Handbook for MankindI added this link because I have frequent discussions with other Buddhists about Buddhisms interest in truth. As far as the content of the book goes its not exactly my cup of tea. Recently, someone asked me what exatly is my Buddhist cup of tea. I'm not sure you should be able to enuciate that in a web page, much less an online chat. Isn't that what "the great conversation" is all about; 5,000 years of humans endlessly discussing what a world view could and should be?
Principles of Buddhism explained by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. It is a remarkable fact that in this book Ven. Buddhadasa has explained the meaning of one topic, thereby covering the spirit of the whole teaching or the Tipitaka. He says that Buddhism is the religion which teaches one to know just this much: "what is the truth?". All the chapters in this book dealing with the five aggregates, the four kinds of attachments, intuition in a natural way and other topics all point to "The Truth".
I believe there's a moral position that can be taken without becoming a monk or saint. While it may sound selfish to some, I think I should be able to have a beer, get into a thing with a beautiful woman and have it not work out. satisfy my sexuality and basically live a full twenty-first century life, and still be a good Christian/Buddhist/Hebrew/Muslim/Hindu, what have you. What's more, I think that the vast majority of people following any of those traditions would agree with me if they were allowed to.
But that's not why I wanted to post this link. The issue is truth, and clearly this very conservative Buddhist Monk believes that the end pursuit of Buddhism is truth, as do I.
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