A thoughtful exploration of pain and truth.
This debut nonfiction book meditates on the nature of suffering using an 18th-century Buddhist poem.
Hakuin Ekaku was one of the great thinkers of Zen Buddhism, and his hymn “The Song of Zazen,” composed around 1760, is a poetic encapsulation of his philosophy. “In his day, Hakuin was to Japanese Zen what the Beatles were to rock ’n’ roll in the 1960s,” writes Lahn of the poet. “He was a radical reformer, reinvigorating the active practice of Zen, both within the monasteries and among the common folk.” Even so, the ideas contained within the poem are not inherently Buddhist: The author argues that Hakuin’s meditation on suffering and wisdom speaks to people across cultures and faith traditions. With this book, Lahn seeks to bring Hakuin’s poem to that wider audience, demystifying its sometimes-enigmatic verses and applying them to his own modern concerns. As the author explains, the poem “takes away far more than it gives,” helping readers shed the cumbersome ideas and emotions that get in the way of accessing the deeper truth of being. “The Song of Zazen” is not a lengthy poem—the translation by Norman Waddell that Lahn works from is only 43 lines long—but each short stanza is given its own elucidating chapter. The author’s prose is empathetic and accessible, supplementing Hakuin’s spare lines with relatable analysis. Here, he illustrates Hakuin’s insistence on the necessity of suffering with an example from his own life, when he became reliant on crutches after injuring his foot: “After a while, the nurse told me I could wean off the supports and walk freely again despite the pain. Although it was growth and progress, I found myself reluctant to experience the pain of a healing foot as well as go without the nice attention and sympathy the crutches and cane brought me.” It’s an unexpectedly breezy work, and Lahn is correct that one need not be a Buddhist to appreciate the simple, if unintuitive, wisdom that Hakuin and his poem offer.
A thoughtful exploration of pain and truth.Pub Date: Dec. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-948626-78-1
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Monkfish Book Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.
Avuncular observations on matters historical from the late popularizer of the past.
McCullough made a fine career of storytelling his way through past events and the great men (and occasional woman) of long-ago American history. In that regard, to say nothing of his eschewing modern technology in favor of the typewriter (“I love the way the bell rings every time I swing the carriage lever”), he might be thought of as belonging to a past age himself. In this set of occasional pieces, including various speeches and genial essays on what to read and how to write, he strikes a strong tone as an old-fashioned moralist: “Indifference to history isn’t just ignorant, it’s rude,” he thunders. “It’s a form of ingratitude.” There are some charming reminiscences in here. One concerns cajoling his way into a meeting with Arthur Schlesinger in order to pitch a speech to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy: Where Richard Nixon “has no character and no convictions,” he opined, Kennedy “is appealing to our best instincts.” McCullough allows that it wasn’t the strongest of ideas, but Schlesinger told him to write up a speech anyway, and when it got to Kennedy, “he gave a speech in which there was one paragraph that had once sentence written by me.” Some of McCullough’s appreciations here are of writers who are not much read these days, such as Herman Wouk and Paul Horgan; a long piece concerns a president who’s been largely lost in the shuffle too, Harry Truman, whose decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan McCullough defends. At his best here, McCullough uses history as a way to orient thinking about the present, and with luck to good ends: “I am a short-range pessimist and a long-range optimist. I sincerely believe that we may be on the way to a very different and far better time.”
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781668098998
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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