Reviews

The Big Questions: A Buddhist Response to Life's Most Challenging Mysteries by Lama Surya Das

tmrogersjr1's review against another edition

4.0

Interesting read. The author provides an abundance of insight on some of the most important questions in life: What is happiness? Does god exist? What is love? What happens after death? Do I need a spiritual teacher? Etc

Insightful and thought provoking read regardless if you agree with the authors conclusions.

drollgorg's review

inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

2.25

Not the best as far as books on mindfulness or faith go. I'm not sure of who the intended audience is, as it seems to be aimed at people who haven't really given much thought yet as to what they believe and why, but if written for people with very little knowledge of Buddhism and who haven't done much spiritual searching in their own lives, I'd want to try and explain some of the basics of how to get started, not jump directly into the some of the most intractable and long-standing questions of faith and present an amalgam of different ideas about them. That's the other thing I couldn't help but note- each page is dotted with quotations from other writers and thinkers within Buddhism or other faith traditions, and the non-original ideas that Surya Das presents wholesale felt more worthwhile than his original writing, which feels like its meant to be generally relatable to the widest possible audience of people. 

I'll stop ripping on this thing so much though- if it didn't contain thoughts of value I obviously wouldn't have stayed with it, I have so little experience with living Buddhist practice that I'm at a stage where anything can be helpful to a point