An intriguing, challenging crash course in Zen Buddhism.
A notated explication of an ancient Zen Buddhist text.
Debut author Sullivan explains that the work at hand is a translation of “a thousand-year-old collection of stories, commentaries, and poetry from the classical age of Zen in China.” There are 100 “cases” contained within, and each is accompanied by an in-depth examination. We’re warned outright that the actions here may often seem bizarre. This proves to be true immediately. The first case, “The Emperor Asks Bodhidharma,” is no more than a page long. Emperor Wu of Liang is puzzled by an encounter with a famous monk named Bodhidharma. What is it supposed to mean? The author points out that, as with many of the stories to follow, it may “seem appealing but resist[s] understanding.” Other entries include everything from someone being hit with meditation cushions to a master dancing while holding a rice bucket. A question is posed: “What is Buddha?” The response is “Three pounds of flax.” The author draws on years of his experiences with Zen Buddhism (such as attempting to understand his sometimes-perplexing Zen Master Yangil Sunim) to provide context. Yet, clear-cut answers aren’t the point: “Something wonderful can happen if you have given up on understanding anything.” Of course, this approach doesn’t lend itself to easy comprehension. Paradoxes abound. Obscure (to the layman) Buddhist figures (e.g., Jetsun Milarepa) are discussed. Yet the work stands out with the personal nature of the commentaries. The author shares the cases’ common interpretations along with his own. Many insights have grown from Sullivan’s years of grappling with such material, and he notes, “subtle feelings reveal illumination.” Though these illuminations may be difficult to see initially, the reader is left with an understanding of an ageless, beguiling collection.
An intriguing, challenging crash course in Zen Buddhism.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-94-862649-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Monkfish Book Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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