We have come to admire Buddhism for being profound but accessible,
as much a lifestyle as a religion. The credit for creating Buddhism
goes to the Buddha, a figure widely respected across the Western
world for his philosophical insight, his teachings of nonviolence,
and his practice of meditation. But who was this Buddha, and how
did he become the Buddha we know and love today? Leading historian
of Buddhism Donald S. Lopez Jr. tells the story of how various
idols carved in stone variously named Beddou, Codam, Xaca, and Fo -
became the man of flesh and blood that we know simply as the
Buddha. He reveals that the positive view of the Buddha in Europe
and America is rather recent, originating a little more than a
hundred and fifty years ago. For centuries, the Buddha was
condemned by Western writers as the most dangerous idol of the
Orient. He was a demon, the murderer of his mother, a purveyor of
idolatry. Lopez provides an engaging history of depictions of the
Buddha from classical accounts and medieval stories to the
testimonies of European travelers, diplomats, soldiers, and
missionaries. He shows that centuries of hostility toward the
Buddha changed dramatically in the nineteenth century, when the
teachings of the Buddha, having disappeared from India by the
fourteenth century, were read by European scholars newly proficient
in Asian languages. At the same time, the traditional view of the
Buddha persisted in Asia, where he was revered as much for his
supernatural powers as for his philosophical insights. From Stone
to Flesh follows the twists and turns of these Eastern and Western
notions of the Buddha, leading finally to his triumph as the
founder of a world religion.
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