Best Guide to Eastern Philosophy and Religion

A pretty good introduction to Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, as well as to five other systems such as Shinto.

The author's sense of humor may seem a little irreverant to some at times, and she sometimes may gloss over things a bit, but for the most part it was an interesting and insightful introduction to the various systems it covers. Certainly gives enough information to guide one to further study into details.

For my part, I will be looking more deeply into Hinduism and to a lesser extent Zen and Taoism, as well as a few other topics. I'll be updating this blog on those efforts, I am sure.

Give it a try.

50th Posting

This is my 50th posting!!!!

Almost two years ago, I started this blog. My vision for it has changed somewhat. Now it is mostly book reviews. Wonder what it will be like at the 100th posting. We'll see.

Tibet, Tibet

This book is by Patrick French. A theme of the book is that the real Tibet is not like the Tibet of the mind (what we probably imagine Tibet to be). This was certainly true for me!

I have always been somewhat fascinated with the idea of Tibet - sort of like Shangri-La to me - until Mao got involved, at least. All those peaceful Buddhists and all that.

Well, the facts are a little different. Tibet wasn't all that peaceful before Mao arrived, and it was really a bad place after that and until fairly recently, it seems. Mao really caused some bad things there. The Tibetans have my sympathy.

As an aside, I remember an episode from the Honeymooner's (1950's TV) where Ralph (the main character) reads aloud from a newspaper about a new road from Tibet to Mongolia. Sounded like a good deal. Well, Mao came as part of that bargain - if indeed the road was not made up for the program.

The Dali Lama is shown in a sympathetic light, but not as perfect by any means. Of course, events were not totally in his control to say the least.

I liked the book, except for one or two things. The book is written as a travelogue interspersed with historical background; this usually works for me, but didn't in some places. The author suddenly is in the middle of nowhere in western China when the book really gets started. It is so disjointed. Also, the historical background sometimes goes on so long and gets a little off topic based on where the author is at that point, that one can get a little lost at times. Not fatal flaws, but there could have been better editing here and there.

The author did a good job overall. Give it a try.

Traditional India

I found this book at a used bookstore recently. It is a compilation of writings by various authors, along with some editorial commentary, on various aspects of ancient Indian culture and society.

I liked it quite a bit, but it is a little hard to follow in places if you don't have at least some basic background in the topics involved. For example, I was lost for most of the write-up on Indian music, but near the end there was an excellent observation on the difficulty of surrending in a religious context when it comes to our identities and will. There are interesting write-ups on religion/philosophy in India - Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Other topics are covered as well.

This book was published in 1964, so it might be hard to find. If you do, I think it is worth a try if the subject interests you.

The Great Divorce

Read this book!!!!!

This book by C S Lewis is about what separates Heaven and Hell. It is told as a story about a bus trip from Hell to the outskirts of Heaven.

It is not a very long book - the edition I read was about 120 pages. I started it yesterday I think and just finished it. Very hard to put down and a very fast read.

I think the main theme really is on the true nature of love - not what we think of it ordinarily on Earth. Among other points, it was shown how good works become ends to themselves (bad) instead of expressions of love (good). Also, we should not allow love to be held hostage by misery.

Another interesting point was that Hell was really very small compared to Heaven - Hell being something all folded into itself and not expansive as is Heaven.

Highly recommended!!!

The Idiot by Dostoevsky

I just finished reading this novel. I started with an older translation, but it was painful, so I switched to the Pevear/Volokhonsky one after a short while. It was easier to get through.

The book is diffcult to summarize. Suffice it to say there are many tragic characters with the main one being the Prince who has fits and other issues at times, hence the title.

I cannot really recommend this book. It seemed overly long, tedious and somewhat incoherent/pointless in many places. I was glad to get to the end.

That being said, I did find the very first chapter, the first chapter of Part IV and the last two chapters of the book to be pretty good. The first chapter does peak one's interest as to what will go on in this novel. That of Part IV has some interesting insights into the character of certain types of people. The last two chapters build up a great deal of suspense and conclude tragically, and somehow surprisingly. There are some good parts scattered elsewhere in the book, but not that many in my opinion.

I have to say that the ending was memorable, but it sure took a long time for the author to get the reader there. Of course, he wrote a long time ago, and maybe it is a sign of the change in times that I say what I do here.

If you have a lot of time on your hands and don't mind a long wait to get to the ending, give the book a try. Otherwise, I would not attempt it.

A Quaker Book of Wisdom

An interesting book, written such that various points are illustrated by examples from the author's and/or his relatives' lives as Quakers. The author was headmaster at Sidwell Friends School in DC.

It has been said that this book represents an ultra-liberal viewpoint, but I think that is a bit extreme. The author may be an ultra-liberal, but if so, he toned it down in this book - and I am pretty conservative, so I would have noticed if otherwise.

There are chapters on various topics such as Silence, Simplicity and Conscience, as well as others that Quakers are known for, so to speak. I found them to be well balanced and sensible overall, and they would be of benefit to many in our over-materialistic and secular society. "Let Your Life Speak" was my favorite pearl of wisdom - it is pretty self-explanatory.

Give it a try. It is not very long and is pleasant to read. There is not much detail on Quakerism as a religion if you are looking for that though.