Considerations
of 61 famous Metaphysics scholars
1. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788- 1860), [German
Philosopher]:
If
I were to take the results of my philosophy as a yardstick of the truth, I
would concede to Buddhism the pre- eminence of all religions of the world.
[Arthur
Schopenhauer (1788- 1860) You may observe that faith and knowledge are related
as the scales of a balance; when the one goes up, the other goes down,
The fruits of Christianity were religious wars, butcheries,
crusades, inquisitions, extermination of the natives in America, and
the introduction of African slaves in their place
The Catholic religion is an order to obtain heaven by
begging, because it would be too troublesome to earn it. The priest are the
brokers for it
Any dogma, no matter how extravagantly absurd, inculcated in
childhood, is sure to retain its hold for life.
2. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825- 1895), English
scientist:
Buddhism
is a system which knows no God in the Western sense, which denies a soul to man
and counts the belief in immortality a blunder, which bids men to look to
nothing but their own efforts for salvation, which in its original purity knew
nothing of the vows of obedience and never sought the aid of the secular arm,
yet spread over a considerable portion of the world with marvellous rapidity,
and is still the dominant creed of a large fraction of mankind.
Thomas
Henry Huxley:
The dogma of infallibility of the Bible is no more self-
evident than is that of the infallibility of the popes
From being a slave of
the papacy [a catholic] the intellect was to become the serf of the Bible [a
protestant
The ecclesiastical system is the deadly enemy of science.
Evolution excludes creation and all other kinds of supernatural interventions
Skepticism is the highest duty and blind faith the one
unpardonable sin.
3. Sir Edwin Arnold (1832- 1904), Poet laureate
of England:
In point of age, therefore, most other creeds are youthful
compared with this venerable religion, Buddhism, which has in it the eternity
of a universal hope, the immortality of a boundless love, an indestructible
element of faith in final good, and the proudest assertion ever made of human
freedom.
4. William James (I842- I9I0), [American
philosopher and psychologist]:
I
am ignorant of Buddhism and speak under correction, and merely in order the
better to describe my general point of view; but as apprehend the Buddhistic
doctrine of karma, I agree in principle with that.
5. T.W.Rhys Davids (1843- 1922), [Professor,
the first person to hold a chair in Comparative Religion in a British
university]:
It
cannot be denied that there is a real beauty of an Oriental kind in the various
expressions which the Buddhists use; and that there was real grounds for the
enthusiasm which gave them birth. Never in the history of the world had such a
scheme been put forth, so free from any superhuman agency, so independent of so
even antagonistic to the belief in a soul, the belief in God, and the hope of a
future life...
Buddhist
or non- Buddhist, I have examined every one of the great religious systems of
the world, in none of them I have found anything to surpass, in beauty and
comprehensiveness, the Noble Eightfold Path and the Four Truths of the Buddha.
For
the first time in human history the Buddha admonished, entreated and appealed
to people not to hurt a living being, not to offer prayer of praise or
sacrifice to gods. With all the eloquence as his command the exalted one
vehemently proclaimed that gods are also in direction need of salvation of themselves.
There
is no record known to me in the whole of the long history of Buddhism
throughout the many centuries where its followers have been for such lengthened
periods supreme, of any persecution by the Buddhists of the followers of any
other faith.
6. Rabindranath Tagore (1861- 1941), (Indian poet
and educationalist.Winner of The Nobel prize.):
Buddhism
was the first spiritual force, known to us in history, which drew close
together such a large number of races separated by most difficult barriers of
distance, by difference of language and custom, by various degrees and
divergent types of civilization. It had its motive power, neither in
international commerce, nor in empire building, nor in a scientific curiosity,
nor in a migrative impulse to occupy fresh territory. It was a purely
disinterested effort to help mankind forward to its final goal.
7. Alfred North Whitehead (1861- 1947),
[British
mathematician and philosopher]:
Buddhism
is the most colossal example in the history of applied metaphysics.
I
consider Christian theology to be one of the great disasters of the human race..
8.Sir Francis Younghusband (1863- 1942), (British
explorer, diplomat.)
It
was because he showed in his life what he taught was both practical and reasonable
that he exerted such a mighty influence upon mankind. The impression Buddha
made was deep.
9.H. G. Wells ( 1866- 1946), (British
historian, socialist.)
Buddha
in a different language called men to self- forgetfulness five hundred years
before Christ. In some ways he was nearer to us and our needs. Buddha was more
lucid upon our individual importance in service than Christ, and less ambiguous
upon the question of personal immortality.
You
see clearly a man, simple, devout, lonely, battling for light, a vivid human
personality, not a myth. Beneath a mass of miraculous fable I feel that there
also was a man. He too, gave a message to mankind universal in its character.
Many of our best modern ideas are in closest harmony with it. All the miseries
and discontents of life are due, he taught, to selfishness. Selfishness takes
three forms: one, the desire to satisfy the senses; second, the craving for
immortality; and the third the desire for prosperity and worldliness. Before a
man can become serene he must cease to live for his senses or himself.
Over
great areas of the world it still survives. It is possible that in contact with
Western science, and inspired by the spirit of history, the original teaching
of Gotama, revived and purified, may yet play a large part in the direction of
human destiny.The fundamental teachings of Gotama, as it is now being made
plain to us by study of original sources, is clear and simple and in the
closest harmony with modern ideas. It is beyond all disputes, the achievement
of one of the most penetrating intelligence the world has ever known.
Buddhism
has done more for the advance of world civilization and true culture than any
other influence in the chronicles of mankind. ]
The
most evil thing in the world today is the Roman Catholic Church.
10.Mahama Gandhi ( 1869- 1948), ( Indian
Thinker)
I
have no hesitation in declaring that I owe a great deal to the inspiration that
I have derived from the life of the Enlightenment One. Asia
has a message for the whole world.. For Asia to be not for Asia
but for the whole world, it has to re- learn the message of the Buddha and
deliver it to the whole world. His love, his boundless love went out as much to
the lower animal, to the lowest life as to human beings. And he insisted upon
purity of life.
11. Sir Charles Bell KCIE, CMG ( 1870- 1945), (British
Diplomat)
To
the Christian, Love is the highest virtue; to the Buddhist, Wisdom, for they
hold that ignorance is the root of all evil. Love, all the same, ranks high ......Tolerance
and loving kindness, both based on Buddhist wisdom, are perhaps the chief
reason why the middle way of Gotama has come down through 2500 years.
12.Bertrand Russell (1872- 1970),
The British Mathematician, Philosopher,
The winner of the Nobel prize.
Of
the great religions of history I prefer Buddhism…Buddhism is a combination of
both speculative and scientific philosophy. It advocates the Scientific Method
and pursues that to a finality that may be called Rationalistic. In it are to
be found answers to such question of interest as "What is mind and matter?
Of them which is of great importance? Is the universe moving towards a goal?
What is man's position? Is there living that is noble?" It takes up where
science cannot lead because of the limitations of the latter's instruments. Its
conquests are those of the mind.I cannot myself feel that either in the matter
of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stands quite as high as some people
known to history. I think I should put Buddha and Socrates above him in those
respects.
[Bertrand
Russell (1872- 1970), wrote in this
book: “Why I Am Not A Christian”: My own view on religion is that of Lucretius.
I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the
human race.
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the
gospels in praise of intelligence. Persecution is used in theology, not in
arithmetic.
13. Giáo sư Saunders , General
Secretary Y.M.C.A., India, Burma, Ceylon.
Lord
Buddha could be very easily singled out as the one person known to man who
received homage from the greatest number of mankind.
14.Dr C.C. Jung (1875- 1961), [Swiss
psychologist]
(As
a student of comparative religions, I believe that Buddhism is the most perfect
one the world has even seen.)
15. Albert Schweitzer (1875- 1 965), [French
Scholar, Theologian and Philosopher,Winner of The Nobel Prize.]
(He
gave expression to truths of everlasting value and advanced the ethics not of India alone but
of humanity. Buddha was one of the greatest ethical men of genius ever bestowed
upon the world. )
16.Herman Hesse (1877- 1962) , [German author and winner of the Nobel Prize]
[Now
in this realm Buddha's speeches are a source and mine of quite unparalleled
richness and depth. The intellectual content of Buddha's teaching is only half
his work, the other half is his life, his life as lived, as labour accomplished
and action carried out. ]
17.Albert Einstein (1879- 1955) , [German
physicist, Winner of the Nobel Prize ]
[The
religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a
personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the
spiritual, it should he based on a religious sense arising from the experience
of all things, natural and spiritual and a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers
this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern
scientific needs it would be Buddhism. ]
(I
cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures)
18. PHD S. N. Dasgupta:
(None of the pre- Buddhist religions of India may be said to have been able
to formulate a code of ethics and religion that was universally and
compulsorily valid for all.)
19.Beatrice Webb (1881- 1943), [ British
Economist, Socialist] .
(The
Buddha and his philosophy seemed logically and ethically superior to the Christ
and the teachings of the New Testament. Unlike the crude eternal bliss and
eternal damnation of the Christian Church, the doctrine of Karma seemed in
harmony with such assumptions of modern science as the universality of
causation and the persistence of force.)
20. Frederick Nietszche (1884- 1900), [German
philosopher]
[Buddhism
is hundred times more realistic than other religions... The notion of God is
done away with as soon as it appears, prayer is out of the question. No
categorical imperative. No coercion at all, not even within the monastic
community. Hence it also does not challenge to fight against those of different
faiths. Its teaching turns against nothing so impressively as against the
feeling of revengefulness, animosity. ]
21.Will
Durant (1885- 1 981),
American Historian and Pulitzer Prize Winner
[Buddha'
taught through conversation, lecturers and parables. He claimed enlightenment
but not inspiration; he never pretended that a god was speaking through him. In
controversy he was more patient and considerate than any other of the great
teachers of mankind.]
22. PHD Ambedkar
[Buddhism was a democratic movement, which upheld democracy in religion,
democracy in society, and democracy in politics.]
23.Professor Julian Huxley (1887- 1975), UNESCO,
British author,Zoologist and Director General of UNESCO
[It
is a remarkable indication of the subtlety of Indian speculation that Gautama
should have seen deeper than the greatest of modern idealists. The tendency of
enlightened thought of today all the world over is not towards theology but
philosophy and psychology. The bark of theological dualism is drifting into
danger. The fundamental principles of evolution and monism are being accepted
by the thoughtful.]
24.C. D. Broad (1887- 1971), British
Philosopher
[The
only one of the great religions which makes any appeal to me is Buddhism; and
that, as I understand it, is rather a philosophy of the world, and a way of
life for the elite founded upon it, than a religion in the ordinary sense of
the word.]
25. - PHD W. F. Jayasuriya, In the book the Buddhist
psychology and physics
[Buddhism is thus a religion, and there is a little room in
it for ritual and ceremony. An act done with an idea of one?s own conditioning
ceases to be a rite. Much of the seemingly ritual of present- day Buddhism,
when seen thus are really not rites. ]
26.Jawaharlal Nehru(1889- 1964), ( Indian
Prime Minister )
[If
any question has to be considered, it has to be considered peacefully and
democratically in the way taught by the Buddha]
[The
Buddha has been something greater than all doctrine and dogma, and his eternal
message has thrilled humanity through the ages. Perhaps at no time in past
history was his message of peace more needed for a suffering and distracted
humanity than it is today.]
27.Arnold
Toynbee (1889- 1 975), British
historian
[Buddhism
has transformed every culture it has entered, and Buddhism has been transformed
by its entry into that culture . . . . The coming of Buddhism to the West may
well prove to be the most important event of the Twentieth Century.]
28. Aldous Huxley (1894- 1963), British
author, Playwright and thinker
[The
modern conception of man's intellectual relationship to the universe was
anticipated by the Buddhist doctrine that desire is the source of illusion. To
the extent that one has overcome desire, a mind is free from illusion. This is
true not only of the man of science, but also the artist and the philosopher.
Perfect non- attachment demands of those who aspire to it, not only compassion
and charity, but also the intelligence that perceives the general implications
of particular acts, that sees the individual being within the system of social
and cosmic relations of which he is but a part. In this respect, it seems to
me, Buddhism shows itself decidedly superior to Christianity.]
29.R. Buckminster Fuller (1895- 1984), American
Inventor, Social Engineer and Philosopher
[There
may be a great significance in the fact that Pythagoras in Greece and the Buddha in the Orient
occur at the same time in the sixth century B.C. Both are powerfully,
perceptively thinking and acting human individuals who, coming out of a past in
which only mystically ordained kings counted and humans were omniexpendable
pawns, produced mathematical tools and philosophies forever thereafter to
employ. ]
30. J. Krishnamuri, Indian
philosopher (l895- 1986 )
[If
I knew the Buddha would be speaking here tomorrow, nothing in the world could
stop me from going to listen to him. And I would follow him to the very end.]
31. Lin Yutang (1895- 1976), Chinese
writer thinker, journalist and playwright
[Buddhism has conquered China
as a philosophy and as a religion, as a philosophy for the scholars and a
religion for the common people. Whereas Confucianism has only a philosophy of
moral conduct, Buddhism possesses a logical method, a metaphysics and a theory
of knowledge.]
32.
Marie B. Byles (1900- 1979),
Australian author and mountaineer
[Whether the Westerner who first approaches the Buddha's
teachings be accustomed to modern scientific or to Christian terminology, he
should always bear in mind that the Buddha was not interested in the existence
or non- existence of a Supreme Being or any other abstract philosophical
proposition. He was interested only in the Way, the practical way, by which
suffering may be ended, both here and hereafter.]
33. Erich Fromm (1900- 1980),
German American Psychoanalyst and Social Philosopher
[Buddhism
helps man to find an answer to the question of his existence, yet which does
not contradict the rationality, realism, and independence which are modern
man's precious achievements. Paradoxically, Eastern religious thought turns out
to be more congenial to Western rational thought than does Western religious
thought itself. ]
34. Justice Christmas Humphreys (1901- 1983), Eminent
British Judge
[Buddhism
is a system of thought, a religion, a spiritual science and a way of life which
is reasonable, practical and all- embracing. For 2,500 years it has satisfied
the spiritual needs of nearly one third of mankind. It appeals to those in
search of truth because it has no dogmas, satisfies the reason and the heart
alike, insists on self- reliance coupled with tolerance for other points of
view, embraces science, religion, philosophy, psychology, mysticism, ethics and
art, and points to man alone as the creator of his present life and sole
designer of his destiny.]
35. Nancy Wilson Ross (1901- 1986), American
Journalist, War Correspondent and Author.
[Of
the establishment of the Buddhist Sangha, Arnold Toynbee has said that it was a
greater social achievement than the founding of the Platonist academy in Greece.
]
36. J. Robert Oppenheimer ( 1904- 1967), American
Physicist
[If
we ask, for instance, whether the position of the electron remains the same, we
must say 'no'; if we ask whether the electron's position changes with time, we
must say 'no'; if we ask whether the electron is at rest, we must say 'no'; if
we ask whether it is in motion, we must say 'no'. The Buddha has given such
answers when interrogated as to the conditions of a man's self after his death;
but they are not familiar answers for the tradition of seventeenth and
eighteenth century science. ]
37. Giáo sư Steve Hagen, In the book (Buddhism:
Plain & Simple)
[Real
Buddhism is not really an “ism”.It’s a process, an awareness, an openness, a
spirit of inquiry – not a belief system, or even (as we normally understand it)
a religion.It is more accurate to call it “the teaching of the awakened,”, or
the Buddha- Dharma]
38. J. Bronowski (1908- 1974), American
Author and Philosopher of Science
[The
recent evolution of man certainly begins with the advancing development of the
hand, and the selection of a brain, which is particularly adept at manipulating
the hand. We feel the pleasure of that in our actions, so that for the artist
the hand remains a major symbol; the hand of the Buddha, for instance, giving
man the gift of humanity in a gesture of calm, the gift of fearlessness.]
39. U Thant (1910- 1974), Burmese
Educator, Diplomat and Secretary General of the United Nations
[As
a Buddhist, I was trained to be tolerant of everything except intolerance. I
was brought up not only to develop the spirit of tolerance, but also to cherish
moral and spiritual qualities, especially modesty, humanity, compassion, and,
most important, to attain a certain degree of emotional equilibrium.]
40. PHD E. F. Schumacher, CBE. (1911-
1977), British Rhodes Scholar, Economist, Journalist
andEconomic Adviser to The National Coal Board from 1950- 1970
[While
the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly
interested in liberation. But Buddhism is 'The Middle Way' and therefore in no
way antagonistic to physical well- being. It is not wealth that stands in the
way of liberation but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoyment of
pleasurable things but the craving for them. ]
41. Thomas Merton (1915- 1968), American
Catholic Priest, Author and Social Crtics
[Buddhism
is much less a matter of organized and institutional orthodoxy than a state of
mind. Buddhism does not aim directly at theological salvation but a total
clarification of consciousness. It is not so much a way of worshipping as a way
of being.]
42. Egerton C. Baptist (1915- 1983), Th
scholar of "Supreme Science
of the Buddha"
[Buddhism
begins where science ends.Science can give no assurance herein. But Buddhism
can meet the Atomic Challenge, because the supramundane knowledge of Buddhism
begins where science leaves off. And this is clear enough to anyone who has
made a study of Buddhism. For, through Buddhist Meditation, the atomic
constituents making up matter have been seen and felt, and the sorrow, or
unsatisfactoriness (or Dukkha), of their 'arising and passing away' (dependent
on causes) has made itself with what we call a 'soul' or 'atma' - the illusion
of Sakkayaditthi, as it is called in the Buddha's teaching.” ]
43. John H. Garabedian & Orde Coombs, the author
of “Eastern Religions In The Electric Age”:
[Christ is dead – Buddha Lives]
44. L. Adam Beck, An American
Traveler and author
The teachings of the Indian Prince has indeed nothing to dread
from science.Buddhism is, at all events, a truth which influenced not only the
mightiest thinkers of Greece and Rome, but also the beginnings of Christian
teachings - which it antedated by five or six hundred years.It may well claim
kindred with all the great faiths, persecuting and opposing none which differ
with it, and this for reasons which are easily seen in the teachings
themselves.]
45. PHD Amadou- Mahtar, M 'Bow, Director - General,
UNESCO
[Lord
Buddha's message of truth, peace, compassion and tolerance is as relevant as it
was many centuries ago. The passage of time has made its flame shine with
greater luminosity. Rampant materialism and the pursuit of individual success
at all costs have eroded the ties of brotherhood and community. In these
circumstances, it is necessary to remember and propagate the message of
compassion of Lord Buddha so that hatred can be replaced by love, strife by
peace and confrontation by co- operation.]
46. Javier Perez De Cuellar, Secretary
General of United Nation
[Buddha's message of compassion and devotion to the service
of humanity is more relevant today than at any other time in history. Peace,
understanding and a vision that transcends purely national boundaries are
imperatives of our insecure nuclear age. ]
47. Andrew Harvey, British
author, poet and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
[I
found Buddhist philosophy is a way of thought that enthralled me by its calm
and radical analysis of desire, its rejection of all the self- dramatisiting intensities
by which I lived, and its promise of a possible strong and unsentimental
sincerity.]
48. Robert J. Hawke, Rhodes
Scholar,Trade Union Leader from 1983 and Prime Minister of Australia
[Buddhist
concept that you progress towards the Ineffable through a number of existences
seemed to me much more intellectually satisfying than the Christian belief that
you come just once and are cast into circumstances maybe of great wealth or of
great moment, but that you come to God or don't come to God on the basis of
that one life. I was never on the point of embracing Buddhism but I found, and
still find, it infinitely more satisfying than the Judeo- Christian
philosophy.]
49. Gnanatiloka, German Scholar:
[Some people thinhk that Buddhism is a dark and melancholy
religion..It is not so; it will make its followers bright and cheerful.When we
read the birth stories of Boddhisatva, the future Buddha, we learn hos He
cultivated the perfection of patience and forbearance, it will help us to be
cheerful even in the midst of grea troubles and to take delight in other’s
welfare>]
50. Prof. Walter Kaufmann,
American philosopher and author .
[Paul couples love with faith and hope, and his conception of
love involves faith and hope: "Love," he says, "believes all
things, hopes all things." The love I mean does not believe all things and
hope all things. It survives disillusionment and persists in despair. Love is
not love that ceases without hope or faith. As long as faith and hope support
it, it is hardly more than puppy love. The Buddha knew that love brings
"hurt and misery, suffering, grief and despair"; and he advised
detachment. The love I consider a virtue is not a blind love of the lovers or
the trusting, hopeful love of Paul, but the love that knows what the Buddha
knew and still loves, with open eyes. ]
51. William Mac Quilty, British Award
winning film maker,Traveller and Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society.
[Today science is challenging the finite quality of the human
brain, a brain consisting of some 10,000 million electrically stimulated cells
programmed with the instincts of our long history and receptive to new notions
whether true or false. The aggregate of these cells provides our ever- changing
personality and their partial removal by surgery or altered rhythm by shock
treatment changes our character. By such crude methods, aggression can be
turned into fear, hatred to affection - how much better that they should be
changed by appreciation of the realities that the philosophy of Buddha has
placed in our hands. ]
52. Juan Mascan, Nha,Spanish Academic
andEducationalist, Lecturer at Cambridge
University .
[The message of the Buddha is a message of joy. He found a
treasure and he wants us to follow the path that leads us to the treasure. He
tells man that he is in deep darkness, but he also tells him that there is a
path that leads to light. He wants us to arise from a life of dreams into a
higher life where man loves and does not hate, where a man helps and does not
hurt. His appeal is universal, because he appeals to reason and to the
universal is us all: It is you who must make the effort. The Great of the past
only show the way.' He achieved a superior harmony of vision and wisdom by
placing spiritual truth on the crucial test of experience; and only experience
can satisfy the mind of modern man. He wants us to watch and be awake and he
wants us to seek and to find. ]
53. Peter Mathiessen, American
Novelist, Naturalist and Explorer.Winner of The National Book Award in 1979
I
have so often tried to isolate the quality of "Zen" * which attracted
me so powerfully to its literature and later to the practice of zazen #. But
since the essence of Zen might well be what one teacher called the moment- by-
moment awakening of mind, there is little that may sensibly be said about it
without succumbing to that breathless, mystery- ridden prose that drives so
many sincere aspirants in the other direction. In zazen, one may hope ~
penetrate the ringing stillness of the universal mind.
54. Prof. Jacob Needleman, Scholar,
Author and Professor for philosophy at San Francisco State College
[Of
all the great religious teachers of the world, none has incarnated and lived
the idea that ultimate reality is beyond the grasp of the ordinary mind with
such purity and concentration as the Buddha. This, in part, explains why the
Buddha's discourses say nothing about the existence of a Supreme Being, for
example, or about immortality . .]
55. Lucien Stryk, American
author, poet and Winner of Isaac Rosenbaum Poetry Award
[Buddhism,
better than most religions, seems to have adapted to modern life. Many
considering it to be, among other things, not only a method of self discovery
but a source of ideas for social orientation without equal in the West.]
56. Robert H Thousless, MA., PhD,
Sc.D. British. Distinguish Christian scholar, author, Fellow of the British
Psychological Society and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
[I
believe that Buddhism is very relevant to the thought of the present day.
Basically, its thought is familiar to us because it is the same kind of
thinking as that employed in science.]
57. Prof. Hugh Tinker, Professor of
government andpolitics at the school of Orient and African Studies, London
University
[The
period between the seventh and fifth century BCE saw the birth of the greatest
of all, 'the Light of Asia' Gautama the Buddha . . . A doctrine of annihilation
of greed, hatred and delusion, in which an omnipotent God has no place, might
seem one of profound pessimism, yet Buddhism was saved from being negative by
the emphasis placed on free- will and humility. The importance of compassion,
of charity and alms giving, all combined to generate a religion of warmth and
love.]
58. Paul Carus, the aythor of
the famous book: "The Gospel of
Buddha “
59. PHD E. Graham Howe, MB. BS. DPM.
, Eminent British Physician
(To
read a little Buddhism is to realize that the Buddhists knew, 2,500 years ago,
far more about modern problems of psychology than they have been given credit
for.They studied these problems long ago and found the answers also.We are now
rediscovering the ancientwisdom of the East.)
60. Sangharakshita, The british
scholar (Buddhism and The West: The
Integration of Buddhism into Western Society),
(Wherever Buddhism has traveled during its 2500 year history
it has entered into a rich and dynamic relationship with its host cultures.For
Buddhism this has meant new forms of expression and communication as well as
considerable differences in emphasis and approach.To its surrounding societies
have come new ideals, new ideas, new ethical standards, fresh social, cultural,
artistic life - indeed, rarely anything less than radical transformation.
Now
Buddhism is coming to the West, and judging from the seriousness with which
many Westerners are taking to its principles and practices, there can be no
doubt that history is going to repeat itself.Buddhism is about to become
integrated into Western society.)
61. Joseph L. Daleiden, The Chistian
scholar in (The Final Superstition),
(A
Critical and Evaluation of the Judeo- Christian Legacy), (Alternatives to
Theism). Page 424:
