I started this book by Evan Thompson hoping to find a critique of trends in Buddhism, as it is currently practiced in the West, by a person who was not only an accredited academic, but also a friend of Buddhism, who unlike most of us American Buddhists, was born into the emerging western Buddhist tradition. I was not disappointed, although I was less interested in the author’s main points comparing “Buddhist Modernism” and “Cosmopolitanism” than his insights into why good, intelligent people may not want to be Buddhists. His insights into the relationship between Buddhism and science are also useful and worthy of discussion, but not what I was primarily looking for. I must warn you that this is an academic work written by an academic with all the usual PHDese, but Thompson does a very good job of explaining more arcane scientific, philosophical, or psychological terms as he introduces them and offers an extensive bibliography and footnotes to direct you to more on any given concept. I do recommend the book, but you might want to read it on Kindle so you can easily look up terms he does not define. If you are curious, but don’t want to read the book, the Amazon reviews are exceptionally useful.
I agree with his critique of modern Buddhism as usually practiced in the West. In an attempt to make the brilliant insights and understandings contained in the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha more relevant to modern times, they have been stripped of much of their meaning and power. Secular Buddhism, of which he is also critical, is to me an oxymoron. Whether we want to call Buddhism a “religion” or not is not of concern to me, at least not now. Certainly by some definitions it is not.
Thompson did not want to enter monastic life and was also pretty skeptical of the North American “dharma scene,” having grown up interacting with many of it’s leaders. He saw no way to become a Buddhist without being a Buddhist modernist and he felt that the foundations for Buddhist modernism is philosophically, psychologically, scientifically, and ethically unsound. You should read his book to understand why. My take on this wonderful scholarly work is that what he is saying is exactly why the Buddha Master is here and why His teachings do offer an alternative to the current “dharma scene” in America.
Thompson’s main premise is that Buddhism should be more at home in a cosmopolitanistic worldview than a modernistic one as is currently the case. At first, I was less interested in that point, but as I reflect I see that the Buddha Master does offer us teachings in that regard as well. The Supreme and Unsurpassable Mahamudra of Liberation is offered for many different types of Buddhist and those who are not Buddhist alike. I welcome your response.
CLICK for April 19, 2021 review of this book by Don Asper who does offer his ideas on how Why I Am Not a Buddhist relates to and could benefit from the teachings of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III.
CLICK for January 21, 2020 interview by Sam Littlefair of Evan Thompson from Lion’s Roar: Buddhist Wisdom for Our Time on “Why Evan Thompson Isn’t a Buddhist” and links to other sources.
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