Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper. Pantheon Books, 2017.
A fitting choice to lead-off our list of suggested books. Kory’s book brings to life the hallowed (and idiosyncratic) halls of Merriam-Webster, a rich world inhabited by quirky and erudite individuals who quietly shape the way we communicate. Do you love words?
You’ll laugh reading this book, while at the same time you’ll increasingly appreciate the wonderful complexities and eccentricities of our beloved English language.
***
Peaks and Lamas: A Classic Book on Mountaineering, Buddhism, and Tibet by Marco Pallis. Shoemaker & Hoard, 1949.
A remarkable account of two geographically related things: the climbing of Himalayan peaks and the Himalayan-Tibetan tradition of Buddhism. This book was out of print for thirty years but once again available. It was written by an ex-WWI British soldier who, upon mountaineering in southern Tibet, became enamored with Tibetan art, living and the lamas’ ways of teaching and spent years thereafter living in monasteries in Sikkim and Ladakh. Offering much historical insight, it includes a series of photographs.
***
Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch by Henry Miller. New Directions Publishing, 1957.
In 1944 the novelist Henry Miller first visited Big Sur, the region on California‘s Central Coast where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. This book is a portrait of that colorful place, where he was to live for 15 years.
It is also a portrait of the extraordinary people who lived there, writers (and writers who did not write), mystics seeking truth in meditation (and if not merely truth then sex cults and celebrity), sophisticated children and adults innocents; geniuses, cranks and those who are simply beyond classification. Henry’s storytelling writing is buoyantly free-spirited, energetic and infectious; both funny and serious.
***
Relative Truth, Ultimate Truth by Geshe Tashi Tsering. Wisdom Publications, 2008.
A clear and remarkably practical presentation of the core Buddhist teaching on the nature of reality . . . aka the “two truths.” Geshe-la’s book is a gateway to understanding the often misunderstood philosophy of emptiness, and shares accessible important insights for a wide audience of both experienced practitioners and newcomers to the Buddhist traditions. My copy of this book is dog-eared and note-filled.
***
Men Without Women: Stories by Haruki Murakami. Alfred A. Knopf, 2017.
Any book of Murakami’s is a cause for celebration and this one, his latest, is no exception. Across seven dazzling tales, this award-winning, internationally known author brings his keen powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their ways, find themselves alone.
What might Murakami’s attraction be to an inquisitive, Buddhist-inclined audience? His writings, perhaps best labeled as magical realist fiction, are built around an almost obsessive urge to explore and understand the inner core of the human identity. His heroes routinely journey into a metaphysical realm — the unconscious, the dreamscape, the land of the dead — to examine directly their memories of people and objects they have lost. These short stories are a wonderful introduction to his art for those yet initiated.
***
The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women
edited by Florence Caplow and Susan Moon. Wisdom Publications, 2013.
The Hidden Lamp is a collection of one hundred koans and stories of Buddhist women from the time of the Buddha to the present day. In its pages, we meet nuns, laywomen practicing with their families, famous teachers honored by emperors, and old women selling tea on the side of the road.
Each story is accompanied by a reflection by a contemporary woman teacher — personal responses that help bring the old stories alive for readers today — and is concluded by a final meditation for the reader, a question from the editors meant to spark further rumination and inquiry. Not only do the editors shine their light on some of the great women teachers of the past, but they also do so in ways that are entertaining and fun to read.
***
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Sanders. Random House, 2017. A remarkable work by a literary master spun around Abraham Lincoln and the death of his eleven-year-old son at the dawn of the Civil War. Two days after his death, Willie Lincoln was laid to rest in a marble crypt in a Georgetown Cemetery. That very night, shattered by grief, the President arrives at the cemetery under cover of darkness and visits the crypt, alone, to spend time with his son’s body.
Set over the course of that one night and populated by ghosts of the recently passed and the long dead, this is a tale of loss and love, exploring death, grief and the powers of good and evil. In form and substance, full of humor, pathos, and grace, it is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. (A Buddhist “excursion” on the surface? No. Throughout its entire nature? You bet.)
***
Turning Confusion into Clarity: A Guide to the Foundation Practices of Tibetan Buddhism by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Snow Lion (a Shambhala imprint), 2014.
A work of detailed instruction and friendly, inspirational advice for those embarking on the path of Tibetan Buddhist foundational practices (Ngondro: Tib.). Rinpoche herein presents a blend of personal testimonies, insight into people’s minds and enthusiastic openness to contemporary understandings in-step with his sharing of some of Buddhism’s deepest teachings along with issues that are relevant to our modern world. If you are curious about (learning more or undertaking) the ngondro preliminary practices, this book is a must-read/have.
***
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari. HarperCollins, 2017.
This book, written by a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is a jaw-dropper. In it, Harari recounts the course of history while describing events and the individual human experience, along with ethical issues about historical perspectives. It is quite intelligent, full of sharp insights, quirky wit and shockingly fresh angles on things we short-sightedly believe we fully understand. It is, in the words of (a favorite author) Daniel Kahneman, a book “that will shock you, and entertain you. Above all, it will make you think in ways you had not thought before.” (Kind of like Mahayana Buddhism, no? . . . ha!)
***
Buddhism: One Teacher; Many Traditions by Tenzin Gyatso (The Dalai Lama) and Thubten Chodron. Wisdom Publications, 2014.
Simply put, this is a wonderful book of clear learning! Buddhism is practiced by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, from Tibetan caves to Tokyo temples to redwood retreats. To an outside viewer, it might be hard to see what they all have in common, but in this book the authors harmoniously map out with clarity the convergences and divergences between the two major strains of Buddhism — the Sanskrit traditions of Tibet and East Asia and the Pali traditions of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia . . . remembering, of course, that all Dharma traditions are and were inspired by the one teacher, Siddhartha Gautama (aka the Buddha).
***
The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier by Bruce Barcott. Sasquatch Books, 1997.
For those readers of this e-letter who live within sight of Mount Rainier (and all others as well), this is a provocative and insightful appreciation of the great mountain . . . the largest and most dangerous volcano in the United States. Rainier is visited by millions, climbed by thousands and romanticized as the most potent icon of a wondrous region, yet very few truly know it.
Bruce writes of a place that is a complex of bearded hemlocks, old-growth firs and ethereal formations of rock, snow and fractured glaciers . . . a mountain that rumbles with seismic twitches — 130 earthquakes annually — and threatens an unstoppable wall of mud rushing down its slopes.
Anyone who has enjoyed time in mountain terrain — be it in the Cascades, Rockies, Himalayas, Adirondacks, Smokies or anywhere else — will enjoy Bruce’s observations and imaginative notions.
***
Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation by Alan Burdick. Simon & Schuster, 2017.
The author claims “time” is the most commonly used noun in the English language. It’s always on our minds, and it advances through every living moment. But what is time, exactly? Do children experience it the same way adults do? Why does it seem to slow down when we’re bored and speed by as we get older?
In this witty and meditative exploration, Alan, an award-winning author, and New Yorker magazine staff writer takes us along on his personal quest to understand how time gets to us and why we perceive it the way we do. In ways I can’t quite explain, I found it a thoughtful companion to aspects of meditation practice.
***
Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan by William Hjortsberg. Counterpoint, 2012.
This is a comprehensive biography of late novelist and poet Richard Brautigan, author of Trout Fishing in America and A Confederate General from Big Sur, among many others.
When Richard took his own life in September of 1984, his close friends and network of artists and writers were devastated though not entirely surprised, as to many he was shrouded in enigma, erratic and unpredictable in his habits and presentation. But his career was formidable, and an inspiration to many young writers.
Richard’s career wove its way through both the Beat-influenced San Francisco Renaissance in the 1950s and the “Flower Power” hippie movement of the 1960s; and while he never overtly claimed direct artistic involvement with either period, this book also delves deeply into the spirited times in which Richard lived. If you’ve been a fan of Richard’s writings, and lived through the culture of these times yourself, this is a book you’ll enjoy bringing into your reading life.
***
Am Stopping My Finger Now: Tibetan Buddhist Musings for Western Life by Mark Winwood. Chenrezig Press, 2016.
OK, gotta include it here. Self-published and available through various online outlets (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.) as well as orderable from any local bookshop, this is our initial collection (a follow-up is being readied) of various essays and writings in which facets of Western life are sampled through a myriad of Tibetan Buddhist perspectives and sensibilities.
In many instances depicted through the environment of the Pacific Northwest, shared are ideas on the simplicity and complexity of Dharma aspects such as impermanence, karma, enlightenment, meditation, happiness, Buddha-nature, dying/rebirth, the Tibetan situation, interdependence, Buddhist monasteries, lamas, the Yeti.
On Amazon: http://goo.gl/PGGnli
*** *** ***
Poetry? There’s any number of wonderful poets who have and continue to write beautiful verse, writing that deserves to have a vigorous presence in our culture. Surely you have some favorite poets, for mention herein we suggest the work of Gary Snyder, Charles Bukowski, Alison Luterman and Tony Hoagland, all of whose writings may be sampled online and then read/collected in their published collections.
And then there is, of course, the musical poetry of the likes of Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, Robert Hunter, Mark Knopfler, Laurie Anderson, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan (and his muse Leadbelly) among others . . . timeless, rich and beautiful.
***
Buddhist Texts for Collaborative Reading? We at the Chenrezig Project are reading through, with discussion, two profoundly fundamental Mahayana texts: Nagarjuna’ Precious Garland of Advice for a King (online on Wednesdays) and Shantideva’s Bodhicharvatara, aka Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (in Snohomish Country WA on Thursdays).
Participation is available to all (and free) regardless of experience or familiarity with Buddhism . . . if you’re interested or curious about either, please send an e-mail for information.
***
And, if it is magazines you prefer to read, please consider The Sun . . . an independent, advertising-free, non-profit magazine that for more than forty years has used words and photographs to evoke the splendor and heartache of being human. Each monthly issue celebrates life, while fully cognizant and articulate of life’s complexities.
The personal essays, short stories, interviews, poetry and photographs that appear in The Sun’s pages explore everyday challenges we face and the moments when we rise to meet them. Each issue includes a section devoted entirely to writing by readers. Simply put, the Sun is a reader’s delight.
For information or to subscribe: www.thesunmagazine.org