The supreme doctrine

As Dr. Benoit says at the beginning of his preface, "This book contains a certain number of basic ideas that seek to improve our understanding of the state of man." His contribution to this ancient pursuit is a presentation of Zen Buddhism in language familiar to the Occidental world. He does not advocate wholesale "conversion" to Eastern religion, but rather that Western psychological thinking and reasoning be enriched and clarified by Oriental wisdom. Zen is not so much a philosophical system as a hygiene of intelligent living, and Dr. Benoit, a practicing psychoanalyst, shows how it can liberate us from some of the sickness and anxiety that plague contemporary civilization. His descriptions of how the will and intelligence can be disciplined and developed into an inner personal harmony will prove unusually clear to the general reader. Since Zen is being discussed so widely (and often so inaccurately) it is salutary and gratifying to have a text so judicious and readable as The Supreme Doctrine.