What the Buddha Thought. By Richard Gombrich. Equinox Publishing, 2009. 240 pages. $24.95.
摘要
We have come to expect in the work of Richard Gombrich insight born of serious reflection grounded in masterful scholarship. We have also come to expect lucid prose that elucidates obscure and difficult issues through transparent, yet dramatic, observations that leave us wondering why nobody saw it, or put it, that way before. In What the Buddha Thought, these expectations are once again met. There is much to like about this book, and the neophyte and seasoned scholar alike will learn from it. Many of us in Buddhist Studies will find ourselves using Gombrich's readings and formulations in our own teaching, and will find that our own thought is deeply influenced by the ideas in this volume, as many of us have been influenced by Gombrich's earlier work throughout our careers. Though I will note some shortcomings in this volume, my critical remarks should be taken in the context of admiration for the work as a whole.
The imperfections of this volume stem from two fundamental problems. First, the book has a hard time deciding whether it is an introductory text meant to explicate the broad outlines of early Buddhist thought for the relatively naive reader (and hence aimed perhaps at both the popular and the first-year textbook markets) or a polemical scholarly text joining ongoing methodological, hermeneutical, and exegetical debates about Buddhist doctrine and Buddhist Studies. Gombrich notes this dual purpose in the first full paragraph of the preface (vii). But to note this tension is not to resolve it. The discussion moves back and forth between these two levels, and the polemical program detracts from the admirable clarity and directness of the larger part of the book, which is an immensely successful introduction to Buddhist doctrine. Moreover, these professional jousts are in general so brief and oblique …
