Understanding Buddhism

In this book Malcolm David Eckel, Professor of Religion at Boston University, gives a short but concise introduction to one of the world's great religious traditions - Buddhism. Buddhist thoughts and concepts are spreading steadily throughout the Western world and the need for good and precise information is growing equally. Accompanied by a number of high quality pictures of Buddhist art and architecture, the book presents the key themes of the Buddhist faith. It gives the historic facts of the life of the Buddha, the early spreading of Buddhism throughout Asia and includes the current spread to the Western world as well as spiritual teachings, rituals and ceremonies. It quotes from sacred texts, explains central concepts such as karma, meditation, enlightenment, death and reincarnation.

It also presents selected texts with commentary to explain the original meaning as well as interpretations and their relation to modern Buddhism. In short the book offers a very good introduction to the central ideas in Buddhism.