Christmas Humphreys, a widely read proponent of Buddhism, sets out to apply a philosophy based on Buddhist principles to the practical considerations of everyday life. He ranges over subjects such as love, duty and responsibility, right and wrong, good and evil, and more abstract concepts such as action and inaction, mind-development and the form of existential thinking which is the Western approach to Zen. It has been written as a thought-provoking text for all those who have considered or questioned the possibility of leading a Buddhist way of life in the 20th century. "The Way of Action" is formulated as an entire and sufficient working philosophy of life, devised about the right doing of the act in hand. If this act is rightly done, the actor, on his way through life, will find a diminishing need of assistance from philosophic doctrine, religious practice or a Saviour of any kind.
It is proposed that in harmony with the rhythm of life, the actor will be able safely to ignore such man-made distinctions as being and doing, right action and wrong action, and by concentrating on the utterly right performance of the next thing to be done, move happily towards his own and the world's enlightenment. The author has written several books on Buddhist philosophy, including "A Western Approach to Zen", "Exploring Buddhism" and "Buddhist Poems: A Selection 1920-1970".