The Buddha and the TerroristThe Buddha and the Terrorist
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eBook, 2012
Current format, eBook, 2012, , Available.eBook, 2012
Current format, eBook, 2012, , Available. Offered in 0 more formatsNot every book will change your life, but any book can. Not every discussion will make a difference, but a conversation can change the world.
In this timely retelling of an ancient Buddhist parable, peace activist Satish Kumar has created a small book with a powerful spiritual message about ending violence. It is a tale of a fearsome outcast named Angulimala ("Necklace of Fingers"), who is terrorizing towns and villages in order to gain control of the state, murdering people and adding their fingers to his gruesome necklace. One day he comes face to face with the Buddha and is persuaded, through a series of compelling conversations, to renounce violence and take responsibility for his actions.
The Buddha and the Terrorist addresses the urgent questions we face today: Should we talk to terrorists? Can we reason with religious fundamentalists? Is nonviolence practical? The story ends with a dramatic trial that speaks to the victims of terrorism-the families whose mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters Angulimala has murdered. It asks whether it is possible for them to forgive. Or whether it is even desirable.
No one can read The Buddha and the Terrorist without thinking about the root causes of terrorism, about good and evil, about justice and forgiveness, about the kind of place we want the world to be, and, most important, about the most productive and practical way to get there. Thomas Moore is the author of Care of the Soul.
Satish Kumar was born in India. He was a monk for nine years and then founded the London School for Nonviolence. He is the editor of the international magazine Resurgence and the director of programs at Schumacher College, and he has written two previous books, No Destination and You Are, Therefore I Am. Every once in a while a profound and beautiful book comes along that speaks for all time and also to our specific time. The Buddha and the Terrorist is such a book.
"There is a virus buried deep in all violence that is contagious, that inspires an equally brutal and mindless response. You can choose not to be part of the destructive cycle, and that choice not to participate is the first step toward peace. We can begin to cultivate small acts of compassion right now."
-from the foreword by Thomas Moore "This kind of parable has a calming effect on the mind. The change in outlook from anger to compassion is also contagious, also powerful."
-The Los Angeles Times Book Review
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