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Title: Turtle Feet Post by: Totino on August 19, 2008, 12:30:36 PM Finished up this book about a month or so ago. It's about a young man who drops out of the Berklee college of music to go study Buddhism in Tibet. I don't want to give away what he discovers, as that's what gives the book a bit of its humor, but it was definitely a good read. I myself cannot get away from reading non-fiction books about experiences in Buddhist temples. Good stuff.
Title: Re: Turtle Feet Post by: Gojira on August 19, 2008, 12:34:17 PM Finished up this book about a month or so ago. It's about a young man who drops out of the Berklee college of music to go study Buddhism in Tibet. I don't want to give away what he discovers, as that's what gives the book a bit of its humor, but it was definitely a good read. I myself cannot get away from reading non-fiction books about experiences in Buddhist temples. Good stuff. That actually sounds interesting considering I went into music and then studied Asian religions a bit and now am in economics. Go figure. Title: Re: Turtle Feet Post by: Totino on August 19, 2008, 12:45:04 PM http://www.amazon.com/Turtle-Feet-Nikolai-Grozni/dp/159448984X
There's a link to it. And a bit about it: "Nikolai Grozni was a music prodigy, a jazz pianist training at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, when suddenly he decided to transform his life. He moved to India to become a Buddhist monk-shaving his head, learning Tibetan, and donning long traditional robes. In the Himalayas-living in a hut a stone's throw from the Dalai Lama's compound- Grozni became entrenched in a sometimes comical, sometimes reverent, always intriguing community comprised of feisty nuns, bossy monks, violent chess players, demanding teachers, and a spectacular friend called Tsar, a fallen monk from Bosnia. Grozni went to India in search of knowledge, but learns that the people who can teach him the most are not wearing uniforms and following special diets, but rather those who, like him, struggle with doubts and cannot accept an established system of faith. Instead, he journeys with his colorful cast of friends to a new understanding of himself and his place in the world. Like Anne Lamott or Elizabeth Gilbert, Nikolai Grozni offers the insights of a religious pilgrim from the inside-in his case, from a male, Buddhist perspective. Thoughtful, funny, and elegantly written, Turtle Feet details the reality of a world much mythologized in the West and tells a wonderfully bittersweet story of a spiritual journey." I'm hoping to check out the book "The Empty Mirror" next. Title: Re: Turtle Feet Post by: Gojira on August 19, 2008, 02:40:40 PM I am definitely gonna read this one after I finish Moby Dick. I have been promising myself to finally sit down and read it. So far, so good.
It looks like this book would go well in tandem with "Nine Headed Dragon River" by Peter Mathiessen Quote When Matthiessen took his Himalaya trek, recreated in The Snow Leopard, he secretly hoped that a "great clarity" would emerge from his ordeal in the snowy mountains. A disciple of Zen Buddhism since 1970 when his wife introduced him to meditation, he plunged more deeply into Zen after her death. This moving, highly personal story attempts to convey the essence of the Zen experience as the journal shuttles between an account of modern Zen masters in America, details of the Buddha's life, lyrical introspection and poetic recollections of Nepal, Tibet, India and Japan. Matthiessen excells at detailed descriptions of inner mental states ("In zazen, one is one's present self, what one was, and what one will be, all at once"). Zen helps him to live in the present, unencumbered by regret of the past or daydreams of the future, and this intensely felt journal communicates his faith. The log concludes with Matthiessen's 1982 pilgrimage to Japan to visit his 75-year-old former teacher. http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Headed-Dragon-River-1969-1982-Shambhala/dp/1570623678/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219185367&sr=1-1 Its probably more serious than what you would expect but it's really insightful and helps a lot coming from a western perspective. Title: Re: Turtle Feet Post by: bringbackwigs on August 19, 2008, 02:50:16 PM Sounds interesting enough.
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