by Ptolemy Tompkins ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2001
Not nearly so vague and self-absorbed as most works of this genre: a worthwhile effort.
From the son of New Age guru Peter Tompkins, engagingly frank recollections of an adolescent search for wisdom among the usual suspects—Tao, Buddha, and Castañeda—whose prescriptions turn out, on closer examination, to be no more enlightening or realistic than conventional nostrums.
Tompkins doesn’t trivialize his experiences, but he is also self-deprecating—which makes his account of the getting of wisdom agreeably free of earnestness or self-absorption, the usual fatal flaws of the genre. As he notes in the introduction, his family and the times (the 1970s) predisposed him to search for answers outside the mainstream. Like many others of the era, he was attracted to the “life manuals that are the sacred literature for a culture that has forgotten what to do with its original sacred literature.” After a senior year in high school spent reading about Taoism, as well as taking “a big bite of Huxleyan (Aldous) visionary bread,” he went off to Vassar—chosen because he thought its lingering “Sissy image” might be more open to the “Tao” way of living. But college turned out to be unhelpful, so Tompkins took a semester off and accompanied Nick, a practicing Buddhist relative, to Colombia to help him photograph local villagers. He found both the experience and Nick’s Buddhism disappointing, but he was determined to continue his search. Making frequent reference to the Bhagavad-gita, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and Black Elk Speaks, Tompkins describes how he turned next to writing, then to hallucinogenic mushrooms, and finally to California. Frustrated that he remained unenlightened, and suspecting that his wise man were fundamentally flawed, he decided in the end that there was no single “right” way to enlightenment—and that wisdom may well lie in “turning yourself over to the process even before you knew where it was going.”
Not nearly so vague and self-absorbed as most works of this genre: a worthwhile effort.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-380-97822-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2001
Share your opinion of this book
More by Eben Alexander
BOOK REVIEW
by Eben Alexander with Ptolemy Tompkins
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Share your opinion of this book
More by Stephen Batchelor
BOOK REVIEW
by Kerry Egan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 2016
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.