The Spirit of the Buddha by Martine Batchelor

(179 pp., Yale University Press, 2010)

In her latest of seven books about Buddhism, Martine Batchelor writes for the eclectic readership of Yale U.’s Sacred Literature Series, bringing to the enterprise a broad range of experience of both vipassana and Korean Zen, grounded in the original teachings of the Buddha as found in the Pali Canon. As well as making those teachings broadly accessible, Batchelor brings them up to date, surveying a number of developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from emancipation of India’s untouchables to Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. Along the way, she gives particular and much-needed attention to historically overlooked women teachers. The Spirit of the Buddha offers entry into the Buddha Way for readers of all faiths, and a wide vista for Buddhist readers of all stripes.

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From the Spring 2011 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 27, No. 2)

© 2011 Patrick McMahon

Patrick McMahon has been a contributor to Inquiring Mind since 1997, writing on literature, East and West, and whether and whither the twain meet. As a member of a sangha that includes two cats and as an occasional peripatetic monk, he persists with his training as a Zen Buddhist layperson in Oakland, California, at the Persimmon Tree Zendo, an affiliate of Ring of Bone Zendo. He is presently participating in an oral history project exploring how Bodhidharma came to the Northwest.