Deborah White
INSIGHT Aotearoa Newsletter, New Zealand
As the title suggests, Mapping the Dharma is more of an atlas than a text of the Dharma. It is a guide through the maze of lists of the Buddha’s teachings giving structure and clarity to how the teachings fit together. Gerhards states, it is a “visual guide to the teachings --- more a map than a text.” The book contains concise definitions, but is not intended to be read in a linear fashion from cover to cover. Like an atlas it contains directional arrows that connect the puzzle pieces of the greater map. For instance: page 29 is The Third Noble Truth: The End of Suffering with a brief definition. The arrow at the top of that page refers to page 26, The Four Noble Truths. The arrow at the bottom of the page refers to page 34, Nirvana. The appendix gives greater simplification by diagramming the maps without text.
Bhikkhu Bodhi likens Right View, the first step of the Noble Eight Fold Path, to a map. He states, “Right view is the forerunner of the entire path, the guide for all the other factors. It enables us to understand our starting point, our destination, and the successive landmarks to pass as practice advances. To attempt to engage in the practice without a foundation of right view is to risk getting lost in the futility of undirected movement. Doing so might be compared to wanting to drive someplace without consulting a road map or listening to the suggestions of an experienced driver. One might get into the car and start to drive, but rather than approaching closer to one's destination, one is more likely to move farther away from it. To arrive at the desired place one has to have some idea of its general direction and of the roads leading to it. Analogous considerations apply to the practice of the path, which takes place in a framework of understanding established by right view.
Ajahn Chandako, Abbot of Vimutti Buddhist Monastery, offered extensive assistance editing Mapping the Dharma to ensure that it would be an accurate representation of the Buddha’s Right View....