Reviews for Studies in Japanese Buddhism

The average rating for Studies in Japanese Buddhism based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-04-21 00:00:00 Joseph Malatesta Firstly, I should say that Sulak Sivaraksa is out there doing the important work -- namely, speaking truth to a calcified state Buddhism that by and large only seeks to reproduce power, both its own and the power of the state, with its associated ruling-class and military hangers-on. And yet as for his manifesto... something's missing. Some of his goals are noble -- namely, locally led development initiatives that actually meet local needs instead of being imposed top-down by Bangkok bureaucrats, several of which he gives excellent examples of. And yet the wholesale dismissal of "development" (vague term) as being technocratic rather than humanistic seems to shut down wide avenues of human liberation, and his favoring of organic and tradition-based relations (despite his protestations that he prefers to look forward rather than backwards) seems to play into the hand of those who seek to reaffirm brutal hierarchies. I recognize that he's got his heart in the right place, but I'm a little too Marxist to be on board with the program.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-03-28 00:00:00 Kenneth Greer A spot-on critique of [global] capitalism and Western cultural imperialism, Seeds of Peace offers wise counsel to those seeking alternatives to a world-view rooted in the "three poisons: greed, hatred, and delusion."