Gravitas Levitas
Spring 2005 Vol. 21 #2
Spring 2005 Vol. 21 #2
Short reviews of Open to Desire by Mark Epstein • Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America by Wendy Cadge • The Best Buddhist Writing: 2004 edited by Melvin McLeod and the editors of Shambhala Sun • Field Notes on the Compassionate Life by Marc Ian Barasch • The Heart of the World by Ian Baker • This Isn’t a Picture I’m Holding: Kuan Yin by Kathy J. Phillips • The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons by David R. Loy and Linda Goodhew • Dogen’s Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Koroku by Taigen Dan Leighton & Shohaku Okumura • Meditations by Thanissaro Bhikkhu • Joy, No Matter What by Carolyn Hobbs
Open to Desire: Embracing a Lust for Life
by Mark Epstein
(240 pp., Gotham Books, 2005)
Mark Epstein is one of the most original and accessible interpreters now working at the interface of Buddhism and Western thought. In his latest book Epstein focuses on desire and turns the accepted wisdom on into intimacy with the world. This perspective is a real gift to dharma students who may be caught in a frustrating struggle with themselves due to doctrinaire positions taken by both Buddhists and Western psychologists. Epstein draws on sources such as James Hillman, Freud, Kahlil Gibran, Buddhist texts, Hindu mythology and some case studies from his own psychotherapy practice to shed a new and liberating light on human desire, offering us the relief of insight and forgiveness. —WN
♦
Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America
by Wendy Cadge
(268 pp., University of Chicago Press, 2005)
Do you consider yourself a Buddhist? And how exactly did vipassana practice—and Theravada Buddhism— reach you here in America? Does your experience—whether you’re an “immigrant” or a “convert”—differ much from that of the thousands of others who practice in this branch of Buddhism? In her new book, the result of careful sociological research, Wendy Cadge addresses these questions and more. She begins with a thorough history of Theravada’s arrival in the United States. Then, she immerses herself in a comparative investigation of Wat Mongkoltepmunee, a Thai Buddhist temple out-side Philadelphia, and the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center near Boston. Personal stories of the many people she gets to know provide a glimpse into the inner workings of each community and the motivations that enliven their members’ practice. Readers may be surprised by the similarities she uncovers beneath the very different exteriors of these two institutions. And those of us who are part of Theravada’s growth in America will surely learn more about ourselves and the many others who join us on this path. —DC
♦
The Best Buddhist Writing: 2004
Edited by Melvin McLeod and the editors of Shambhala Sun
(369 pp., Shambhala Publications, 2004)
This collection of essays and teachings is a testament to the scope, wisdom and writing talent of the modern Buddhist world. Just a few of the treats you will find inside are Brad Warner on his kensho experience, Robert Thurman on his friend the Dalai Lama, Kimberley Snow on cooking in a Buddhist center, Barbara Gates on her encounters with cancer and a raccoon, plus inspired teachings by Dilgo Khyentse (who died in 1991 and still made it into the 2004 anthology!), Tara Brach, Pema Chödrön, Jack Kornfield, and Thich Nhat Hanh on war and peace. It’s a feast of inspiration. —WN
♦
Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness
by Marc Ian Barasch
(352 pp., Rodale, 2005)
Out of the annual tide of spiritual books, occasionally one appears on shore that makes us say, once again, “This is what the journey is all about!” Field Notes on the Compassionate Life is such a book, delightful to read and inspiring to contemplate. Barasch explores the compassionate life through stories, his “field notes,” about encounters with Gyalwa Karmapa; watching bonobo apes at a language research center; taking part in a “street retreat” among the homeless in Denver; experiences in post-9/11 New York; examining the latest research on altruism. Barasch is a passionate, engaging and often very funny writer. This book is highly recommended. —WN
♦
The Heart of the World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place
by Ian Baker
(478 pp., Penguin Press, 2004)
For nearly 2,000 years, the notion of an earthly paradise hidden among the peaks of Asia has captivated the human imagination. Ian Baker, a Kathmandu-based writer, explorer and Tantric scholar, became obsessed with finding this mythic Shangri-la after hearing about a legendary waterfall along the mighty Tsangpo River in a remote region of Tibet. According to Tibetan texts, behind those cascades lay the door to Yangsang: the ultimate hidden land of immortality, reachable only to those with purified hearts and minds. Baker’s quest is told in The Heart of the World, which is among the most complex, compelling and satisfying adventure books I have ever read. On the prosaic level, it’s a search for a hidden waterfall that eluded explorers for more than a century. But it is also—perhaps primarily—an exploration into the heart of Tibetan Buddhism, which views the animistic spirits of sacred geography as metaphors for the nature of mind. From harrowing encounters with tribal poisoning cults to a descent into the roaring “throat” of a Buddhist goddess, Baker’s quest is an unforgettable saga, definitely one for the ages. —JG
♦
This Isn’t a Picture I’m Holding: Kuan Yin
by Kathy J. Phillips
(157 pp., University of Hawaii Press, 2004)
Perhaps more images of Kuan Yin appear in Honolulu than in any other city of the world, with its ethnic mix of Thai, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Taiwanese and a scattering of U.S. Buddhist students. Small wonder that the bodhisattva became poetic inspiration to Kathy J. Phillips, whose work appears in this new book of poetry. For many years a professor of English at the University of Hawai’i, Phillips offers in her introduction a concise tour of Kuan Yin history, from a possible transmutation of Avalokitesvara, who in the seventh century moved as goddess into Chinese life, through her compassionate roles in historical lore—housewife, dragon, snake, prostitute, naga. . . .
Phillips’s witty, original poems glow with Kuan Yin’s spontaneity, an indivisible quality of compassion. Her goddess is not geographically confined, and is political. She mingles with the ghosts who built the Great Wall of China and hears the cries of the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina and of children napalmed in Vietnam. She contemplates pickled human hearts disguised as crack seed, and is “shunted to sex work” as a Korean comfort woman and a Filipina shipped off to Guam. She even enters the narrative heart of the poet to comfort friends, one dying of AIDS and another an Alzheimer’s victim. The poems are illustrated with many photographs by Joseph Singer. —CP
♦
The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons: Buddhist Themes in Modern Fantasy
by David R. Loy and Linda Goodhew
(155 pp., Wisdom Publications, 2004)
This slim and eloquent volume will appeal most to readers whose interest in Buddhism is complemented by a passion for fantasy reading and film. Loy and Goodhew find Buddhist truths in contemporary non-Buddhist stories. Having raised my daughter on Tolkein, Pullman and Le Guin, I am delighted to reread beloved passages and revisit imaginary worlds which have animated my own inner life. The authors suggest many resonances with Buddhism. Pullman’s dead are released to become “part of everything”—alive in blades of grass and leaves, raindrops and dew—images of interpermeation reminiscent of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings. Frodo’s quest is not to find a treasure or slay a dragon, but to cast the ring of power into the Cracks of Doom, to let go. Thus, aspects of dharma come alive for the children of the West. —BG
♦
Dogen’s Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Koroku
Translated by Taigen Dan Leighton & Shohaku Okumura. Edited by Taigen Dan Leighton
(722 pp., Wisdom Publications, 2004)
When I began Zen practice, the thirteenth-century Japanese Zen Master Dogen’s works were difficult to find. Over the last fifteen or twenty years we are fortunate to have various translations of his masterwork, Shobogenzo, or Treasure of the True Dharma Eye, one of the most creative and challenging collections of writings found in any religious or philosophical tradition.
This new (and hefty) volume represents the other half of Dogen’s teaching. The Koroku is mostly drawn from his later teachings. It includes shorter talks (formal and informal), classical koans and radical commentary, as well as Dogen’s own verses. These are recorded talks—part poetry, part performance—offered from the teacher’s seat in the Dharma Hall, similar in style to those of Chinese masters in the Tang and Sung dynasties. The words are vivid, spare, often elusive, punctuated by shouts and gestures. The Koruku is Zen in action, come alive even 800 years after Dogen’s passing. Perhaps it is not for everybody, but if you have a mind that yearns to range freely, I would invite you to savor these pages. We owe a great debt to Taigen Dan Leighton and Shohaku Okumura for this monumental translation, a labor of love and a generous offering to those who choose to wander beyond the beaten path. —AS
♦
Meditations
by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
(160 pp., Metta Forest Monastery, 2003, for free distribution)
“Practicing the Dhamma is . . . not so much an issue of self improvement as one of action improvement, word improvement, and thought improvement,” says Ajahn “Geoff” in his book Meditations. The book is based on forty of his talks on meditation practice given over a three-year period at Metta Forest Monastery in California. It is easy to read, user-friendly, warm, alive and humorous, and speaks directly to the listener, pointing the heart/mind out of its habitual patterns. The book’s short chapters address topics such as generosity, the “story-telling mind,” contentment in the practice, the dignity of restraint, and “skills to take with you.”
A dhamma friend and I have used Meditations as a guide to investigate our own lives for the past nine months. It provides an excellent means to view life through the eye of dhamma and is an wonderful book for groups as well as for individuals as they train their hearts. —Mettika
(Available at www.accesstoinsight.org or from Metta Forest Monastery, P.O. Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082.)
♦
Joy, No Matter What
by Carolyn Hobbs
(190 pp., Conari Press, 2005)
Encountering Joy, No Matter What by Carolyn Hobbs is like finding the map to a priceless hidden treasure. The treasure is, of course, the possibility of experiencing joy in the midst of life’s challenges. The map she offers guides readers in how and why to meet life’s multitude of moments with three simple choices that lead to joy. The brilliance of this book is that it makes perennial wisdom easily accessible and applicable to daily life. The writing, especially the examples about relationship, is alive with the author’s twenty years of experience as a psychotherapist and twenty-five as a practitioner of Buddhist meditation. People with both extensive or no spiritual background will find that the exercises are valuable tools that work. With humor and a mature heart, the author reminds us that subtle inner joy resonates from deep within when we are mindful, compassionate and accepting of what is. Hobbs offers practices that reconnect us with our innate joy, regardless of outer circumstances. —DC-T
♦♦♦
From the Spring 2005 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 21, No. 2)
© 2005 Inquiring Mind
Author
