Some New Buddha Books

So I have been reading a few new Buddha books that my friend lent to me. One of them combines yoga and Buddhism into an approach the author has given his own sort of proprietary title, which I will omit here because I'm not crazy about his whole thing. The book is useful in a historical/comparative way. Someone was going to systematize and label this yoga/Buddha synthesis eventually, so anyway that's out there. I am a little resistant to fully embracing this book's message because I took a class once with this author several years ago and I didn't like it/the author. Oopsies I'm letting cult of personality influence my receptivity to information! Oh well.

The second book I'm really pumped about - Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Bachelor. I've read a bit of it so far and it's offering a nice contextual/historical perspective on the religion-ification of Buddha's teachings. This book is right on time for me as I am feeling a little bummed out by the shiny glamor and obvious expense of the temple I went to, as well as the priestliness of the whole thing.

One thing is sort of bothering me so far, though - in "Beliefs," the author says that "The Buddha did not reveal an esoteric set of facts about reality, which we can choose to believe in or not. He challenged people to understand the nature of anguish, let go of its origins, realize its cessation, and bring into being a way of life." Well, there are at least two facts in operation here - the presumption of existing anguish, and the desire or expectation that this anguish should, for whatever reason, cease. In the law we might call these the ipse dixit(s) - the things asserted but never proven. Usually an ipse dixit is the cause of many many specious arguments. Maybe here is where I am a little stuck lately; it's pretty hard to deny that there is massive suffering in the world and in our minds. That this anguish exists is not really disputed, and we all feel it plenty so we don't really question it - and as a further precondition of awakening, we need to see and feel the anguish to realize its cessation. But isn't there another way of looking at it? I know Buddhists get a bad rap for dwelling on suffering so much, and I definitely feel that. It's a problem.

Maybe I think that another way to see the eventual end of suffering is to see that there is no suffering, really. I'm not sure where this is headed, I have to think it through a little bit.