John – Page 14 – Lemuria Books

Author: John (Page 14 of 19)

Buddhist Practice on Western Ground by Harvey B. Aronson

On November 14, 2009

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.

Haiku Mind edited by Patricia Donegan

By John

On October 30, 2009

In Poetry, Zen

Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart

Edited by Patricia Donegan

Shambhala (2008)

I enjoy reading good haiku very much. Sometimes I’m astonished by how much can be said with so few words. Good haiku is a direct result of understanding complex reality and stating it precisely, correctly and beautifully. Haiku can open windows to the reader’s present. With simple imagery, fine haiku presents crystalline moments of heightened awareness. A reminder to pause.

Patricia Donegan teaches creative writing in Toyko and is currently the poetry editor for the Kyoto Journal. Haiku Mind is not just an anthology of haiku poems, but rather spiritual reflections about what is behind the poem, i.e. meditations for the contemplation of the themes.

Each carefully chosen haiku and its reflection is followed by a brief author explanation. The included authors range from the expected classic poets to modern surprises.

This fine little book is a great gift and a jewel for a guest room bedside table.

poem 99.

Now

“Your shadow

on the page

the poem.”

-Cid Corman

(1924-2004)

American Minimalist Poet

Occult America by Mitch Horowitz

By John

On October 15, 2009

In History

Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation

by Mitch Horowitz

Bantam (2009)

Thirty-four years ago I opened Lemuria to offer books for sale that were at the time not offered in my community. I felt the need to reflect the life-style of the counter-culture movement through my inventory with a lot of emphasis on New Age therapeutic spirituality and occult (hidden or obscured) texts. I named the bookstore Lemuria. I figured “Lemuria” was a label to inform my desired readers that books of alternative knowledge and hidden wisdom would be included as part of my inventory.

Horowitz’s book is a readable reflection of the physic highway from our nation’s Free Masonic roots to the birth of the New Age era. Occult America fits this jigsaw puzzle of Ouija boards, Astrology, clairvoyant religious teachers, women’s rights, symbology, numerology, etc. into a well-organized historical presentation. Occult America is well written and interesting without academic-like pitfalls.

Enjoyable sections on Manly P. Hall and Edgar Cayce were well done. My favorite essay was “Go Tell Pharaoh: The Rise of Magic in Afro-America” focusing on Voodoo and Hoodoo and Frederick Douglass’ story of his John the Conqueror root. However, I did feel that the last section, “Aquarius Rising,” to be rushed with not enough information concerning the state of counter-culture thinking today.

Over the years Lemuria has expanded its inventory, keeping at its roots the need for alternative thinking and ideas.

Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron

By John

On September 30, 2009

In Zen

Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears

by Pema Chödrön

Shambhala, July 2009

Taking the Leap is an attempt by Pema to help us to learn how to look at our attachments and self-absorption. This little book is full of suggestions for how to work skillfully with our own blind spots. An attempt to look closely at how we are stuck in a narrow absorbed vision and offers ways to get unhooked.

By concentrating on the practice of staying present, we confront our own self-absorption, self-clinging ego, trying not to slip into habits of compulsion and distraction. Pema instructs that our time, that our basic intelligence, openness and warmth naturally interrupt the chain reactions of our ego attachments.

Pema suggests a formal practice for learning to stay with energy of uncomfortable emtions:

Step 1: Acknowledge you are hooked by self-absorption.

Step 2: Pause. Lean in to the energy. Experience it fully. Stay present. Interrupt the momentum.

Step 3: Relax and move on.

Pema’s gift to her readers is that she packs so much into her books and presents her lessons so clearly. Pema helps us defrost our windshield and to enhance our lives daily by trying to practice and understand the wisdom she shares.

As we change ourselves and our dysfumctional habits, we are simultaneously changing the world around us.

Blood’s A Rover by James Ellroy

By John

On September 22, 2009

In Mystery

Blood’s A Rover: A Novel

James Ellroy

(Random House, 2009)

Hard-boiled crime fiction is at its boiling point in 2009. Chef Ellroy has finished his fine hot meal with his new novel, Blood’s A Rover, as a cowboy steak for his main course. American Tabloid (1995) was the appetizer, followed by the salad, Cold Six Thousand (2001). With dinner now served, this meal is like no other in literary crime fiction. Ellroy is extending this grand genre with Blood’s literary accomplishment.

Reading Ellroy, you enter the writer’s mind as he expresses himself through a multitude of james ellroy complex, believable characters. This fine author challenges the reader while being touched with the full gambit of internal emotions, feeling these characters experiences not just reading them. Plots too complex to summarize, characters too many to name, adjectives too many to start using in description.

I consider Ellroy to be totally courteous to the reader: not giving away too much, not letting this meal be chewed too fast, a dinner served to last awhile and savor with dessert being the last page.

P.S.: While reading Blood’s A Rover, don’t be surprised if you find yourself cussing more in your day-to-day conversation.

The Leader’s Way by the Dalai Lama

By John

On September 20, 2009

In Business/Economy, Zen

This book is not about Buddhism as a religion or a way of life. The Dalai Lama is not interested in converting readers of this book to Buddhism. However, The Leader’s Way is about the application of some fundamental concepts of Buddhism into business decisions.

Good decision making and mental exercises improve the performance of the mind. Leader’s Way gives helpful ideas about how to recognize negative emotions as they begin to influence your mind. Being aware of constant change at an early stage can help to avoid negative cycles of thought. Every circumstance and every decision create change, providing the opportunity to change the direction of one’s thoughts. Right view followed by right conduct should lead to correct decisions and more success.

Leader’s Way is a discussion about integrating capitalism and Buddhism. The Dalali Lama seems to migrate from his pro-socialistic viewpoint into another place of pro-capitalism, developing an understanding that investments are necessary to create prosperity. Investments require capital, and thereby satisfying the need for capital is important. He promotes capital as a means, not an end, fostering responsible capitalism or a responsible free market economy. Leader’s Way is a fresh, light read, an enjoyable business book. The Dalai Lama provides alternative business concepts for small and large businesses which lead to conscientious yet profitable business decisions.

Other Dalai Lama Business-reading titles:

The Art of Happiness at Work (2003)

ethics for the new millennium Ethics for the New Millenium(1999)

New poems by Joseph Stroud

By John

On September 15, 2009

In Poetry

Of This World by Joseph Stroud

Copper Canyon Press (2009)

A great pleasure derived from reading is the post-reading experience of sharing good books with other readers. Often while reading a book, and for almost any reason, a person will pop into your mind as someone who would enjoy these words and ideas. Usually, when someone shares a book with you to read–it’s okay, good, likable, etc.–but occasionally it is a spot-on experience and a bulls-eye suggestion. A friend shared Stroud’s world with me and a fine gift at the right time it was.

Joseph Stroud understands the value of taking your time in writing poetry, having published just four books in a forty-year writing career.

“I must say that I was dumb founded. I don’t recall when a poet unknown to me has struck me so deeply. Like all of the best poets, Stroud makes the earth again consolable.” -Jim Harrison

Slowly this summer I chewed on this collection, trying to get all the taste, pleasure and wisdom from these poems. Surprised by how well this long collection kept going and going, continuously getting stronger, I was even more astonished by the breadth and power of the final poems: “Provenance,” “Rooms” and “By the River of Babylon.”

Thanks to my reading pal Dave for sharing this gem with me. I hope to re-read these poems often and for many years to come. It’s a collection to keep in your library for a lifetime.

Yvonne’s blog on Of This World

The Late Poems of Meng Chiao

By John

On September 11, 2009

In Poetry, Zen

The Late Poems of Meng Chiao

Princeton (1996)

Translated by David Hinton

Meng Chiao (751-814) wrote most of these experimental poems between 807-814. Late Poems is a radical and major work of deep introspection. Even though it was written over a thousand years ago, many of these poems read fresh and contemporary: Meng Chiao’s “symbolic expressions express what conventional language cannot articulate…which affront him new depths of insight into the objective world.” Meng wrote in desperate times, and his late poems are a powerful extension of TuFu.

Meng’s poems are longer than many of my other favorite Chinese poets. However, I found some lines beautiful, mind-pausing, relaxing and descriptively objective, prompting much contemplation.

“And when white clouds have no master,

They just drift off, idle thoughts carefree.”

* * *

“And once weeds close you in,

they’ll never open up again.”

Companions for the Journey: A Series

By John

On August 31, 2009

In Poetry, Zen

Companions for the Journey is a series showcasing inspirational work by well-known writers in a small-book format designed to be carried along your journey through life.

I have enjoyed reading these books and blogged about some of them in this series before. This spring three new titles were issued and I found all three to be enjoyable.

#18 Breaking the Willow: Poems of Parting, Exile and Separation & Reunion

Breaking the Willow is an anthology of Chinese poets named for the custom to break a willow twig and present it to a departing friend. Many poems of sorrow and loss are mirrored as the reader reflects. There are many beautiful one-liners in this little jewel:

“Glorious moon hanging in mid-sky, but who looks?”

#19 Between the Floating Mist: Poems of Ryōkan (1758-1831)

This selection of Ryōkan’s poetry is followed by an exchange of poetry in sequence between Teishin and Ryōkan. I found the following exchange an adequate representation:

.

Teishin

Distant waves

seem to come,

seem to go . . .

Ryōkan

Clear and bright

your words and understanding.

#20 Mountain tasting: Haiku and Journals of Santoka Teneda (1882-1940)

Santoka Teneda is a “new Haiku movement” poet representing the Zen qualities of simplicity, solitude and impermanence conveyed in a modern setting through haiku. Teneda walked around pre-WWII Japan, living simply and writing sensitive poems. I enjoyed this collection the most of the three. I end this blog with two favorite haiku.

(For fun) #137

Nonchalantly urinating

by the road,

soaking the young weeds.

(For thought) # 346

The sound of waves–

and distant, nonclose:

how much of my life remains.

I also wrote an entry a while back on another volume in the Companion Series. Click here to read about Lotus Moon: Japanese poet, Rengetsu (1791-1875), was the illegitimate offspring of a high-ranking Samurai and a young geisha . . . Keeping few possessions she likened herself to a “drifting cloud.”

Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

By John

On August 16, 2009

In Business/Economy, Psychology

Lemuria has been feeling the effects of this recession at least a full year now. I’ve been reading throughout this year in an attempt to develop a clearer understanding for this small business. Most business books seem to focus on larger businesses than this bookstore; however, many corporate ideas have stimulated creativity to help us get through this tumultuous time.

Written a decade ago, I can’t help but reflect on Working with Emotional Intelligence (1998). Goleman’s principles are not about what you learned in school but focus instead on personal qualities such as empathy, adaptability, and persuasiveness.

The book is a guide for how the worker is responsible to himself, using work as a tool to be responsible to the business group. Goleman also discusses how the business group interprets the individual’s work to reflect the individual’s reward–and not just in financial terms but a more full- bodied approach toward the emotional whole of the right-minded use of time through labor.

Honestly, I feel that if this book were taught in business schools as a requirement, bringing Goleman’s awareness into our country’s business community, our recession would be a different story today. Goleman’s concepts of emotional intelligence contradict many aspects of corporate and political greed which appear to be the dominant force in devaluing so many individual’s hard earned assets.

Incorporating Goleman’s ideas on emotional intelligence into the business world could be institutional in preventing such severe economic decline in the future. More mindful productivity should yield more stability for future generations.

Many helpful ideas lie within the boards of this treatise. There is something in here for anyone who wants to make a difference through labor with contribution. I highly recommend this book and any of Goleman’s other books to my staff. See my blog entry on Social Intelligence.

Author: John (Page 14 of 19)

Buddhist Practice on Western Ground by Harvey B. Aronson

Haiku Mind edited by Patricia Donegan

Occult America by Mitch Horowitz

Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron

Blood’s A Rover by James Ellroy

The Leader’s Way by the Dalai Lama

New poems by Joseph Stroud

The Late Poems of Meng Chiao

Companions for the Journey: A Series

Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

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