Buddhist Practice on Western Ground: Reconciling Eastern Ideas and Western Psychology

Harvey B. Aronson

Shambhala (2009)

Trying to just read and understand Buddhist psychological teaching is generally not easy for our Western minds. Applying these concepts to our daily routines, work and family relationships seems even more difficult living our Western lifestyles. Buddhist Practice puts the last 50 years or so of Buddhist influence on our Western culture in this readable, organized and informative text.

Buddhist Practice addresses the differences of the two cultural approaches:

A) The Western belief that anger should not be suppressed versus teachings to counter anger and hatred.

B) Western independence versus Asian interdependence and daily fulfillment with emphasis on no-self or egolessness.

C) Attachment and supportive relationships versus the Buddhist approach of attachment as the cause of suffering.

These ideas springboard into this complete book helping us to merge these concepts into our daily lives.

I remember in the early 70s reading Ram Dass–Richard Alpert’s Be Here Now, trying to make sense of it and being influenced especially by the suggested reading list in the back of the book. I was so influenced that I used this list extensively to inventory Lemuria when I opened the bookstore in 1975. I’m even sure reading many of those suggested titles actually encouraged me, in a sense, to open a bookstore. It was interesting to me that Aronson’s quest began in earnest in 1964 after attending a psychological talk by Alpert-Dass at Brooklyn college.

Buddhist Practice is an enjoyable, insightful read for those who have interest in the Western counter culture and mind study which has taken place in the last 50 years.

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (Random House, 2009)

This wonderful book was recommended to me by an avid reader, friend of Lemuria, and a resident of New York City—transplanted from his roots in Mississippi. He never steers me wrong, so once again a great read which I am passing on to all of you.

On August 7, 1974 while Philippe Petit walked (danced, leapt) on a tightrope wire between the World Trade Center towers–called the “artistic crime of the century”–way up there, ¼ mile, if you can imagine, anonymous, ordinary lives were being lived out on the streets below. If you think of it, one can imagine—an angel in the sky looking over the depths of a city.

The story is not about the tightrope walk but what was happening below as he “walked, danced” over the city. A few of these ordinary lives become interwoven as McCann paints in absolutely beautiful language a portrait of a city and its people.

Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk with issues of his own stemming from a troubled childhood, lives among the prostitutes on the streets of the Bronx. He provides a place for these women to come when they must: his apartment, open all of the time. His life is interwoven with Tillie, a thirty-eight year old hooker, her daughter, Jazzlyn–also a hooker, and Jazlyn’s two babies. Tillie loves those babies, even from a jail cell where she finds herself after a “trick” turned bad, and worries over their care.

There is a young artist and her husband who, while driving home, sideswipe a car on the freeway causing it to spin out of control. It is obvious that the passengers are injured, but her husband, having just finished a joint, does not stop to assist and take responsibility. She cannot get the passengers out of her mind, and eventually goes to the hospital where the passengers were taken as her own life spirals out of control.

In 1974 our young soldiers were coming home from Vietnam, some in caskets. In a Park Avenue apartment a group of mothers mourn their sons who have died in this war. These mothers from diverse backgrounds try in vain to find commonality but way too much divides them even in their grief.

And so the walk continues. People notice. One of the grieving mothers thinks he might be an angel, her son—returned. Stories of these seemingly disparate lives become intertwined. As I said, it is written beautifully with McCann using language, sentence structure, repetition, to bring to life this story and its characters. I recommend it to you with enthusiasm!

-Yvonne

Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel came out last week, and as far as I know, no one here at Lemuria has started reading it yet. However, I think we are all quite curious about it so I am including the link to this article and audio interview I ran across on NPR this morning.

In the article, Kingsolver shares the reason why she is moving back to Virginia after living in Arizona for many years. Also, she elaborates on the theme of living with a “split psyche,” which also figures into her new novel. Wondering what the title is all about it? Kingsolver explains that “the title of the book has several layers of meaning. It refers to a tunnel that leads from one place to another, as well as to the missing part of a story” (Lynn Neary at NPR).

If anybody is reading The Lacuna, send us a comment and let us know what you think!

In a recent article in Austin’s local online newsource, the Statesman, Jeff Salamon tells the curious journey of a novel from the first spark of an idea to the final published work entitled Woodsburner by John Pipkin. Read the article and about midway you’ll see that Lemuria even gets a mention. We were proud to choose Woodsburner as our April First Editions Club selection in addition to hosting a reading for John Pipkin.

I am thankful for Salamon’s article for it gives me another opportunity to give another “shout out” for this wonderful debut novel! It is definitely one of my favorite novels of the year. Click here to read my review of Woodsburner.

When I started reading prolific author John Irving‘s twelfth novel a  couple of weeks ago, I did not know that I was in for a real epic spanning five decades of a character’s life. Known chiefly for his popular reads, A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Cider House Rules, Irving does know how to weave a story in and out, over and under, much like a finely patterned quilt where the reader just wishes he or she could crawl up under it and not come out until the final stitch is sewn. Alas, few of us have that luxury, so long novels stretch out ahead of  us and call us back when we are weary, but not too tired, to read a few more pages before giving into cherished sleep.  Some may say Irving is wordy, but, hey, it’s worth it. Does he have an editor, or did his editor relinquish that job years ago, knowing that readers know what they are in for, and by savoring each word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph, the story becomes thicker and more mesmerizing.

So, at the outset the reader meets Danny, a sensitive and intelligent twelve-year-old boy, who lives with his father at a logging settlement on a river in New Hampshire in the early 1950s. His mother, who drowned in that same river when he was only two years old, had read and read to her toddler, creating in him the desire for the written word and planting in him, even at that young age, the seeds of an author in the making. What causes Danny and his cook father to flee the logging community and become fugitives for their entire lives, shall remain a secret, but suffice it to say that the violence which precipitated the run was never erased from the young boy’s memory.

One devoted friend, a burly, uneducated man named Ketchum, stays in contact with the cook and his son Danny throughout their lives and warns them of the villian ever close on their footsteps as they move from one community to the other, often being involved with mothers and their daughters as time passes.  Danny becomes a famous author and teaches at the Iowa Workshop for Writers, with a young son to rear alone, whose own mother (Danny’s absent wife) called him “the two-year-old” rather than his own name. Her purpose???… to keep the young men of America out of Vietnam even if it means messing up their lives for the time being while she moves through one sexual escapade to another.

Alas, I am about 100 + pages from the end of this convoluted, intriguing story, so I cannot even be tempted to tell you, a devoted reader, about the ending. I can only imagine that Irving will tie this thing up in his own talented way and leave the reader eagerly awaiting his 13th novel, on which I am quite sure he has already written at least the first 200 pages!……We at Lemuria are selling copies of this book every single day. Come get yours soon!

-Nan