A succinct, level-headed idea of what a globalized, modern Buddhism could look like & the role it could play in making the world suffer less ( )

Loy addresses the challenges and opportunities that arise as Buddhism confronts the modern world. Of course this is a vast topic but Loy focuses on a few key points and brings a valuable perspective. Folks new to Buddhism and folks like myself who have been around for decades can both find a helpful orientation here.

Perhaps the nicest point here is the notion that social restructuring and personal restructuring are not merely both necessary but that each enables the other... actually, each consists of the other. The way to restructure oneself is to devote oneself to the restructuring of society. The way to restructure society is to devote society to the restructuring of individuals. There is no either/or to be found here. It is both/and or nothing.

In the conclusion Loy addresses karma and rebirth, which some modernizing Buddhists would like to jettison. Maybe I should say so-called Buddhists... can a person be a Buddhist without believing in karma, i.e. that good actions lead to good experiences, and bad actions lead to bad experiences? Loy addresses this puzzle in I think a perfect way. He sees it as a kind of reversal of Pascal's wager, which I think is a delightful insight. No need to worry about life after death. Good deeds are sufficient rewards unto themselves. If their good effects turn out to persist beyond death, no problem!

I am not too keen about hitching the Buddhism cart to the horse of science, either with quantum mechanical proofs of consciousness or with evolutionary creation stories. Schrodinger and Darwin are fine fellows but I think the way for Buddhism to address science is not to look for a way to fit in, but by addressing issues in philosophy of science, e.g. the idea that the real way to think about the question of the validity of some scientific hypothesis is not to puzzle over how many scientists it takes to form a consensus, but to see validity as an interdependent arising. A hypothesis has some fuzzily bounded sphere or domain of validity or utility.

Anyway Loy doesn't seem to be trying to carve out some solid position here but to be shining light on some interesting territory. Really almost all of what he is saying here is very traditional... if you are lucky enough to be tapped into the right traditions! Buddhism is quite vast and there is a lot of stuck thinking throughout - it's a bunch of ordinary humans, for the most part, after all! But there are these shining edges, little glittering sparkles, tucked here and there throughout. And these insights really do seem to have miraculous transformative potential applicable to many of the key issues of today. Loy does a great job of sketching out this potential. There is enormous work to do, but this book is a great starting point. ( )