The Essential Sangharakshita bio sketch

I read the biographical sketch, which is a new one. I suppose if you read the same one in his many books, it's cool to read a new one. I think it was very good. It didn't gloss over things.

I recommend The Essential Sangharaskhita, for those who haven't read anything by him, and for those who've, like me, read most his books.

The Essential Sangharakshita

Wisdom Publishing has come out with The Essential Sangharakshita, I got mine in the mail today. I'm very excited. I read the bit about it in the FWBO News.

He's got so much to read, we really need this volume. A Guide To The Buddhist Path is perhaps a collection of teachings that tries to collect a larger vision into one volume, but in no way can be compared to this.

I would go so far as to say this book should be amongst any respectable Buddhist's library.

My favorite books of his are A Survey Of Buddhism, Know Your Mind, The Three Jewels, Living With Kindness, Living With Awareness and The Yogi's Joy. Also Crossing The Stream, which are his early essays, are quite awesome. There are many other great ones. I haven't liked few. I've heard he really likes The Priceless Jewel, which was OK to me, but I didn't really think was that great.

I'm really interested into looking into this book. I expect to be writing more about this.

Razor-Wire Dharma

What I like about Razor-Wire Dharma: A Buddhist Life In Prison by Calvin Malone is that he has gritty applications of mindfulness and kindness. He provides a non-self pitying look at incarceration, but also a critical eye.

Here is a quote of analysis about the prison system:

"When I see this waste of human resources, when I hear people mortgaging their future to pipe dreams, when I see the lack of direction that prison perpetuates, I fee an indescribable loss and deep despair. The prison system encourages recidivism instead of education. I think most prisoners reenter society worse off than when they left. Moreover, the expectation placed on them is that they will succeed in a life for which they are ill prepared." (p. 72)

But the bulk of this book isn't these asides about the context of his kindness and triumph. More often then not his stories are of struggle and triumph, of success in getting things done.

My own short experience of working in a jail was that it took forever to do anything and that the system was so entrenched and set in it's ways that really the main thing was just keeping the people under control. To be sure, that's not an easy thing and there are some rather difficult people. But it seemed like the system that tells prisoners are bad, also reinforces the badness at times. They don't seem to look too hard to transcend the prisoner/guard dynamics. So I dreaded reading this book, I thought it would remind me of my negative work experiences in prison, but it turned out to be a quite heart warming book.

I have also attended a retreat in jail, amature chaplaincy. One of the rules was not to ask why someone is there. They can talk about it if they want, but to force the topic on someone isn't nice. But for me, I was burning in curiosity, why were you here. I want to get to the nitty gritty. Calvin Malone must not talk about what he did because he's embarrassed. You have to do something pretty bad to get 25 years. What I know it's hard to talk about such things, I sort of feel cheated without any soul searching about his crime. Perhaps I have no right to ask that, but this is a book about prison life, so why not address that?

I wonder what my Dharma brothers in prison think of this book. I'll update the blog if I can get any feedback. Basically this book inspired me to want to go on another retreat inside prison.

Finally, one of my pet themes of this blog, a bette noire of mine, is that it's important to be authentic and real, and that being a "good Buddhist" isn't the goal if it's a false self. On this Malone says after a trying disillusionment about himself, "I learned more about how much i don't know and how far I have yet to travel. It's okay with me that I am not the great practitioner I thought I was. I'm just happy that I am still on the Path." (p. 89)

What these short clean tales tell us are inspiring stories about practicing Dharma in prison. Well done Calvin Malone.

To end, I list some interesting links about this book and working in prisons.

This book has already been reviewed on FWBO & TBMSG News.

There's an interesting link by a prison chaplain here.

Here's another prison dharma post.

Here's an interesting review of the book.

Here's a link to an amazon review, where you can see the rest of them and buy the book.

Book Review

How To Be Happy by Lama Zopa Rinpoche is packaged as a gift book. In a way it's hard for me to imagine how a book that exhorts you onto the path towards Enlightenment as a gift you give someone, like a box of chocolates, but actually, it is a gift. Just not the sweet confectionery kind. It might just be the best possible gift. The irony is that this book was published with the support of the Hershey Family Foundation, a foundation with $65 million in assets, giving out $3.2 million in grants by the end of 2006. Is someone in the Hershey family a Buddhist? Or sympathetic to Buddhism? That is so cool. With the profits of sweet confections, comes the Dharma confection. The exuberance which the teachings are taught is perhaps sweet.

This book is more like mind training verses, it's not consolation it's exhortation. Go meditate! The project of turning around in the seat of consciousness is huge. To suggest that ordinary pleasure is a trap, isn't consolation, it's confrontation of the highest kind. To challenge our ordinary approach to pleasure is truly revolutionary.

This small hardback is the kind of book I put in my car for when I'm waiting for someone, or in the bathroom, for a daily brief reading. It also might be a good book to read at the park while your kids play.

This book is presumably a collection of quotes from Lama Zopa Rinpoche's talks, since it's edited by Josh Bartok (who seems to have studied in the Zen tradition mostly) and Ailsa Cameron (who from what I can tell on the web is a journalist and editor and seems to be involved with editing for Wisdom Publishers and FPMT, where in the latter she's affixed "Venerable". She must have taken a special ordination, and perhaps is a teacher.). The book is published by Wisdom Publishers.

The quotes are inspirational quotes which suggest the project of spiritual development through meditation and reflections on suffering. While most of them move me, the references to reincarnation don't motivate me. For me this book is 99.9% inspiring.

The book makes me ask questions. For instance, "Each of us is completely responsible for the happiness of every other being. Each of us has this universal responsibility. It's completely up to us. When you work with your mind, what you are doing is real, ultimate solution for world peace--and not only peace on earth, but for all the being in all the numberless universe." (p.33).

This reminds me of a talk by Christopher Titmuss on Free Buddhist Audio. As the Wikipedia entry on the link of his name suggest, he promotes engaged Buddhism. In his talk he suggests that it is not enough to just try and change yourself. You need also to try and change the world.

I feel of two minds about this. On the one hand, I do think one of the kindest things you can go is to set your own house in order. On the other hand, I think you need to work to act on the world to make it a better place, apply your insights and try to work externally in the world. To be honest, I'm not so great at that. While my work is on the good end of the spectrum of right livelihood, and I work hard to raise my children well, I have not been very political or community oriented. Growing up with parents who marched for peace during the Vietnam War, I romanticize working for social justice. More than romanticize, I think it is important. I have worked in a soup kitchen briefly. I suppose it's an unanswered koan--what will I give to the world?

In the FWBO the model is to teach meditation and build a center, and create team based right livelihood businesses, develop spiritual friendships and perfect your generosity.

The quote indicates the connection between working on the inside and working on the outside. Is he collapsing just working on yourself as helping the world? I don't think so. I think from self development flows helping out the world. It's always a balance.

Later he says, "When we feel compassion for a person or an animal--any being at all--we wish that being to be fre from suffering. When our compassion is strong, we don't simply wish for this but actually do something about it. We ourselves take responsibility for freeing that being from suffering." (p. 37).

This is why compassion is so overwhelming for me. When you realize the suffering of other people, it implies some action. Very quickly I am overwhelmed. From one person, to family, to community, to city, to state, to world. Woof. Challenging stuff.

There are many interesting quotes in the book, I could bloviate further. Go out and buy it. It is thought provoking and inspirational. Not all Dharma books are intense books you read in a quiet place. Some have short snippets that you can read in the odd moments of a distracted worldly life.