The Best Way to Catch a Snake: A Practical Guide To Gautama Buddha's Teachings

This book provides a solid introduction to the foundational building blocks of Buddhist thought. They are presented in a clear, straightforward manner, with suggestions for contemplating their role in your life. Worth b reading more than once.

As a student and practitioner of Buddhism, I welcome Venerable Karma Yeshe Rabgye's clear and concise introduction to the central teachings of the Buddha.His text covers the Four Seals, the Four Noble Truths, and the Four Preliminary Thoughts and includes appendices on the various schools of Buddhism and a short biography of the life of the Buddha.Overall,Ven. Karma Yeshe Rabgye presents the subject matter in a way that allows a contemporary reader to relate the teachings to his/her life. At various points, the text invites the reader to think about different aspects of the material by posing questions that are intended for further reflection. Furthermore, Ven. Karma Yeshe Rabgye draws on a broad variety of scriptures that belong to various traditions of Buddhism to illustrate and support the claims he makes. Though he clearly identifies his own perspective (the Karma Kagyu tradition), he embraces the wisdom that is found in the writings of other schools of Buddhism as well. Contemporary references and a sense of humor make "The Best Way to Catch a Snake" pleasant to read and easy to follow.The only suggestion I have is that, in the next edition, the list of sources that appear in the bibliography section be expanded to include all of the texts that are mentioned in the book. Doing so will allow the reader to follow up on the various canonical writings much more easily.In summary, "The Best Way to Catch a Snake" is a clear and concise introduction to the principles of Buddhism that is intended for a general reader. I would certainly consider including it in an introductory course on Buddhism that is taught at the college or university level.Christian M. Mahoney, M.A., Ph.D.

I got so much from this book. I was interested in understanding the foundations of buddhism and finding out about what the buddha taught and what he meant. This book covered everything i needed in a fantastically simple way that made complete sense to me as a secular person. Extremely inspiring read, life-changing for me.

Ahmazing read! Yeshe’s simplistic modernized depiction of Buddhism and the teachings of Gautama Are profound and yet personally thought provoking as one chooses his own personal path! I cannot wait to start his next book and continue to reach out to Rabgye as I continue on my journey!

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Some good stuff, but very preachy.

Great book, someone stole it from my table at the coffee shop, hope they catch the irony while reading on karma...

Such an eye opener. I've read through it twice now just to get it all to sink in. This book should be in the self help section too because it helped me realise that my life could change.

Clear minded and insightful it flows well from theme to theme. A pleasure to read and will go back to.

For me this is the clearest explanation of Buddhism I have read, for me that I'm totally new in this argument.

A very practical guide to buddha's teachings..

Relatively weak.Barely content.

Don’t waste time reading my review, just start reading this book it is very well written.I have tried to understand buddhism before but I really could not get a grasp on it until listening to Yehes podcast and then reading this book.I am looking forward to learning more.Thank you Karma Yeshe Rabgye.