Review essay: What the Buddha Thought, by Richard Gombrich

Abstract

This work, aimed both at scholars and the wider public, is based on the 2006 Numata Lectures, at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, of Richard Gombrich, founder and President of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. Seeking to identify the key contributions to human civilization of the Buddha as a thinker, the focus is the first four NikÄyas and to a lesser extent the fifth NikÄya and the Vinaya of the Pali Canon. The method is historical and, looking beneath later commentarial glosses and Abhidhamma systematisation, Gombrich seeks to understand the main thrust of the Buddha’s teaching within the context in which it was developed and delivered: in dialogue with and in response to Jain and especially Brahminical ideas and practices, with an awareness of cultural differences, and in a socio-economic context that helped to make a range of people particularly ready to respond positively to what he taught (p. 195).