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In Basic Teachings of the Buddha, Glenn Wallis selects sixteen essential dialogues drawn from more than five thousand Pali-dialect suttas of the Buddhist canon. The result is a vibrant introductory guide to studying Buddhist thought, applying its principles to everyday life, and gaining a deeper understanding of Buddhist themes in modern literature. Focusing on the most crucial topics for today’s readers, Wallis presents writings that address modern psychological, religious, ethical, and philosophical concerns. This practical, inspiring, and engaging volume provides an overview of the history of Buddhism and an illuminating analysis of the core writings that personalizes the suttas for each reader.
“Glenn Wallis brings wisdom and compassion to this work of scholarship. Everyone should read this book.”
–Christopher Queen, Harvard University
“A valuable sourcebook with a good selection of the fundamental suttas enhanced by an eloquent introduction and comprehensive notes–altogether a very useful text.”
–Peter Matthiessen (Roshi), author of The Snow Leopard and Nine-Headed Dragon River
“Glenn Wallis’s new and accessible translations of some of the Buddha’s lectures to his original students, along with Wallis’s elegant guide to the texts, gives twenty-first-century readers in the modern West a fresh chance to learn from this teacher.”
–Charles Hallisey, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Sales Rank: #430249 in Books
- Published on: 2007-08-14
- Released on: 2007-08-14
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.95" h x .51" w x 5.18" l, .38 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 240 pages
About the Author
Siddhartha Gautama (Pali: Siddhatta Gotama) (ca. 480-400 B.C.E.), widely known as “the Buddha” (“the awakened one”), was an Indian mendicant whose lucid instructions on the overcoming of human unease form the basis of Buddhism.
Glenn Wallis has a Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Harvard. He is an associate professor of religion at the University of Georgia and teaches applied meditation at the Won Institute of Graduate Studies, near Philadelphia. Wallis is the author of Mediating the Power of Buddhas and the translator and editor of the Modern Library edition of The Dhammapada.
Excerpt. � Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Sutta 1
The Hawk
Saku.nagghi Sutta; Sa.myuttanik�aya 5.47.6
ji
The Buddha related this story to a group of his followers.
Once, in the distant past, a hawk suddenly swooped down and seized a quail. As the quail was being carried away by the hawk, it lamented, “How unfortunate I am, what little merit I possess to have wandered out of my natural habitat into a foreign domain. If I had wandered within my native domain today, within my own ancestral, natural habitat, this hawk would certainly not have been a match for me in battle.”
“What is your native domain, quail? What is your own ancestral, natural habitat?” asked the hawk.
The quail answered, “That clod of earth freshly tilled with a plow.”
Then the hawk, not boasting about its own strength, not mentioning its own strength, released the quail, saying, “Go, quail; but having gone there, you cannot escape me.”
Then the quail, having gone to the clod of earth freshly tilled with a plow, climbed onto the large clod of earth and, standing there, said to the hawk, “Come get me now, hawk, come get me now!”
Now the hawk, not boasting about its own strength, not mentioning its own strength, folded up its wings and suddenly swooped down on the quail. When the quail fully realized that the hawk was coming, it got inside that clod of earth. And the hawk, striking against it, suffered a blow to its chest.
So it is when someone wanders out of his or her natural habitat into a foreign domain. Therefore, do not wander out of your natural habitat into a foreign domain. Death will gain access [1.1]* to the person who has wandered out of his or her natural habitat into a foreign domain, death will gain a footing.
Now, what is for you a foreign domain, outside of your natural habitat? It is the fivefold realm of sensual pleasure [1.2]. Which five? Forms perceptible to the eye, which are pleasing, desirable, charming, agreeable, arousing desire, and enticing; sounds perceptible to the ear, which are pleasing, desirable, charming, agreeable, arousing desire, and enticing; scents perceptible to the nose, which are pleasing, desirable, charming, agreeable, arousing desire, and enticing; tastes perceptible to the tongue, which are pleasing, desirable, charming, agreeable, arousing desire, and enticing; tactile objects perceptible to the body, which are pleasing, desirable, charming, agreeable, arousing desire, and enticing. This is for you a foreign domain, outside of your natural habitat. Death will not gain access to the person who lives within his or her native domain; within his or her own ancestral, natural habitat, death will not gain a footing. Now, what is your native domain, your own ancestral, natural habitat? It is the foundation of present-moment awareness [1.3] in four areas [1.4]. What are the four areas? Now, being ardent, fully aware, and mindful, and having put down longing and discontentment toward the world, live observing the body in and as the body, live observing feelings in and as feelings, live observing mind in and as mind, and live observing mental qualities and phenomena in and as mental qualities and phenomena.
ji
This is your native domain, your own ancestral, natural habitat.
* Numbers refer to notes in the Guide.
Most helpful customer reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful.
A fantastic introduction to Buddhism.
By Hard Drive
This book provides an excellent introduction to the writings of Buddha. Mr. Wallis has selected 16 passages that provide insight into the core teachings of Buddhism. I purchased this book because I simply wanted to learn more about Buddhism, and found that it has had a positive impact on my life.
Wallis writes carefully, and his notes are full of discussions about the terminology used in the book, and the origins of the words themselves. He has the linguistic care of a well trained philosopher, and the insight and heart of a person who seems to truly love his subject. His writing is warm and well crafted.
A word of warning: This is not a `For Dummies' cartoon book. Wallis's writing dives deeply into the meaning of the passages, and the analysis gets heady at times. I found myself reading some of the notes twice to grasp what he was getting at. But that's what makes the book so good!
I highly recommend this book if you would like to learn about Buddhism. It makes a great starting point.
25 of 29 people found the following review helpful.
A Great Place to Start, Gives a Solid Foundation for Further Study
By B. L. Cloud
Since someone wrote a wildly inaccurate review and gave the book only two starts, as a way of setting the record straight, I felt compelled to write a more nuanced review.
First of all, a word about "original" or "basic" Buddhism. Some scholars (I'm thinking of Donald S. Lopez in particular) would argue that the idea of an "original" or "basic" Buddhism is a by-product of colonialism. When Westerners discovered Buddhism, it had for the most part died out in India. Rather than looking at how Buddhism was actually practiced by followers in, say, Sri Lanka, Western scholars created a supposed "original" Buddhism based solely on texts that they exhumed. These texts were shipped back to Britain, and most scholars never visited the countries where Buddhism was practiced. In fact, Henry Steel Olcott, a leading early Western proponent/expositor of Buddhism, went to Sri Lanka, basically telling the locals that they had adulterated the original religion, himself believing that Buddhism had no ritual or dogma. I could go on and on, but briefly, an example of a dogmatic belief in Buddhism would be Mount Mehru. In Buddhist cosmology, at the center of the universe is a huge mountain, Mt. Mehru, which is surrounded by four islands, our world being the southern island. In an 1873 debate in Sri Lanka between Gunananda (a monk) and Rev. da Silva, Rev. da Silva stated that science had never discovered such a mountain, and so Buddhism could not be true. Gunananda cited a book by Richard James Morrison (now obscure) which "refuted" Newton's view of the universe. In a similar vein, Tibetan Buddhists refused to believe that the world was round (until the 20th century), because the Buddha said that the world was flat. Wallis states in his introduction that the Buddha was an "ordinary human being," but Tibetan Buddhists, and certainly early Therevadans, believed (still believe?) that the Buddha was omniscient and had supernatural powers.
My impression is that most modern Buddhists have jettisoned belief in Mt. Mehru, and no doubt you yourself might consider it non-essential, but it's importance to Buddhist belief was, up until the 20th century, almost equivalent to the Christian/Jewish creation account in Genesis. You personally may or may not believe that the Buddha was omniscient or had supernatural powers. My point is, there's perhaps nothing wrong with changing the religion to make it relevant to your own life, but you should definitely be aware that that is what you are doing. Later "accretions," such as a belief in Bodhisattvas (savior Buddhas) are just as legitimate as any supposed "original" Buddhism. Read "The Bodhicaryavatara" (a.k.a. "The Way of the Bodhisattva") written by the Indian monk Santideva in the 8th century, and you'll find that Buddhism *can* lean more towards the supernatural than Wallis's book suggests. And yet, I should say that I really do love "Basic Teachings".
Okay, so I probably went on too long about that.
Given that the Pali canon is at least 50 times longer than the Christian Bible, it is remarkable that Wallis only provides 60 pages worth of suttas. That means 150 pages are commentary. Honestly, at first, I found this to be disappointing. But once you read the texts and commentaries, it all makes sense. If these are the only Buddhist Scriptures you ever read, at least you'll fully understand them.
The way this book is organized, is that the introductions to the suttas and the notes are placed in the back of the book, which makes for a cleaner text if you felt inclined to read straight through the suttas. Personally, I would have preferred that the introductions were at the beginning of each sutta, but perhaps that's just my own personal taste. Wallis's notes lucidly explain why he chose to translate a word a particular way, and really, he's basically evangelical, explaining things as if he expects that you're interested in practicing Buddhism. Many scholars will attempt to sound objective in spite of their personal leanings, but Wallis's non-objectivity is both refreshing and extraordinarily helpful. Wallis's notes contain practical and nuanced insights about the texts that are clearly the result of years of long thought.
To me, this book was like reading light philosophy, a bit easier than reading dialogues of Socrates. The only difficult portion for me was the discussion of "skandhas," a.k.a. the constituent parts that make up our "self". Buddhism claims that the self is an illusion, and that our "self" is actually a series of mental processes. If you're reading this book, you might wonder "Why is so much time spent on this? Why not just say that there is no self, that there is only a series of mental processes, and leave it at that?" The answer to why so much time is spent on it, is because it is counter-intuitive to us Westerners. To take a parallel example, you might hear about Einstein's theory of relativity and *say* that you agree with it, but deep down, in your lived experience, you really believe in Newton's, or even Aristotle's, view of the universe. So, a physics teacher would devote a lot time giving examples to get his students to really believe (i.e. understand) that the new physics is true. Buddhism is very much dependent on the belief in constituent mental processes, and if you don't truly, deep down believe in "skandhas," you won't get much out of practicing Buddhist meditation.
Why is this book perhaps the best place to start? Well, for instance, you might be considering buying Donald S. Lopez's "Buddhist Scriptures" published by Penguin Classics. Lopez's anthology is good as a "Buddhism sampler," but he makes no attempt to summarize the Buddha's life, or discuss any common threads. Basically he says, "I'm not even going to try to summarize Buddhism, just read the texts and come to your own conclusion," which is extremely unhelpful for a beginning study of Buddhism. Wallis's distillation, while having a Western empirical bias, is better than no distillation at all. Or, you might think of reading the recently published Oxford World's Classics "Sayings of the Buddha," translated and edited by Rupert Gethin. Gethin is too faithful to the repetition of the original scriptures, so that for a beginner it's a bit long-winded, and Wallis's abridged excerpts are preferred, especially for a beginning study. I mean, you'll eventually want to read Gethin's anthology, but not at the outset, I don't think.
The great strength of this book is that it gives you a framework, a framework that will be of benefit to you as you read more texts and pursue further study. When I get more money I intend to give copies of this book to my friends, which is probably the highest endorsement anyone can give a book. After you read "Basic Teachings," I highly recommend purchasing the audio recording of "The Way of the Bodhisattva" by Shantideva. Wulstan Fletcher gives an inspired reading, and it is one of the most poetic scriptures I've ever heard, ever. Really beautiful. After reading Wallis's "Basic Teachings," I highly recommend reading "In the Buddha's Words," translated by Bhikku Bodhi, and published by Wisdom Publications. Less commentary, and more scriptures.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Nothing quite like it
By Ed
Unlike the myriad other books published under the premise of being a basic introduction to Buddhism, Wallis' cuts to the very heart of the Buddha's teaching by focusing on the Buddha's own words through referencing the Nikayas. In doing so, this introductory book emphasizes the interface of theoria and praxis whereas most spend undue time on theoria, as if there were some essence of Buddhism to be grasped through words and ideas.
Wallis makes his case for the heart of Buddhism by drawing from 16 carefully selected suttas that delineate the steps along the path of liberation. The strength of this method comes from systematically presenting what the Buddha himself had to say about each of these stages. It seems that most introductory books summarize Buddhism leaving the reader with a vague sense of unease and disappointment wondering just where and how the Buddha actually taught these messages. Leaving the story telling to the Buddha himself I found to be very effective.
This books is also arranged in such a way that mirrors self-cultivation (bhavana), beginning with the mind of incorrect discernment (avidya) and ending with the clear-seeing, awakened mind. This strikes me as slightly analogous to the layout of the Ten Ox-Herding Paintings, to a degree. But instead of ten frames, Wallis uses six sections, citing 16 suttas to do so. I find this intuitive layout to be exceedingly powerful for articulating the Buddhist path.
So that a potential reader can get a better ideas as to what he/she is getting into, I've provided here a brief thematic outline of Wallis' work. The first section of this work is called "habitat" which draws from "the hawk" (sakunagghi sutta) which demonstrates that we are not actually in our original abode. As mentioned, this begins with the deluded mind suggesting the very natural and intuitive beginnings of self-cultivation.
The second section, "de-orientation," relies upon the famous "a talk with Malukya" (culamalukya sutta), "threefold knowledge" (tevijja sutta), and "discourse in Kesamutta" (Kesamutti sutat). This section explains the source of our infatuation with the unreal and the means to overcome it, which is knowing for ourselves.
The third section, "re-orientation," draws from "the all" (sabba sutta), "ball of foam" (phenapindupama sutta), "evidence of selflessness" (anattalakkhana sutta), and "the burden" (bhara sutta). This section emphasizes the immediacy of our original domain, which is the sensorium, and how much of what we assume or infer to be real is actually ephemeral and an utter mis-investment of energy.
The fourth, "map," draws from the "turning of the wheel" (dhammacakkapavattana sutta) and "Gotama's discourse" (Gotama sutta). This point introduces the "preeminent realities," which is Wallis' de-pretense-ified translation of the Four Noble Truths. This, Wallis explains, is simply the way reality functions and as such is in no need of the title "Truth with a capital T."
The fifth section, "destination," draws from "destination" (parayana sutta), "quenched" (nibbuta sutta), "signs of the fabricated" (sankhatalakkhana sutta) and "signs of the unfabricated" asankhatalakkhana sutta). It explains the destination of the Buddhist path, which is leaving behind identity with the specious and identifying with the real, which is the unfabricated, the immediate, the impermanent and interconnectedness.
The last section is "going" which draws from the buddha's two explicit suttas for the instruction of meditation, which are the anapanasati sutta and the satipatthana sutta. These are the means for engaging in the dynamism of the real through very basic and straightforward attention to the breath.
Overall, I find the method employed to teach Buddhism in this book to be extremely useful as it centralizes praxis and the lived application of Buddhism, at all times tying Buddhist fundamentals to lived experience and using the Buddha's very words (albeit translated into the English) to do so. I do see room for some to be overwhelmed by how this book will ask the reader to think about Buddhism and the world in general as the introspective and psychological nature of this book (and what the Buddha taught in general) makes it difficult to hold the material at arm's length for a "proper" objective study. Here, the reader is really the topic of the book ("To study the Buddha Way is to study the self."), so it may be prudent to read this book alongside of something a little more light and less existential.
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