Customer Reviews

The Passionate Buddha: Wisdom on Intimacy and Enduring Love

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Relationship issues are nothing new, and as this book shows, ancient Buddhist teachings on intimacy and relationship offer plenty of guidance on contemporary matters of the heart. Drawing from "the eclectic blend" of his twenty-seven-year marriage and Tibetan Buddhist practice with teachers including Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, among others, Sachs offers readers insights into relationship issues like anger, finding the right partner, sex, abortion, contraception, and infidelity. We are living in a time when divorce rates are high, unprotected sex can result in disease or even death, single-parent families are the norm, cyber-sex is the dominant attraction along the information superhighway, and people medicate their feelings of loneliness and despair, he observes. "In these conditions, it seems imperative to offer a book that addresses how we can come to trust our loving nature, break the habits that alienate us from ourselves and others, and develop healthy, fulfilling, lasting relationships" (p. 4). In his book, Sachs successfully shows how intimate relationships are actually a type of spiritual practice that can teach us flexibility, loving detachment, mutual respect, compassion and enduring love.

G. Merritt

I read this book after the dissolution of a ten-year relationship. I realized that I had a part in the marriage's problems, and I was determined to do it better the next time around. The book was suggested to me by a therapist friend. I was skeptical at first, but the information it contained changed the way I experience and am present in relationship.

It is well-written in a down-to-earth style, full of very helpful information that, when APPLIED, makes a significant difference not only in a loving relationship, but in all relationships.

The author points out that our relationship difficulties aren't the other person's fault or inadequacies. Nor do we have problems because we're not worthy or unloveable. Additionally, we are not required to "take on" our partners' issues, but instead, we meet them with compassion and understanding. We generally operate from old wounds and beliefs that hamper our ability to be in the moment and trigger unconscious responses to some things our partner says or does. We lash out at our Beloved, instead of owning up to our own trauma. Sachs provides very usable suggestions to help the reader to be more present in the moment, and to allow peace and harmony to prevail in times of fear, anger, and anxiety.

The book also explains the importance of true intimacy in relationship. We cannot be whole, nor can we be the loving embrace in which our partners can be whole, unless we are willing to see and to be seen.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to change the way he or she experiences and participates in relationship. Loving relationships don't just "happen" to us. We create them. The quality of our own self awareness and the willingness to give our partner a break make all the difference between a relationship that is harmonious, and one that doesn't serve anyone's highest and best purpose.

A good book for Western beginners who don't know much about Buddism and the teachings of the Buddha.