Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In the last 50 years, Buddhism, the philosophy that complements all traditions and competes with none, has become an American cultural phenomenon earning its own annual anthology. The 2008 volume, fifth in the series, reveals again through breadth and elegance the watersheds and rivulets of the ancient practice as it joins America's mainstream. The luminaries are here: Thich Nhat Hanh, Sylvia Boorstein, the Dalai Lama, Pema Ch^dr^n, Natalie Goldberg, John Daido Loori and five distinguished rinpoches, among others. Their guidance in texts and concepts is rich for varied stages of practice. Most touching, though, and most indefinably American, are first-person accounts of responses to life and its constant changes: James Kullander loses a former spouse; Aidan Delgado becomes a conscientious objector to the war in Iraq; Hannah Tennant-Moore confronts cadavers. These private views make it especially easy to see Buddhism's current flowing with grace into everyday lives. Finally, revered teacher Joanna Macy's short piece "Gratitude," from her updated classic World as Lover, World as Self, lights a way for us to live with our planet, an essay not to be missed. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In this fifth series entry, returning editor McLeod (editor in chief, Shambhala Sun magazine) selects 32 pieces covering a wide range of topics and demonstrating varied styles. The essays on Buddhist practice and the memoir pieces by Western Buddhists on living their faith average about ten pages in length. Naturally, the writing of native (rather than translated) English speakers is the most readable, and, being primarily memoir, it is most entertaining and least opaque to non-Buddhists. A few of the contributors are well known to the general public, such as the Dalai Lama and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Others, such as the Zen abbot John Daido Loori and the American nun Pema Ch^dr^n, are familiar to those conversant in religious studies. Most of the selections, however, are by writers far from established--a distinct advantage in such a compilation because it introduces both fresh writers and fresh ideas. Recommended for both academic and public libraries.--James F. DeRoche, Alexandria, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
