"If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." Would that today's fundamentalist ideologues would pay more attention to this ninth-century advice from Lin Chi. Violent as it sounds, what it means is that what I would perceive to be the true Buddha would be only the reflection of my own unexamined beliefs and desires, and thus should be repudiated. My journey should continue. I would not have found The Truth.
So, this, Killing the Buddha, A Heretic's Bible, is the book I just received from Amazon.com, waiting new and enticing on top of.....how many others? You may or may not know the website by the same name, killingthebuddha.com, an online literary magazine of religion and culture, but it's been one of my favorite places for quite some time. These guys, Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet, question it all. The book is the result of their own journey around the USA, looking for Buddhas along the road, finding "prophets in G-strings dancing to pay the rent, storm chasers hunting for meaning in devastating tornados, gangbusters inking God on their bodies as protection from bullets, cross-dressing terrorist angels looking for a place to sing."
Sounding good already, huh? But wait, there's more. They also call upon some of today's most interesting writers to "recast books of the Bible by taking them apart, blowing them up with ink and paper." So we have Rick Moody rewriting Jonah as a modern-day gay Jewish man in Queens, A. L. Kennedy meditating on the absurdity of Genesis, Haven Kimmel swimming through Revelation, etc. All of these are interspersed with Manseau and Sharlet's dispatches from the road. You may have heard these guys on NPR, I caught a snippet of an interview one night on, I think, Fresh Air. The jacket copy promises us that "Together these curious minds tell the strange, funny, sad and true story of religion in American for the spiritual seeker in all of us: A Heretic's Bible."
Buddha knows when I'll actually read this book, it may join the pile by the bed that I dip into pre sleep or during white nights awake. But I'll let you know.
2 comments:
Good Morning Marigolds,
just wanted you to know that I stopped by to check things out. I always anticipate what will be waiting for me. I noticed on the side bar that you gave "Mona Lisa"smile an: eech! Is that the same as an Ebert thumbs down? LOL I went to blockbuster yesterday and had it in my hand but put it back for another choice. I see it basically has the same critique in most places but I still want to give it a shot. Well, look forward to your next find. Hugs. ~RC~
Thanks for the heads up on the site. I look forward to delving into it once I've got a little time. :-) ---Robbie
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