buddhism

This is a remarkable little book...and quite handy in the confusion of today's world. It brings light into our problems with 101 answers that make a lot of sense. It also makes us look into ourselves, and helps bring out the patience and compassion that is in our hearts. Each question, whether about road rage, lust, burnout, or noisy neighbors, etc., is followed by a short quote from scripture or someone like the Dalai Lama, and then followed by several sentences from the author. Most of it applies to the negative situations we find on a daily basis, and gives the simple solutions to deal with them. A small portion of the answer to "What would Buddha do to win over an audience ?" is "When we tell it like it is, it will bear good fruit in all people, though we might have to wait awhile". Franz Metcalf tells it like it is !

My impression is that Buddha would have been in favor of anything that might help alleviate suffering in this world - and this book does just that. Its charm lies in the fact that it focuses not on dry dogma or meditation techniques, but on simple questions, such as how the Buddha might have dealt with that barking dog next door that JUST WON'T SHUT UP! (By the way, the author doesn't deal with the noisome problem as well as The Enlightened One probably would have!) This is a delightul book, and a deceptively breezy read.

My only quibble was with a few grammatically-challenged chapter titles. But these are surely attributable to the publisher rather than Metcalf, whose prose is otherwise impeccable.

A great little appetizer, filled with flavourful pieces of advice and snippets of common sense that we can all use in our daily dealings with the world, most of which are taken from Buddhist sacred texts.

One wonderful example of this is, "What would Buddha do about that coffee habit?", to which the response is: "Our country is full of sickly-looking, skinny people, just because we don't drink tea. Whenever people feel weak, they should drink tea (Kissa Yojoki)". In that simple piece of advice, we're told both a common sense and medicinal answer to that coffee habit (the author tells us that tea is healthier than coffee, which is truthful). The author expands on the passage, giving a short interpretation of the lesson including "...When we have to have something, the truth is that thing has us. Ask yourself who is master, who or these things you 'need'. If it's not you, something is wrong". It's passages such as this that make us stop, and think "oh yeah...".

To a serious scholar of Buddhism, this book may lack substance and true contextual meaning, and may leave the some readers gasping like a fish out of water, reaching for a more substantial main course. However, it does successfully bring Buddhist teachings into our daily lives, and can be a great tool for living a simpler, better life.