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davidbythebay's review
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
This is a 3.5 read for me. (But still giving it a 4 stars.)
It's definitely an interesting format. This takes the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and an interviewer, like at a symposium instead of a newscast. It's didactic tone is not overhanded, but also just slightly more than necessary. The Buddha comes across even and mostly calm. There are a few times where it seems he's almost amused at the interviewer's ignorance about a topic. I could absolutely be reading too much into this.
The content is good, if basic. It's conveyed well. I wish some aspects would have been explored more, explained with more detail and more clarity. But, this is a rather basic primer to Buddhist philosophy. And in that, it gets the point across nicely. I just wish this was more of a dialogue, exploring the interviewer's viewpoint as well as Buddha's. In some respects, this is like a Plato/Aristotle dialogue where a character asks the philosopher a series of questions to answer, but it is still a Q and A session more than a dialogue.
This is very good and that's why I upped my score to a 4 star. It is pleasant and short. A taste of Buddhist philosophy "directly" from the Buddha himself.
It's definitely an interesting format. This takes the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and an interviewer, like at a symposium instead of a newscast. It's didactic tone is not overhanded, but also just slightly more than necessary. The Buddha comes across even and mostly calm. There are a few times where it seems he's almost amused at the interviewer's ignorance about a topic. I could absolutely be reading too much into this.
The content is good, if basic. It's conveyed well. I wish some aspects would have been explored more, explained with more detail and more clarity. But, this is a rather basic primer to Buddhist philosophy. And in that, it gets the point across nicely. I just wish this was more of a dialogue, exploring the interviewer's viewpoint as well as Buddha's. In some respects, this is like a Plato/Aristotle dialogue where a character asks the philosopher a series of questions to answer, but it is still a Q and A session more than a dialogue.
This is very good and that's why I upped my score to a 4 star. It is pleasant and short. A taste of Buddhist philosophy "directly" from the Buddha himself.
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