosquitoes. But I wish he'd bit his tongue a little more and observed without quite so much judgment. The book would have been better for it. less

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