ABSTRACT
In the course of centuries the Buddhist field has become so vast that it is difficult to write about all of it. Few indeed have attempted to do so, and the number of books which even include all its schools and wanderings is remarkably small. By now the word Buddhist has come to bear two very different meanings: (i) Buddhist scholars, learned men and women who choose some corner of the field and add to our knowledge of it. They are trained to write objectively, and few would even admit to being Buddhists in the second meaning of the term. (2) This includes students who attempt to obtain confirmation of doctrine by diving into their own minds and by applying the principles examined in their own fives. For want of a better term one may call them practitioners. But no one attempting to practise Buddhism can operate in the entire field. There must be, as with scholars, specialization, concentration on a chosen area. One may, for example, practise the basic teachings of the Theravada, which is the Buddhism of Ceylon, Burma and Thailand, and generally accepted as the oldest Buddhist school extant; or one may attempt the Zen training open to Westerners in Japan; or one may try the still harder practice of Tibetan Buddhism, but one cannot seriously practise all three at once. The intensive self-discipline needed for acquiring real spiritual experience calls for specialization before theory can be developed into actual awareness. Whether the specialized target be a theme, such as No-self or the Void, or Karma and Rebirth, or as wide as a school with its own special 'way', the studies must be in depth.
