Wisdom as a Way of Life

Reviews / Votes

Collins' previous books have all been field-changing works. Wisdom as a Way of Life is no exception. This powerful work provides original and stimulating ways of understanding Pali texts while creating a bridge between scholars of the Pali world and intellectual historians working elsewhere. His thoughtful comparative engagement with studies of asceticism and courtly-literary culture offers much of value to scholars of South and Southeast Asia, as well as other premodern arenas. -- Anne M. Blackburn, author of <i>Locations of Buddhism: Colonialism and Modernity in Sri Lanka</i> Steven Collins' last book is a gift. Providing a fresh reading on texts and stories we thought we knew, Collins makes the case that the Pali literature associated most often with Theravada Buddhism is also much more than that-it is a treasure trove of insight into the human condition and how we might meaningfully navigate it. Collins' genuine respect and appreciation for the sophisticated commentary to be found in Pali texts, combined with his signature straight talk and pull-no-punches style, makes for a provocative book that will be equally rewarding and illuminating to scholars of Buddhist texts and researchers of Buddhist practice. I am grateful to the editor and his collaborators for making this posthumous manuscript available to the rest of us and for placing its intellectual contributions in the context of Collins' other work. After reading it, I find it impossible to experience anything having to do with Theravada Buddhism-its rituals, its texts, its art-in quite the same way again. -- Nancy Eberhardt, author of <i>Imagining the Course of Life: Self-Transformation in a Shan Buddhist Community</i> In his books and articles, Steve Collins asked that we approach Pali texts-narratives and systematic ones-on their own terms, and demanded that we make every effort to understand their arguments and assumptions without reducing them to our own categories. At the same time, he also required that we also recognize our shared humanity with the authors who held such different notions about the nature of the world and experience. That like ours, the cultures and societies that privileged Pali as a prestige language, were filled with laughter, anger, love, birth, and death. Wisdom as a Way of Life is a fitting realization of his vision and approach to these texts. His interpretation of the corpus of the previous lives of the Buddha is rich and incisive, and his interrogation into askesis and monasticism provides us with many questions worth thinking through. In bringing this forth, McDaniel deserves our deep felt gratitude and respect. -- Thomas Borchert, editor of <i>Educating Monks: Minority Buddhism on China's Southwest Border</i> Wisdom as a Way of Life shows a brilliant mind at work and at struggle with the problems of his primary field of interest. Steven Collins introduces us to the blacksmith's shop: we feel his sweat, we sense his temper, we regret a few easy or even failed strokes, but we see the artwork taking shape. -- Louis Gabaude, Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient Scholars, friends, colleagues, and students will treasure this last instance of Collins' distinctive and humane sensibility. * Journal of the American Academy of Religion * This final work by Collins and his editors is an important piece in the study of Pali Buddhism as well as the study of South Asian intellectual history. * Religious Studies Review *