Now in this realm Buddha's speeches are a source and mine of
quite unparalleled richness and depth. As soon as we cease to
regard Buddha's teachings simply intellectually and acquiesce with
a certain sympathy in the age-old Eastern concept of unity, if we
allow Buddha to speak to us as vision, as image, as the awakened
one, the perfect one, we find him, almost independently of the
philosophic content and dogmatic kernel of his teachings, a great
prototype of mankind. Whoever attentively reads a small number of
the countless speeches of Buddha is soon aware of harmony in them,
a quietude of soul, a smiling transcendence, a totally unshakeable
firmness, but also invariable kindness, endless patience. As ways
and means to the attainment of this holy quietude of soul, the
speeches are full of advice, precepts, hints.
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. A training, a spiritual self
training of the highest order was accomplished and is taught here,
a training about which unthinking people who talk about "quietism"
and "Hindu dreaminess" and the like in connection with Buddha have
no conception; they deny him the cardinal Western virtue of
activity. Instead Buddha accomplished a training for himself and
his pupils, exercised a discipline, set up a goal, and produced
results before which even the genuine heroes of European action can
only feel awe.
Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
German author and winner of the Nobel Prize
The more I studied satipathana*, the more impressed I became with
it as a system of mind training. It is in line with our Western
scientific attitude of mind in that it is unprejudiced, objective
and analytical. It relies on personal, direct experience, and not
on anyone else's ideas or opinions. It is exceedingly simple and
makes use of 'bare attention' basically as simple as a sustained
'ah look' but within a carefully chosen and disciplined system. It
therefore explores all premature judgements, all talking 'about it
and about,' all arguments, discussions and such waste of time as we
in the West are inclined to be fond of. In fact, it gets you out of
the rut and bondage of yourself, your prejudices, your clichés,
your blindness and your self-opinionatedness, to set you free to
see and prove a real world .
Dr E. Graham Howe MB. BS. DPM.
Eminent British Physician
The way of Buddhism is Middle Way between all extremes. This is no
weak compromise, but a sweet reasonableness which avoids fanaticism
and laziness with equal care, and marches onward without that haste
which brings its own reaction, but without ceasing. The Buddha
called it the Noble Eightfold Path to Nirvana, and it may be
regarded as the noblest course of spiritual training yet presented,
in such a simple form, to man. Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor
'escapist'. It 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
Justice Christmas Humphreys (1901-1983)
Eminent British Judge
