Contents: Prologue. 1. The invention of 'Buddhism'. 2. The world of the Buddha. 3. The death of God. 4. The long way to the middle way. 5. A science of the mind. 6. Turning the wheel. 7. A little dust in the eyes. 8. Looking for the self. 9. The fire sermon. 10. A spiritual politics. 11. Empires and nations. 12. Western Dharmas. 13. Overcoming Nihilism. 14. The last journey. 15. Committed to becoming. Notes.
"It was ten years ago, while living in a cottage in the Himalayas, that Pankaj Mishra first thought of writing about the Buddha, fondly imagining days spent immersed in literature, gradually uncovering the life and teachings of the spiritual figure who lived 2500 years ago. However, Buddhism had been dead in India - its birthplace -- for many centuries and, as time passed, it seemed impossible to Mishra that he would ever be able to reconcile the remote age of the Buddha with the reality of life around him. What relevance could it have in a place where poverty, terrorism and state repression cast a constant shadow, where young men longed for revolution or nuclear bombs, and where stories of prejudice and violence competed with Miss India's recent triumphs for front-page headlines in newspapers?
During the intervening years, Mishra travelled widely - from the small towns of India where shiny glass buildings loomed over shacks of corrugated iron, through Kashmir and Pakistan where he witnessed the futile struggles of young Islamists, to America and Europe, whose famous cities echoed a glorious history but offered a limited view of the world's future. It was only as he reflected on these experiences and his own past that Mishra began to understand how the Buddha had dealt with problems of personal identity and alienation in his own - no less bewildering - times.
In An End to Suffering, Pankaj Mishra, one of the most compelling writers of his generation, has created an original, provocative, and deeply moving Book. His vivid prose weaves together memoir and politics, travel and biography, history and philosophy in a narrative that slices to the heart of our troubled times, offering, through the life and teachings of the Buddha, an exceptionally insightful vision of the world today." (jacket)
