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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Humorous and Insightful Take on Contemporary Buddhism, June 14, 2006
This review is from: Buddha or Bust: In Search of Truth, Meaning, Happiness, and the Man Who Found Them All (Hardcover)
At some point in our cultural consciousness, Buddhism developed a hip cachet. From Zen mp3 players and the rock band Nirvana to Richard Gere's appearances with the Dalai Lama, Buddhist vocabulary and imagery began to infiltrate our collective psychic ken. Journalist/Author Perry Garfinkel spins what began as a National Geographic assignment on modern Buddism around the globe to a full-length book chronicling his journeys around the planet in search of the living Buddhist spirit amidst the cacaphony of modern life. From the war-torn provinces of Sri Lanka(where Buddhist soldiers defy the image of pacificism associated with the religion) to Takster, the birthplace of the Dalai Lama, Garfinkel gives a humorous and sharp-eyed report on Buddhist faith and practice. The picture that emerges is of a complex, evolving religion that is not spared the contradictions, hypocricies, and perplexities of other faiths. Along the way Garfinkel encounters a cast of lively characters, including Sri Lankan activist Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, Shao Lin monk Shi De Cheng, Thich Nhat Hanh, and His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Garfinkel seasons the book with just enough autobiographical information and humor to keep it lively and quick-paced without becoming indulgent or self-aggrandizing. He manages to blend contemporary observations with historical record to create an informative, clear, and accessible portrait of the historic Buddha and the religion that followed in his wake. At 291 pages, the book is a quick, lean, and fun read. For those who enjoy travel writing and/or religious exploration, this book is a score.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but like a marine biologist studying whales above water, July 2, 2006
This review is from: Buddha or Bust: In Search of Truth, Meaning, Happiness, and the Man Who Found Them All (Hardcover)
This book was a fast and light read. Garfinkel's voice is engaging and witty. Speaking of engaged, one of the book's goals is to track the Engaged Buddhist movement. Here, the author travels around the globe taking snapshots of how different cultures have adapted and modernized Buddhism, in many instances making the religion more socially "engaged."
However, in each of the stops I wanted to know more--they truly were just snapshots. For example, he goes to India and signs on with a tour group covering the four major Buddhist holy sights: where the Buddha was born, where he attained enlightenment, where he gave his first teaching, and where he died. Yet, the author really focuses on Bodh Gaya (where the Buddha became enlightened), and says the other spots are sort-of "hazy." Hardly what I call a book about the author's travels "in the footsteps of the Buddha." A more acurrate designation might be "in the footsteps of BUDDHISM."
Covering Engaged Buddhism was equally light, and I was very disappointed in the chapter on American Buddhism, where he was more concerned about his relationship with Buddhism as a Jew. He talked more about Engaged Buddism in his introduction and in the chapter on Auschwitz, Poleland than in the American chapter.
Yet, I still enjoyed the book. If you want a light read and a brief overview of Buddhism around the world, this is the book for you. But if you want something heavier, look elswhere.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A useful, sometimes humorus, overview of Buddhist practice and history with some gaps, November 17, 2007
Garfinkel developed this book as an extension of work he did documenting the roots and migration of Buddhism in Asia for National Geographic. It helps to have some rudimentary introduction to Buddhism before the reading the book. On the other hand, the book will appeal to people who see themselves as "seekers" and want to know more about the diversity of Buddhist practice or have concerns about different aspects of dharma or practice. This is not a book of inspirational readings or scholarly discussions of dharma or Buddhist practices and will be welcomed by those who find "serious" work a little daunting at this stage of their interest in Buddhism. It also will be welcomed by people who have seen some disconnect between Buddhist doctrine and the conduct of Buddhist societies.
Garfinkel has had many years of exposure to different branches of Buddhism, but clearly has been weary of a full-on commitment to any of them. He makes efforts to compare and contrast the development and structure of Buddhist beliefs with those of Christianity and Judaism and tends to do better with Judaism (the faith in which he had been raised). The book is far from exhaustive in describing the life of the Buddha or how Buddhism spread and evolved in Asia. Nonetheless, he seems to get most of the fundamentals right and offers direction to deeper work in a number of areas. There are gaps of varying importance--he describes the large temporal gap between the Buddha's life and efforts to document his teaching without much attention to what happened in between. The idea that Buddhism became incorporated into various Asian cultures is treated as more novel than it needs to be (e.g., Catholicism, a faith with significant hierarchy and centuries of centralized teaching, nonetheless, evolved in markedly different ways around the world, which has posed challenges for the US Church with waves of new and different Catholic immingarnst). Moreover, many of the cycles of decline, renewal, institutional corruption, etc. are common to other faiths. While Buddhism differs from other world religions in its absence of a deity, lack of anti-scientific ideas, etc., organized Buddhism suffers the same human frailties as any other collective enterprise.
Garfinkel attempts to explain the adoption and adaptation of Buddhism in the US and seems to have more difficulty with this than with explaining why Thai Theravda Buddhism looks so different from Zen Buddhism in Japan. In many ways, he seems Boomer-centric and misses the many ways, often small, in which the US became ready to engage Buddhism. He is somewhat better at describing and analyzing how Asians have come to the US and discovered ways to renew interest in Buddhism in their own, "Buddhist" countries. In terms of Buddhism's arrival in the US, there have been waves of interest in things Asians since the late 19th century and the strong influence of Buddhist imagery in Chinese, Japanese and other Asian arts and crafts would have awakened some interest decades ago. In addition, many Americans would have been exposed to various aspects of Asian culture and religion, if only superficially, through the Philippine occupation, WWII, the occupation of Japan, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War and the continuing placement of troops and other interests in a variety of Asian Countries. Important intellectual currents in the US from the late 19th century onward also paved the way for more interest and acceptance. Among the small number of US thinkers who captured the interest of Asians were people like John Dewey. Dewey was the chief exponent of pragmatism, that most "American" school of philosophy which ironically, had many areas of overlap with Buddhist thought. Dewey also was an important figure in social democratic circles, whose ideas would have received a warm welcome by Buddhist thinkers such as Buddhadasa. Early Humanism, including Humanistic psychology (e.g., Rogerian ideas before Carl Rogers rejection of science and the field's popularization by the self-indulgent) also has many points of overlap with Buddhist thought. American thinkers also would have been aware of the study of Buddhist history stimulated by the work of British and other archeologists (described by Garfinkel). In short, the stage was set for dialogue between quintessential Americans and Asian Buddhism long before the likes of Jack Kerouac or Ram Dass.
Shortcomings aside, this is a quick and entertaining read and good for people who want to know more about Buddhism but aren't ready for a detailed history or for inspirational writings. Some may be put-off by Garfinkel's tendency toward the glib and toward Woody Allen-esque humor. I have a fairly irreverent take on many things, but even I found this grating at times. I got the impression that Garfinkel was a little uncomfortable getting too serious about Buddhism, even though it was also apparent that he wished it was somehow more "pure" and consistent. He seemed bothered about its mongrelization in the US, without recognizing the mongrelization he documents elsewhere. He also seems bothered by its commercialization, although I have to say that compared to the commercialization of Christianity, this seems tame. Even in my very secular neighborhood, one can find "Jesus is my homeboy" bumper stickers, the schlockiness of which I've never seen duplicated in other faiths. Ultimately, Buddhism lives as a human enterprise that has had to adapt itself to many different eras and societies and that's what Garfinkel helps document, even if he isn't always able to draw some of the more obvious conclusions.
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