|
Shambhala Sun Books in Brief
By ANDREA MILLER
THE MONKS AND ME: How 40 Days in Thich Nhat Hanh’s French Monastery Guided Me Home
By Mary Paterson
Hampton Roads Publishing 2012; 256 pp., $16.95 (paper)
The Monks and Me
is the true story of Mary Paterson’s forty days at Plum Village.
Paterson’s lessons in the dharma take many forms, but I particularly
enjoy what she learns from her co-retreatants. Take Charlie, a
Newfoundlander who wears a Mexican poncho. “Killing the cats was fucking
killing me,” he says. Charlie used to be a neuropsychologist and his
work involved stimulating different parts of cats’ brains in order to
observe their reactions to fear, then killing and dissecting them. His
intimate relationships were stressful, too—he had three girlfriends at
the same time—and he had a mountain of debt to contend with. Then
Charlie took Thich Nhat Hanh’s five mindfulness trainings, most
significantly the first, reverence for life. This helped him quit his
job, solve his debt problems, and commit to a monogamous relationship.
Paterson’s colorful co-retreatants also include a shameless headphone
thief and a sad German with beige hair, beige skin, and beige eyes who
is driven out of the retreat by a fiery Brazilian.
BRIGHT MOON, WHITE CLOUDS: Selected Poems of Li Po
Edited and translated by J.P. Seaton
Shambhala Publications 2012; 224 pp., $14.95 (paper)
THE ART OF HAIKU: Its History through Poems and Paintings by Japanese Masters
By Stephen Addiss
Shambhala Publications 2012; 352 pp., $24.95 (cloth)
Li
Po, the celebrated eighth-century Chinese poet, is most famous for his
drinking poems, full of pretty girls and jade vessels and hangovers. But
he is also well known for poetry reflecting his philosophical bent,
chiefly Taoist but also Buddhist and Confucian. In his introduction to Bright Moon, White Clouds: Selected Poems of Li Po,
translator J.P. Seaton says, “There is often something almost
Dionysian, almost magically freeing, in [Li Po’s] poems, even moments
that sound like wobbly satoris. But (how like a Taoist!) he never uses
the Chinese words for satori, or sudden enlightenment, to describe any
physical, philosophical, or spiritual state he reaches.”
The Art of Haiku
is an extensive exploration of that poetic form, its corresponding
tradition of painting, and its related poetic styles. Haiku is
frequently described as a Zen art, but author Stephen Addiss points out
that the relationship between haiku and Zen isn’t clear-cut. While the
renowned Basho was a Zen practitioner, as were several of his followers,
most haiku poets didn’t study Zen. Some adhered to no religion; others
identified with Taoism, Shintoism, Confucianism, or other Buddhist
sects. The poet Issa, for example, was a devout Pure Land Buddhist. This
gem of a poem by him is one of the 997 poems included in The Art of Haiku: “baby sparrows / open their mouths to the plum tree— / a Buddhist chant.”
THE GREAT WORK OF YOUR LIFE A Guide for the Journey of Your True Calling
By Stephen Cope
Bantam Books 2012; 304 pp., $26 (cloth)
How can we get in touch with our true self and embrace our calling?
To
explore this question, Stephen Cope uses the wisdom of a
two-thousand-year-old Indian scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, as a
jumping-off point. The Gita begins with Arjuna collapsing onto the floor
of his chariot because he’s conflicted over his vocation. What follows
is a philosophical discussion between Arjuna and Krishna, his divine
charioteer. According to Cope, “Arjuna is supposedly the greatest
warrior of his time, but really, he is just astonishingly like we are:
neurotic as hell, and full of every doubt and fear you can imagine.”
Nonetheless, over the course of eighteen ancient chapters, Arjuna
discovers and embraces his calling—and we can too. In The Great Work of Your Life,
Cope provides us with engaging examples of people finding their path.
Some of these people have so-called ordinary lives. Others are
well-known figures, including Jane Goodall, Henry David Thoreau, and
Susan B. Anthony.
DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK Living with Wisdom and Compassion
By Thubten Chodron
Snow Lion Publications 2013; 224 pp., $15.95 (paper)
I started this book because the title made me laugh, but I kept reading it because of the insight on its pages. Don’t Believe Everything You Think
is an explanation of The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas, a text
written by the Tibetan monk Togmay Zangpo in the fourteenth century. My
favorite part of the book is the way Thubten Chodron has peppered it
with the experiences—both the challenges and lessons learned—of her
dharma students. For example, she relates Togmay Zangpo’s verse on
betrayal to how her student Deborah has worked with being abandoned by
her alcoholic mother, and to how her student Maria dealt with a
collaborative art project taking an unhappy turn. Thubten Chodron, an
American nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, is the founder and
abbess of Sravasti Abbey in Washington state, as well as the author of Buddhism for Beginners and Open Heart, Clear Mind.
MOODY COW LEARNS COMPASSION
By Kerry Lee MacLean
Wisdom Publications 2012; 32 pp., $16.95 (cloth)
Moody Cow Learns Compassion
is a picture book for children ages four and up. When Moody Cow and his
friend Bully catch a garter snake, Bully feeds it a cricket. “Awesome!”
shouts Bully as the little guy squirms in the snake’s mouth, but Moody
Cow just feels sad. “You are such a wimp,” says Bully, and Moody Cow
stomps off mad. That night Moody Cow dreams he’s as tiny as a cricket
and a huge snake slithers up to him with its jaws open wide. “Don’t eat
me!” he screams. Obviously, this whole cricket situation has Moody Cow’s
thoughts super upset but he knows exactly what to do. He takes out his
Mind Jar, which is a jar of water he uses to represent his mind. For
being called a coward and getting mad, Moody Cow puts a pinch of
sparkles into the jar, and for knowing how it feels to be eaten alive,
he throws in three handfuls. His grandfather shakes the jar and the two
of them breathe quietly as the sparkles and the upsetting thoughts both
settle. By the time the water is clear, Moody Cow feels better and he’s
ready to have some compassionate fun with Grandfather and Bully.
|
