Talking About Buddhism Two Lifetimes of Learning, Teaching, and (Some) Practice

What do Buddhists mean by enlightenment? Does enlightenment unfold gradually or is it revealed in a sudden flash of insight? Does spiritual experience create belief or does belief create spiritual experience? Does the study of Buddhist philosophy hinder meditation or enhance it? What is the role of compassion in the theory and practice of Buddhism? What (and where) is nirvana? And what does it mean to be a Buddhist in the twenty-first century? In a series of insightful, instructive, and entertaining conversations, renowned Buddhist scholars Robert Buswell and Donald Lopez tackle these and other crucial questions in the history of Buddhism. Drawing from the Buddhist schools and teachings of India, Tibet, China, Thailand, and Korea, Buswell and Lopez explore why these traditions seem so different while still sharing so much. In the course of their conversations, they recall their fifty-year journeys from spiritual seekers to university professors, encountering some of the greatest Buddhist masters of the last half century along the way. Talking About Buddhism will appeal to anyone who has sought answers to some of Buddhism’s most fundamental questions or who may have wondered: How did two Westerners become so intrigued by the religion that they chose to become Buddhist scholars? And what do scholars of Buddhism really do?