Let’s get one thing straight: Whatever the Buddha looked like, he wasn’t fat. In Buddha for Beginners, Columbia College philosophy professor Stephen T. Asma seeks to clear up misconceptions about a tradition that continues to intrigue and confuse Westerners. He is especially keen to disabuse those who have learned of Buddhism only through books and have not been immersed in Buddhist cultures, where ass-kicking Shaolin warriors share the faith with pacifist monks. As a philosopher, Asma explores the Buddha’s core ideas of the impermanence and interdependence of all things and the “doctrine of no self.” Testing the psychology of Buddhism, he finds it useful for “retraining the human mind.”
