1801_34_Mindreaders-Briefing

Short reviews of Blue Jean Buddha: Voices of Young Buddhists, edited by Sumi Loundon • Saffron Days in L.A.: Tales of a Buddhist Monk in America by Bhante Walpola Piyananda • King Bimbisara’s Chronicler by Jason Siff • Itivuttaka: This Was Said by the Buddha, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu • Buddhism with an Attitude by B. Alan Wallace • Minding the Darkness by Peter Dale Scott • Transforming Problems into Happiness by Lama Zopa Rinpoche • The Art of War: A New Translation by the Denma Translation Group • Manoa: Song of the Snow Lion: New Writings from Tibet, edited by Frank Stewart, Tsering Shakya & Herbert J. Batt • Lord of the Dance: The Mani Rimdu Festival in Tibet and Nepal by Richard J. Kohn • Graceful Passages: A Companion for Living and Dying (2 CD Set, Companion Arts) • Stretching Lessons: The Daring That Starts from Within by Sue Bender • The Buddha’s Book of Daily Meditations, edited by Christopher Titmuss

Blue Jean Buddha: Voices of Young Buddhists

Edited by Sumi Loundon
Foreword by Jack Kornfield

(288 pp., Wisdom Publications, 2001)

Those who might have been concerned about the “graying” of the Western dharma community can relax. Here are the voices of younger people who are walking the path, bringing their own generational concerns and cultural spin to the Buddha’s teachings. Blue Jean Buddha includes a story about growing up in a Zen center, another about marathon running as a meditation practice, and several tales of encounters with self-judgment and depression. The book is a testimony to the timelessness of the dharma, as well as to the vitality of a new generation that is taking it to heart. —WN

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Saffron Days in L.A.: Tales of a Buddhist Monk in America

by Bhante Walpola Piyananda

(187 pp., Shambhala Publications, 2001)

A Buddhist monk dealing with a nude sunbather on a meditation retreat? This is just one of the many situations that this meditation teacher experiences and transforms into a beautiful and meaningful teaching. Every one of these stories (about twenty in all) demonstrates how this wise and compassionate monk deals with everyday situations by applying skillful means. His equanimity is so strong, and his intentions are so pure, that he’s able to demonstrate the lessons that need to be learned in any situation. Whether he’s in a courtroom referring to the “Metta Sutta” or dealing with a conflicted couple, we see that when compassion and nonattachment are present, peace and harmony prevail. —RK

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King Bimbisara’s Chronicler

by Jason Siff

(117 pp., Sarvodaya Vishva Lekha, 2001)

This slim novel, written by former Theravada monk Jason Siff, carries in its tale many of the central teachings of the Buddha as found in the Pali Canon. Like many books of this genre, it attempts to skillfully weave together the historical attributes of the time of the Buddha—here drawn from Jain scripture as well as archaeological and Buddhist sources—with fictional threads spun from the author’s imagination. In this it succeeds well: the dust of India rises from these pages.

If there is a criticism it is that in his very attempt to make the subject “realistic,” the author dresses the Buddha down to a somewhat excessive degree. What this approach might gain in demythologizing the material, it loses by countering the archetypal power that a figure like the Buddha possesses. Clearly, however, the intention of the book is to cast the core of the Buddha’s teachings, particularly those on meditation, into a narrative form accessible for all who might be interested. It does an admirable job of this. —AA

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Itivuttaka: This Was Said by the Buddha

Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

(128 pp., Dhamma Dana Publications, 2001, free)

The Itivuttaka (from the recurring “iti vuttam,” “this was said”) is an ancient Pali collection of 112 short discourses for a lay audience. It was traditionally attributed to a laywoman auditor of the Buddha, Khujjutara, who was said to have memorized what she heard the Buddha say in order to teach her royal mistress and 500 ladies-in-waiting. Thanissaro Bhikkhu has added a helpful introduction, notes and glossary. In a world of manic dot-com capitalism, what could be more timely, as well as timeless, than the Buddha’s own opening words: “Abandon greed as the one quality, and I guarantee you non-return”? —PDS

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Buddhism with an Attitude

by B. Alan Wallace

(288 pp., Snow Lion, 2001)

For Western lay Buddhists ready to deepen and give greater priority to practice, Buddhism with an Attitude is a worthy guide. Wallace’s text is a commentary on Atisha’s “Seven Point Mind Training,” which centers on lojong, or “attitudinal training”—taking a hard look at attitudes that keep one in samsara and the self that has these attitudes. The seven points comprise a complete program of analysis and meditation that could be practiced over a lifetime. This very contemporary commentary—which avoids the more common structure of strictly alternating original text with comments—is illuminated by the author’s many years of Buddhist teaching and practice and by his explorations of physics and neuroscience. “You don’t have to be spiritual or intellectual to practice Dharma effectively,” he writes. “What’s needed is to saturate the mind with two challenges: a thorough evaluation of ordinary life and a thorough evaluation of human potential.” Fleshing out those challenges in a single book is a formidable task, one that Alan Wallace achieves here with subtle discernment and elegance. —BH

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Minding the Darkness

by Peter Dale Scott

(264 pp., New Directions, 2000)

Though many fine American poets are meditators, Peter Dale Scott may be the first to give us a psychological record of the experience of prolonged sitting—including the moments of asking “Am I sixty-seven or four?” when “a grown-up / steps on my foot,” as well as the moments of “the pure white light / next to me on my left.” Minding the Darkness concludes a remarkable, encyclopedic long poem about the twentieth century, encompassing politics, religion, art, family and eros. Beginning in dukkha, with the Oakland Hills fire (“If you want to change your life / burn down your house”), it ends in the assurance that “darkness of experience / is the beginning of insight.” —AW

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Transforming Problems into Happiness

by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

(91 pp., Wisdom Publications, 2001)

Most people are not particularly fond of their problems. The standard perception, in fact, is that problems are things to get rid of; to hate and reject. This book, on the other hand, takes on the revolutionary Buddhist perspective: problems can be a path to the end of suffering, and we can learn to enjoy them as we would a delicious ice cream cone or a good piece of music. To the skeptical reader or practitioner, it may seem like this attitude is going a bit far, but this useful companion helps make it a true possibility. The key, of course, is training the mind to uproot our attachment to desire. This book offers specific guidance and practices to do just that, such as working with intention, noticing desire as soon as it arises, and taking on the suffering of all beings while at the same time offering them your possessions, good will, happiness and merit. If you want a reminder of the illusory nature of happiness, this is a good book to read and reread. You don’t forget it. —RK

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The Art of War: A New Translation

Translation, essays and commentary by the Denma Translation Group

(272 pp., Shambhala Publications, 2001)

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is a Chinese military classic, attributed to the age of Confucius and recorded in an imperial library catalog from the first century BCE. Why would a group of Buddhist practitioners spend ten years retranslating this familiar military book? Partly because in 1972 archaeologists found a better text, but mostly because they see it as teaching how to deal gently with violence, or in the work’s famous words, to subdue without battle. Trained in the Tibetan practice of Dorje Kasung, which melds Buddhist and military tradition, they write that these different disciplines “share the view that true victory is victory over aggression.” The translation is spare and elegant, frequently reminding one of the Daodejing in its simplicity and mystery. —PDS

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Manoa: Song of the Snow Lion: New Writings from Tibet

Edited by Frank Stewart, Tsering Shakya & Herbert J. Batt

(220 pp., University of Hawaii, 2000)

If there is truth in the premise that literature arises from suffering, then the writers of Tibet have enormous resources. In this stunning anthology, Manoa journal’s editor, Frank Stewart, Tibetan scholar Tsering Shakya and translator Herbert J. Batt offer Tibetan short stories and poems in English translation. The volume proves that young men and women of Tibet are transforming their nation’s agony into art.

We are accustomed to thinking of Tibetan literature as limited to folk tales and scriptural parables. This collection arises from the literary and spiritual backlash to the forced learning of the Chinese language and Communist concepts such as class and exploitation. A Tibetan version of history has emerged in writings that combine images of ancient Buddhist culture with expressions of duress and loss, often drawing power from being oblique and veiled. —CP

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Lord of the Dance: The Mani Rimdu Festival in Tibet and Nepal

by Richard J. Kohn

(320 pp., SUNY Press, 2001)

In 1978, Richard Kohn traveled to Nepal to study “Temporary Art in Buddhist Communities of Nepal.” A brilliant and careful scholar, Kohn soon realized that Buddhist art objects were all but meaningless unless viewed in their ritual context; and the ritual from which many of these objects drew their power, Kohn learned, was Mani Rimdu, a long-misunderstood Sherpa celebration involving butter sculpture, masked dance and the “painting” of a magnificent sand mandala.

With this discovery, Kohn plunged into a project that would occupy him for two decades and produce one of Buddhism’s watershed films: the profound and poetic Lord of the Dance, Destroyer of Illusion, a portrait of Mani Rimdu at Nepal’s Chiwong Monastery. The book Lord of the Dance (completed just two months before Kohn’s tragic death in May 2000) is a more complete key to the mysteries of Mani Rimdu, including drawings, photographs and translations of texts held secret for many centuries. It is a tribute to the beauty of Buddhist ritual—and to the eloquence of a writer fully immersed in the art of enlightenment. —JG

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Graceful Passages: A Companion for Living and Dying

(2 CD Set, Companion Arts, 2001)

Graceful Passages is a moving weave of words and music for those who are going through a major transition in their lives. The CDs contain messages from Thich Nhat Hanh, Ram Dass, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Sholomi, among others, as well as music from various artists including Linda Tillery, Rhiannon, the U.C. Berkeley Chamber Choir, oboist Paul McCandless, and players of the bamboo flute, classical guitar and Tibetan bells. Graceful Passages is itself a transition in that it moves the wisdom teachings into a new medium. —WN

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Stretching Lessons: The Daring That Starts from Within

by Sue Bender

(227 pp., HarperSanFrancisco, 2001)

Living outside our comfort zone happens whether we like it or not. Sue Bender invites us to make this a habit and give in to the stretch. Stretching, of course, is the metaphor she uses to encourage us to overcome our doubts and inner restrictions. That’s her way of exploring the potential of our humanity. Whether she’s giving a talk, discovering an old trophy, or walking in the dark at 5:00 am, she taps into the grace and wisdom of the moment. The stories are brief; the messages are wonderful dharma (“Accepting success can also be a stretch”; “Let yourself have more of yourself”). Filled with charming drawings of things like hearts, toothbrushes, hands, socks and even a suit of armor, this book is a magnet for self-reflection and the insights that live inside the stretch. —RK

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The Buddha’s Book of Daily Meditations

Edited by Christopher Titmuss

(400 pp., Three Rivers Press, 2001)

This is a book that was waiting to be written. It’s part of the genre that provides daily inspirations for each calendar day of the year. The quotations are all from the Buddha. (January 26: “Neither mother, father, nor any other relative can do one greater good than one’s own well-directed mind”; October 4: “Enter upon and abide in pure, supreme Emptiness.”) As the editor says in the introduction, these are “not intended as a light read.” So although the book appears to be 365 of the Buddha’s greatest quotes, we should not be deceived. Only by wise reflection and meditation can these words ever give real meaning and depth to our lives. This book provides the bite-sized quotes, but our efforts must do the rest. —RK

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