A Buddhist interpretation of Western history that shows civilization shaped by the self’s desire for groundedness.
Buddhism teaches that to become happy, greed, ill-will, and delusion must be transformed into their positive counterparts: generosity, compassion, and wisdom. The history of the West, like all histories, has been plagued by the consequences of greed, ill-will, and delusion. A Buddhist History of the West investigates how individuals have tried to ground themselves to make themselves feel more real. To be self-conscious is to experience ungroundedness as a sense of lack, but what is lacking has been understood differently in different historical periods. Author David R. Loy examines how the understanding of lack changes at historical junctures and shows how those junctures were so crucial in the development of the West.
Table of Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Toward a Buddhist Perspective
1. The Lack of Freedom
2. The Lack of Progress
3. The Renaissance of Lack
4. The Lack of Modernity
5. The Lack of Civil Society
6. Preparing for Something That Never Happens
7. The Religion of the Market
Afterword: The Future of Lack
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
David R. Loy is Besl Family Chair Professor of Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University. He is the author of several books, including A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack, also published by SUNY Press, and Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution.
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