Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of The Awakened One Hardcover – 6 Jan 2011

I was looking for an up-to-date, well researched biography of the Buddha, and I sort of found it in this book. I say "sort of" because it wasn't as heavy on the scholarship as I would have liked, though it was enjoyable, generally insightful, and informative.

Blomfield takes his time getting to the Buddha's birth, first drawing a picture for us of the world Gotama grew up in. He describes the political and economic scenes and gives us a sense of the religious ferment of the time. I was disappointed though that while Blomfield adopts the more recent scholarship dating the Buddha to c.484 - 404 BCE, the rational for this new dating is never discussed.

Blomfield mostly adopts a realistic tone in portraying the events of the Buddha's life and upbringing, though inevitably mythical elements intrude. All in all, I think he does a pretty good job at indicating what sort of person the Buddha was-energetic and sincere, inquisitive, skeptical, a brilliant raconteur, adaptable, charismatic, a genius. His treatment of Gotama's search for enlightenment draws on recent scholarship (I recognized Alexander Wynne's contributions) but for me his account of the enlightenment falls flat. I actually got the sense Blomfield doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm not saying he doesn't know his way around the suttas, just that he doesn't really seem to grasp what the Enlightenment actually entailed or meant. (This despite the back flap claiming Blomfield has been practicing and/or teaching meditation for thirty years.)

After Gotama became the Buddha, the sequence of events is difficult to nail down, so Blomfield pauses to discuss the teaching. I thought this the weakest part of the book, for the coverage here is incomplete, and let's face it-I'm very hard to satisfy as regards these matters! Admittedly though, saying something about the Teaching here is unavoidable, and Blomfield takes a decent shot at it despite limited space.

Further chapters take up the formation of the Sangha, how the Buddha interacted with the society around him ("A Holy Man In the World"-an excellent chapter), the Devadatta crisis and then the last years. By the end I realized just how much had either been left out or only skimmed over, and it occurred to me that if anyone is ever going to do a really thorough, scholarly treatment of the Buddha's life it may well run to a thousand pages (not including a hundred pages of notes). Personally, I would like to have seen more discussion of the important disciples, as well as something more about the various rival shramana sects (Ajivakas, Jains, etc) who competed with the Buddha. Blomfield could have said more too about the archaeology of the Buddha's life-e.g., the debate over exactly where Kapilavastu was (generally now thought to be Tilaurakot in Nepal) is a fascinating story in itself. Anything at all to lift this man's life out of the realm of legend and lost kingdoms and to place it on a solid footing, on the earth, connected to real things we can see and touch, would have been appreciated. (And I can always dig talk of relics!)

I have one other specific complaint: the use of Sanskrit terms, place and personal names instead of their Pali equivalents. I really don't understand this practice. The earliest texts, the only ones that can lay any claim to being truly biographical, are all in Pali. It is simply logical to defer to those texts. Using Sanskrit instead bespeaks an ideological prejudice of some sort, I am convinced. Exactly what that prejudice might be, though, probably differs from one writer to the next.

Don't take my complaints here too seriously though. This is a worthy book and ought to prove inspirational to many. While it is not the biography I would have written, I can honestly that what Blomfield has done here both moved and informed me.

Excellent book. I really enjoyed how the author examined the evidence around Gautama Buddha's life and it made it possible for me to get a sense of him as an individual exploring his own consciousness at the beginning of his journey. The description of the culture he grew up in and the economic conditions prevailing then was really interesting. I also found the explanations of his teachings clear and how they evolved useful.

I must say this is probably the most amazing book I have ever read on this subject. Its a must read. I plan to read it many times over.

The whole story in a nutshell

The author is ignorant of many well-known historical facts, and in some cases, even when he knows the facts, uses his preconceived notions rather than the facts for his concluding opinions. A few examples follow. This book should be withdrawn from circulation.
(1) On p 326, he writes "Indians forgot Ashoka and Hindu texts do not mention him." When India became independent in 1947, she put the "Ashoka Chakra" (the wheel of Ashoka) at the center of her national flag, and adopted a drawing of the "Ashoka Stambha" (the pillar of Ashoka -- four lions looking in four directions) as the seal of the Government of India. Indians remember Ashoka from 2000 years ago more than Brits remember Queen Victoria from 100 years ago.
(2) In pp 200-325, he talks about the conflict between "Brahminism" and Buddhism. He opines that Hindus have rejected Buddha although he acknowledges that Hindus recognize Buddha as an "avatar" (incarnation of God.) This is like saying that Christians have rejected such and such person although they have anointed him as Messiah. Borderline stupid. In the poem adopted later as the Indian national anthem, there is a line celebrating the confluence of religions in India, "Hindu Bouddha Sikh Jain Parasik Musalman Christani."
(3) In the same pages, he writes about the glory days of Magadh 2500 years ago where Buddha preached. He recognizes that the same region is now called Bihar and is a backward area. He does not know that the name Bihar came from the large number of Buddhist monastaries (called Bihar)that were built in that region. Those were all destroyed during the Muslim invasions. The ancient Buddhist university at Nalanda was burned down (with some 10,000 monks and scholars alive) by Bakhtiar Khilji. The spread of Islam "on the tip of a sword" was the reason for the decline of Buddhism in India. On the other hand, Buddhism was spread in Tibet by Indian Buddhist monks, notably the Bengali, Atish Dipankar.

There are many other examples. The author is so ignorant about well-known historical facts, and is so prone to pass on his opinions as conclusions from facts that I would not depend on this book as source for any history I may want to learn. The publishers should be chastised for publishing the book without competent review.