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A Partial Enlightenment: What Modern Literature and Buddhism Can Teach Us About Living Well Without Perfection
In many ways, Buddhism has become the global religion of the modern world. For its contemporary followers, the ideal of enlightenment promises inner peace and worldly harmony. And whereas other philosophies feel abstract and disembodied, Buddhism offers meditation as a means to realize this ideal. If we could all be as enlightened as Buddhists, some imagine, we could live in a much better world. For some time now, however, this beatific image of Buddhism has been under attack. Scholars and practitioners have criticized it as a Western fantasy that has nothing to do with the actual experiences of Buddhists.
Avram Alpert combines personal experience and readings of modern novels to offer another way to understand modern Buddhism. He argues that it represents a rich resource not for attaining perfection but rather for finding meaning and purpose in a chaotic world. Finding unexpected affinities across world literature―Rudyard Kipling in colonial India, Yukio Mishima in postwar Japan, Bessie Head escaping apartheid South Africa―as well as in his own experiences living with Tibetan exiles, Alpert shows how these stories illuminate a world in which suffering is inevitable and total enlightenment is impossible. Yet they also give us access to partial powerful insights that become available when we come to terms with imperfection and stop looking for wholeness. A Partial Enlightenment reveals the moments of personal and social transformation that the inventions of modern Buddhism help make possible.
Avram Alpert combines personal experience and readings of modern novels to offer another way to understand modern Buddhism. He argues that it represents a rich resource not for attaining perfection but rather for finding meaning and purpose in a chaotic world. Finding unexpected affinities across world literature―Rudyard Kipling in colonial India, Yukio Mishima in postwar Japan, Bessie Head escaping apartheid South Africa―as well as in his own experiences living with Tibetan exiles, Alpert shows how these stories illuminate a world in which suffering is inevitable and total enlightenment is impossible. Yet they also give us access to partial powerful insights that become available when we come to terms with imperfection and stop looking for wholeness. A Partial Enlightenment reveals the moments of personal and social transformation that the inventions of modern Buddhism help make possible.
264 pages, Hardcover
Published April 6, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 30, 2024
This is a fantastic book! I highly recommend it!
This book is a gem and unlike any other book I have found. I tend to read a lot of nonfiction about literature. This book’s topic is unique and fascinating. In the acknowledgments, the author mentions that he taught a seminar about modern Buddhism and literature at Rutgers in 2014. While reading this book, I kept thinking how I would have so enjoyed taking that class in college.
I have recently started to explore Buddhism and I am also a language arts teacher. This book spoke directly to me and my thoughts of late. It is the perfect intersection of literary criticism and insight about Buddhism in both a historical and a philosophical context.
The writing is impeccable. I could not put it down! If you are interested in literature and/or Buddhism, this is a must-read.
This book is a gem and unlike any other book I have found. I tend to read a lot of nonfiction about literature. This book’s topic is unique and fascinating. In the acknowledgments, the author mentions that he taught a seminar about modern Buddhism and literature at Rutgers in 2014. While reading this book, I kept thinking how I would have so enjoyed taking that class in college.
I have recently started to explore Buddhism and I am also a language arts teacher. This book spoke directly to me and my thoughts of late. It is the perfect intersection of literary criticism and insight about Buddhism in both a historical and a philosophical context.
The writing is impeccable. I could not put it down! If you are interested in literature and/or Buddhism, this is a must-read.
February 8, 2022
This is a brilliant piece of literary criticism and Buddhist criticism. I found the approach original and intriguing and the scholarship sound, though unnecessarily cold and detached (pun intended?)
My favorite line however is a moment of levity .
An old story tells of a fly who lands on some cow manure down a river and circles around a stupa a few times. The fly is enlightened (because of the stupa).
Alpert quips � in this story, then, the pursuit of the smell of shit leads to accidental enlightenment.�
Ha! Ha! Levity goes a long way�
My favorite line however is a moment of levity .
An old story tells of a fly who lands on some cow manure down a river and circles around a stupa a few times. The fly is enlightened (because of the stupa).
Alpert quips � in this story, then, the pursuit of the smell of shit leads to accidental enlightenment.�
Ha! Ha! Levity goes a long way�
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
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