 
July, 2003
 
The Still Point Dhammapada:
Living
the Buddha's Essential Teachings
Geri Larkin
Hardcover, $21.95
Our Price: $17.56
Harper San Francisco
When permitting herself to keep only
one book out of her library, Geri Larkin chose the Dhammapada.
She explains: “I’ll keep it because it has never
let me down. It’s true north. I’ll keep the Dhammapada
because it makes me laugh at myself, or sob at some karmic mess
I’ve created. The Dhammapada oozes wisdom and compassion…It
reminds me that enlightenment really is an inside job.”
Traditionally divided into twenty-six
chapters, the Dhammapada is a compilation of verses spoken by
the Buddha and is considered
to be the most representative of his teachings. A Buddhist teacher
and co-founder of The Still Point Zen Buddhist Temple in downtown
Detroit, Larkin seeks to bring the text to a contemporary audience.
Larkin’s technique involves beginning each of her twenty-six
chapters with a modern, gender-inclusive verse, followed by illustrative
stories of creating and managing a Buddhist temple in downtown
Detroit.
One chapter, for example, concerns “unlearning” the
need to be perfect, which was one of the greatest hurdles for
her seminary students. She writes that by making mistakes, owning
them, and apologizing for them, we learn the practice of humility.
Our conquest of our self, our admission of our imperfections,
in turn leads to the development of compassion.
This book renders the Buddha’s teachings in a way that
is accessible and contemporary. It shows how Buddhist concepts
of non-judgment and loving kindness apply today, particularly
in the inner city environment of crime, poverty, and addiction.
For students of Science of Mind, The Still Point Dhammapada serves
as an easy-to-read depiction of the many parallels between the
two practices.
—
Amanda Pisani
 
Legacy of Love:
My
Education in the Path of Nonviolence
Arun Gandhi
Paperback, $15.00
North Bay Books
Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, is today the founder
of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, a center dedicated
to the application of nonviolence to solve personal and public
conflicts. In this memoir of his relationship with his legendary
grandfather, the author reveals that the public persona and the
private man were one and the same.
Born in South Africa in 1934, Arun writes of his extended visit
to India at the age of 12, to stay with his famous grandfather
at the Sevagram Ashram. Beaten and taunted by bullies in South
Africa for his skin color, Arun was left with a rage that the
elder Gandhi—the victim of similar attacks—completely
understood. He then undertook to teach his grandson the most
important lesson he ever learned: “how to understand anger
and use it wisely.”
What follows are many stories of how Mahatma taught, by words
and by example, the wisdom of the nonviolent response to his
young grandson. Some of these are surprising: in one, Gandhi
advises Arun to keep an anger journal, to develop the habit of
translating his anger into positive, nonviolent actions. “Passive
violence,” in the form of waste, was another concept impressed
upon Arun, when one day he carelessly throws away a short, stubby
pencil, only to have his grandfather hand him a flashlight to
go find it. When Arun returns with the pencil, Gandhi says, “Wasteful
habits perpetuate poverty, which is violence against humanity…you
must learn to use everything carefully, sparingly and completely,
so that we can share the resources of the world equally with
everyone.”
There is a humble, reflective tone to this book, and many stories
are told in a gently humorous style. This book presents a unique
window on the human being behind the legend, who, as we see,
truly lived the ideals he espoused.
— Jan Suzukawa
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