The Accidental Buddhist (Paperback)

~ (Author) "ZEN MOUNTAIN MONASTERY is an impressive stone structure tucked neatly onto the side of Tremper Mountain, in the Catskills, in eastern New York State..." (more)
Key Phrases: mind weeds, meditation hall, training rule, Dalai Lama, Father Kennedy, Nhat Hanh (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this succinct reading by Jack Hawkins, author Moore relates how persistent dissatisfaction and a hollowness in his life led him, a college writing professor, to investigate the resurgence of Buddhism (Algonquin, 1997). His self-styled American Buddhism Project led him to visit several diverse monasteries and retreats and delve into the wealth of contemporary literature. His insouciant account of these experiences makes the oftentimes impenetrable concepts of Buddhism accessible to the reader and contains striking, and important, parallels and contrasts between his own Catholic upbringing and ancient Buddhist traditions. Highly recommended.?Linda Bredengerd, Univ. of Pittsburgh Lib., Bradford, Pa.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A self-absorbed but still instructive trek through the many varieties of American Buddhism. Moore (The Emperor's Virtual Clothes, 1995) claims a predicament with which many Americans are familiar: Life along the information superhighway can seem a hurried, tense affair. Like other seekers, Moore turns to Buddhism to soothe his angst and fill the meaningless void. Thus, another book about yet another Baby Boomer who skeptically embraces an Eastern religion--and who thinks that his spiritual quest is fascinating enough to relate to all the world. The quest is hackneyed, the humor irritating (``Why do Tibetan Buddhists have trouble with their vacuum cleaners? They lack attachments''). That said, Moore's tale is valuable on an entirely different, perhaps unintended, count: as a travelogue detailing the tremendous diversity within American Buddhism. His anecdotes make it clear that the umbrella term ``Buddhist'' encompasses strict Zen monks, laid-back Tibetan politicos, and beatnik holdover Allen Ginsberg. In his travels, Moore attends weekend retreats, chronicles the Dalai Lama's 1996 visit to Indiana, and grooves to Change Your Mind Day, a meditative Buddha- fest in New York City's Central Park. Along the way he asks whether American Buddhism is ``the real thing or just shallow amusement''; his own experiences seem to indicate that it is both. In the end, Moore's wanderings come full circle, as he quite accidentally discovers a group of practicing Buddhists in his own rural town. He finds that his family is his sangha (monastery), and while he still feels he is ``probably a fairly lousy Buddhist,'' he will eclectically combine his various forms of new knowledge to find a path that makes sense to him. Now that may be an authentic American Buddhism. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday Religion; 1st Main Street Books Ed edition (February 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385492677
• ISBN-13: 978-0385492676
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #334,580 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable, interesting book., December 8, 2000

By	Adam Khan (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The author of this book set out on a search to find out what American Buddhism might be like. What we have in U.S. is Tibetan Buddhism, Japanese Zen Buddhism, Vietnamese Buddhism, etc. All Asian. If you stripped away all the cultural adornments, what would Buddhism look like in modern America? Is it even possible? Or is Buddhism so naturally Asian that when you strip it clean of Asian-ness, nothing is left? That was Dinty's question.

The Accidental Buddhist is the story of his search. He went to weekend retreats where he meditated all day (and sometimes got to ask the head Buddhist dude some questions), he set up personal interviews with some of the most famous Buddhists in America. He talked to John Daido Loori of the Zen Mountain Monastery, the Tibetan Monk Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, Father Robert Jensen Kennedy (Zen teacher and Jesuit priest), Helen Tworkov, the editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana (author of the excellent book, Mindfulness in Plain English), and he even got to ask the Dalai Lama a question. Dinty found many different kinds of Buddhism, many different levels of intensity of practice, but they all shared the core of Buddhist principles, which, by the way, I found beautifully explained in a book called The Heart of Buddhism by Guy Claxton (who is a British writer, and ironically, is the closest I've seen to what Dinty was looking for: American Buddhism).

Dinty tells you what he found, and in the process, you get a pretty good understanding of what Buddhism is about. Dinty is honest, charming and disarming. He's got a great sense of humor. The writing is good (easy to read, flows well, not academic-ese), and the author is very human and easy to identify with.

I'm the author of the book, Self-Help Stuff That Works, and the principles of Buddhism work. But what we need is exactly what Dinty was searching for: Those principles without the shaved heads, chanting in a foreign language, superstitious beliefs, etc. The Accidental Buddhist is a broad look at several different forms of Buddhism, and points the way, in an entertaining book, of how we might find our own American Buddhism.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great intro for the curious or beginner, December 6, 1999

By	"papierman" (US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Accidental Buddhist: Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still (Hardcover)

I wish I had read this book five years ago, when I myself started exploring Buddhism. At that time, there were many books discussing the different Buddhist traditions (Zen, Tibetan, etc.), but none clearly explaining the differences therebetween or how to implement such traditions in America. If you're curious about Buddhism, what the different options are, or how to practice, this book will give you the proper framework to begin your journey. Peace.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Learn about American Buddhism - the 'lite' way..., February 5, 2002

By	R. Peterson "International citizen" (This month? In Tbilisi, Georgia (Former Soviet Republic)) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dinty Moore (doesn't this guy make beef stew?) is a young middle-aged Irish-American Catholic who, in a very readable and humorous manner, outlines his journey into the world of Buddhism, most specifically American Buddhism. Although the tale is a bit self-absorbed at times, this book provides the reader with some excellent instruction in a religion that most American are rather ignorant of. What Moore seems to run up against much of the time is that he can't seem to quite locate the path to `true wisdom'. In a culture like the American one, full of hyper-commercialism, and an expansive sense of materialism - it is hard for any American to put this all aside and find simple inner peace - that is, to quiet the chattering monkeys in one's head.

Like many people who look to Eastern religions, Moore is seeking to find more meaning in his life... to put in their proper place the information overload, the bombardment of advertising, and mostly the pressures that many Americans feel to hurry, to compete, to be the best, to better their neighbors, to arrive at life, rather than to enjoy it as it comes. While some reviewers didn't like the humor - I found that Moore's jokes, and humor helped me to see that he wasn't one of those "true-believers" out there intent on proselytizing or urging me to "find my peace". It was a relief to read about someone's honest journey in understanding a religion completely foreign to his own. If he hadn't found things funny, light, or unreasonable, I don't think it would have felt like an honest piece of writing. I think this book is an excellent source for those who might be interested in knowing more about Buddhism without the intense rhetoric of an instructional text.