Buddhism — A Journey to Nirvana

The chapter opens with an important point: early Buddhism has no idea of a creator God, nor does it accept that beings arise by chance out of nothing. Everything depends on preconditions, explained through the 'twelve-link chain of causation' or law of dependent origination. The book lists the chain step by step: ignorance (avidya) leads to wrong ideas, these to consciousness, consciousness to the split between 'self' and 'non-self', then to the six sense fields, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, becoming, birth, old age and death — and the cycle begins again with ignorance.

Here the book's first weakness appears: the second link of the chain (formations, Sanskrit samskara) is written as 'samsara', and birth (jati) as 'cati'. This can confuse beginners, since samsara is an entirely different concept in Buddhism — the cycle of birth and death itself. Terminological slips like this suggest the book did not go through serious editing.

The presentation of the Four Noble Truths, by contrast, is clear and useful. The first truth — life is full of suffering (dukkha) — is explained through the 'five aggregates of suffering' (body, sensations, perception, impulses and consciousness); birth, illness, old age, death, separation from loved ones, being with those one dislikes, even marriage, are listed as sources of suffering. The book rightly notes that life is not only suffering but also contains pleasure. The analogy of the Buddha as a doctor who diagnoses the disease, finds its cause and prescribes the cure is apt.

Each stage of the Eightfold Path is explained separately: right knowledge, right intention, right speech, right action (including the five moral precepts), right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. The 'right livelihood' section is especially interesting: a Buddhist may not work as a butcher, in the leather trade, or in the production of hunting equipment, alcohol or drugs. Additional rules for monks — eating only from morning until noon, no perfume or jewellery, accepting no gold or silver — are also given.

The chapter ends with karma and Nirvana. The idea that karma, because Buddhism has no creator God, rejects fatalism is interesting. Nirvana is presented, following the Buddha's Fire Sermon, as the 'extinguishing of the fire' fed by craving, anger and hatred; but the book stresses that this is not annihilation but also a state of peace and perfection. Symbolic images such as a calm island in a stormy sea or a cool cave lend the text a poetic touch.

Overall the chapter is rich in information, but the language is in an outdated Turkish academic style, and although a translator is credited, the text reads more like a compilation of Turkish sources. Some claims — for example that the Eightfold Path does not appear in older texts — are given without explanation. It works as a short, systematic introduction, but readers who want to understand Buddhism in depth should move on to a more serious source afterwards.

• Short, self-contained chapters and a list-based style
• History of Buddhism by country, including a separate chapter on Turkic Buddhism
• Sanskrit and Pali terms given in brackets
• A collection of sayings attributed to the Buddha at the end