Category: religion
- The Nothing of GodShe was scorned, kicked around, physically abused, sexually abused, told that she doesn’t count, that she barely even exists. Somehow it is these very things that give her the resources to undertake this adventure.Read more
- Embodied MysticThis author deeply understands mystical spirituality, true religion, in a way that few people do.Read more
- What Is Sex?Lauren Groff seems to be gently suggesting that sex is a human energy that doesn’t necessarily interfere with a religious life. They can co-exist. They should co-exist.Read more
- Two Gay MenGood Grief a film by Dan Levy. With Dan Levy, Ruth Nessa, Himesh Patel, Luke Evans. Streaming on Netflix ** Rustin a film by George C. Wolfe. With Colman Domingo, Ami Ameen, Glynn Turman, Chris Rock. Streaming on Netflix ***1/2 Good Grief tells the story of a man whose husband dies. Marc (Dan Levy) is living an ...Read more
- No Full StopSeptology a novel by Jon Fosse. Transit Books. 667 pp. $22.95 ***** Often when I finish a long novel I have a feeling of accomplishment, or relief; “Well now that’s done: and I’m glad it’s over,” as the woman says in The Wasteland (about another subject). But in the case of Septology, I feel bereft. It’s ...Read more
- He Saw It ThroughSeeing One Thing Through: The Zen Life and Teachings of Sojun Mel Weitsman by Sojun Mel Weitsman. Counterpoint. 320 pp. $17.95 ***** I consider Mel Weitsman to be the sanest person I ever met. I’ve had many wonderful teachers in my life as a meditator, including Larry Rosenberg at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, Josho Pat ...Read more
- Quotations from my Reading (cont.)From Septology by Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse, a Catholic convert. “it’s in the darkness that God lives, yes, God is darkness, and that darkness, God’s darkness, that nothingness, yes, it shines, yes, it’s from God’s darkness that the light comes, the invisible light . . . “I don’t understand why it’s at night, in the darkness, ...Read more
- Enough AlreadyThe Bell a novel by Iris Murdoch. Penguin Classics. 296 pp. $16.00. **** Iris Murdoch. I can’t live with her and can’t live without her. Years ago, when my mentor Wallace Fowlie had retired, he wasn’t interested in much modernist fiction, but loved Iris Murdoch, so he always had plenty to read. My favorite New York ...Read more
- The Spirit Behind the StoryThe Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to his White Mother by James McBride. Riverhead Books. 295 pp. ***** I was so overwhelmed by The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store that I decided to reread James McBride’s memoir of life with his mother, The Color of Water. I knew his own situation influenced the novel, ...Read more
- Utopian RealistThe Heaven & Earth Grocery Store a novel by James McBride. Riverhead Books. 385 pp. ***** James McBride has written award-winning and bestselling novels in the past—The Good Lord Bird and Deacon King Kong—also a highly acclaimed memoir, The Color of Water, but The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store—is a different kind of book altogether, beyond ...Read more
- The True TempleBeyond the Abbey Gates (formerly The Age of Miracles) a novel by Catherine MacCoun. Trumpeter. 337 pp. $15.95. ***** I defy anyone to read this novel and decide what the author thinks is sacred and what profane; religious, irreligious; the right way to live, the wrong way. It turns every preconception you have on its head. ...Read more
- Base Metal into GoldStart Here Now: An Open-Hearted Guide to the Path and Practice of Meditation by Susan Piver. Shambhala Publications. 193 pp. $14.95 The Buddhist Enneagram: Nine Paths to Warriorship by Susan Piver. Lionheart Press. 270 pp. $18.95. On Becoming an Alchemist: A Guide for the Modern Magician by Catherine MacCoun. Trumpeter. 272 pp. $24.95 “The wind of the buddha’s ...Read more
- Man of PrincipleBilly Phelan’s Greatest Game a novel by William Kennedy. Penguin Books. 282 pp. $14.00 ***** To get the suspense over with immediately, since it’s the first incident in the novel: Billy’s greatest game was when he bowled 299 in a match against a man named Scotty Streck. They were competing for the best three game total, ...Read more
- Cherchez la FemmeUnder the Glacier a novel by Haldor Laxness. With an introduction by Susan Sontag (thank God). Vintage. 240 pp. $17.00 ***1/2 I have to admit that Susan Sontag made more sense of this novel than I did. I actually finished the book with no idea what the hell was going on. Fortunately I had the Sontag introduction, ...Read more
- The Yin and Yang of ZenThe Shamanic Bones of Zen: Revealing the Ancestral Spirit and Mystical Heart of a Sacred Tradition by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel. Shambhala Publications. 188 pp. $18.95. **** Nothing Is Hidden: The Psychology of Zen Koans by Barry Magid. Wisdom Publications. 232 pp. $17.95. **** I can’t imagine two Buddhist books more different than these. The Shamanic Bones of ...Read more
- Gently Down the StreamMaya a novel by C.W. Huntington, Jr. Wisdom Publications. 315 pp. $16.95. ***** As far as I know, C.W. Huntington—who died in 2020 at the age of 71—published only three books, The Emptiness of Emptiness (1995), a translation of and commentary on Candrakīrti’s Madhyamakāvatāra; this novel, Maya, in 2015; and What I Don’t Know About Death, which ...Read more
- Cast a Cold Eye on Life, on DeathWhat I Don’t Know About Death by C.W. Huntington, Jr. Wisdom Publications. 167 pp. $16.95. ***** This is how suddenly it can happen: in January of 2020, C.W. Huntington seemed to be in perfect health. He and his wife had friends over to celebrate the new year, and after the celebration he doubled over with intestinal ...Read more
- Love in the Time of ParanoiaFellow Travelers a novel by Thomas Mallon. Vintage Books. 354 pp. $16.00. ***** Thomas Mallon is a historical novelist of much renown; Henry and Clara—his breakthrough book—told the story of the couple who occupied the booth with Lincoln on the night he was shot. I’ve always thought it took colossal nerve to write such a book. ...Read more
- Ancient and TwistedUntangling Karma: Intimate Zen Stories on Healing Trauma by Judith Ragir. Monkfish. 251 pp. $18.99 Untangling Karma is not quite a dharma book and not quite a memoir, but has elements of both. Judith Ragir is a longtime Zen practitioner—some forty years—who has looked back at her life of practice and seen what it has done ...Read more
- Stands with the BestMind Sky: Zen Teaching on Living and Dying by Jakusho Kwong. Wisdom Publications. 178 pp. $18.95. ***** I have a bias that a dharma teacher’s first book is usually the best one. With most teachers, they finally get it together to put out a book (or somebody does it for them), and it’s not anything they ...Read more
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The River is Freedom, the Raft ParadiseThe Nothing of GodWe Are Stardust We Are GoldenA State of the Union and a State of MindEmbodied Mystic
View Other Essays by Topic
aging (114)American literature (195)art (108)Buddhism (162)Christianity (119)creative process (230)death and dying (128)meditation (117)movies (152)music (36)race (94)religion (179)sex (156)spirituality (166)the art of narrative (236)Uncategorized (19)world literature (23)