The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Buddhism (review)

This is a book with a whole lot going for it, if you can get past the title. Who wants to admit to being an idiot, even if it is tongue-in-cheek? In truth, the journey into a Buddhist perspective starts even before you open the book. Seen from a Buddhist point of view, you could translate idiot mind into Beginner's Mind and consider yourself ready to become an adept. And you couldn't ask for a better guide than Gary Gach, who has forty years of Buddhist study and an impressive career as an author-editor-translator to his credit. Open the pages, and you're immediately in the company of a quiet monk, learned philosopher, and stand-up comic. This is exactly the combination of reverence, erudition, and zany humor you'll need on the path to enlightenment—even if you have no intention of ever getting there.

For the scholarly, Gach gives a thorough overview of Buddhist history, teachings, ceremonies, and practices, starting with who Buddha was and what Buddhism stands for and leading to a clear and engaging discussion of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Paths that underlie Buddhist thought. Gach also explains the major schools of Buddhism, such as Vipassana, Zen, Pure Land, and Tibetan, covering the rules and beliefs of each. He explores the growth and development of American Buddhism, which is a very unique animal of its own. If you still need clarification, there's "Glossary of Silence" in the back of the book.

For those seeking more practical guidance, Gach dispenses advice on how to meditate (even at meals) and do yoga, what to eat, how to find the right spiritual teacher and/or community, where to go for pilgrimages and retreats, and countless other tips. For the artists among us, there are lively sections on Buddhist cinema, haiku, art, the tea ceremony, calligraphy, music (from Yoko Ono to John Cage), science (chaos theory, holistic medicine, psychology), and interfaith connections. Finally, there's useful information on how to bring the teachings outward, such as how to take right action about the environment, how to balance spirituality and materialism, how to be a better listener, how to have a more compassionate relationship with others and yourself, and how to care for the dying.

The text is extremely readable and engaging, and the layout and design keep the mounds of information from being overwhelming. Sidebars, sketches, and boxes ("Leaves from the Bodhi Tree" and "Hear and Now") go easy on the eye and brain. It's like a college seminar on Buddhism distilled into Cliff's Notes. Before you know it, you'll be halfway through the book and down the path.

Here's a sample, "The Ultimate Relationship," of how Gach interweaves Buddhist thought and theory into everyday situations with compassion, creativity, and humor:

The Buddha said, "Just as the elephant's footprint is the biggest footprint on the jungle floor, death is the biggest teacher." Indeed, our relationship to death includes all other relationships. Consider, for example, how sex once again pokes its head at us when we consider death. You probably wouldn't think of death as part of "the facts of life" (although people whisper about death and shield children from it as if it were sex). The fact is if it weren't for sex, we might not ever face the mystery of death.

Consider, for a minute, that if we still reproduced by cell division, one cell dividing into two, two into four, and so on, instead of Harry meeting Sally and later bringing up baby Harry Jr., we'd have Billy becoming Bill and Lee. MaryLou would become Mary and Lou. And so on for everyone. (Imagine what weird family reunions all that would make.)

Now, if we looked at death as part of life's sexual embrace, we might not grieve so badly when one...