In many ways, Buddhism has become the global religion of the modern world. For its contemporary followers, the ideal of enlightenment promises inner peace and worldly harmony. And whereas other philosophies feel abstract and disembodied, Buddhism offers meditation as a means to realize this ideal. If we could all be as enlightened as Buddhists, some imagine, we could live in a much better world. For some time now, however, this beatific image of Buddhism has been under attack. Scholars and practitioners have criticized it as a Western fantasy that has nothing to do with the actual experiences of Buddhists.

Avram Alpert combines personal experience and readings of modern novels to offer another way to understand modern Buddhism. He argues that it represents a rich resource not for attaining perfection but rather for finding meaning and purpose in a chaotic world. Finding unexpected affinities across world literature--Rudyard Kipling in colonial India, Yukio Mishima in postwar Japan, Bessie Head escaping apartheid South Africa--as well as in his own experiences living with Tibetan exiles, Alpert shows how these stories illuminate a world in which suffering is inevitable and total enlightenment is impossible. Yet they also give us access to partial enlightenments: powerful insights that become available when we come to terms with imperfection and stop looking for wholeness. A Partial Enlightenment reveals the moments of personal and social transformation that the inventions of modern Buddhism help make possible.
A Partial Enlightenment: What Modern Literature and Buddhism Can Teach Us About Living Well Without Perfection, Avram Alpert, Columbia University Press, Paperback, 264 pp, $30.00

Avram Alpert is a writer, educator, and organizer working to understand what values we can live by in a world as connected, chaotic, and potentially catastrophic as the present. He is currently researching for a new book about what it might mean to be wise in such a world. He has written three previous books on these themes, including, most recently, The Good-Enough Life, an argument for why appreciating our limitations (we are only ever good enough) should lead us to ensure decency (goodness) and sufficiency (enoughness) for all. He has also written for publications including Aeon, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Truthout, and the Brooklyn Rail. Currently, he is Lecturer in the Writing Program at Princeton University. With Sreshta Rit Premnath, he is co-editor and co-manager of programming for Shifter Magazine. With Meleko Mokgosi and Anthea Behm, he is co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program at Jack Shainman Gallery. And with Danny Snelson and Mashinka Firunts, he is a member of the academic-artist collective, Research Service. He has held fellowships from institutions including the Mellon Foundation, the Fulbright Commission of Brazil, and the Whitney Museum�s Independent Study Program.

CONTENTS: A Partial Enlightenment
Acknowledgments		vii
	Introduction	1
1	Enlightenment	27
2	Reincarnation	63
3	Liberation	103
4	Authenticity	139
	Coda	173
Notes		177
Bibliography		221
Index		243