Friday, January 13, 2012

Letters to Dinoo




Dear DinooDear Dinoo by Sangharakshita
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have read about 30+ Sangharakshita books.  One is an all time world classic:  A Survey Of Buddhism.  One is probably a modern sutta:  The Essential Sangharakshita.  And then there are a bunch of books I can keep reading over and over again for the rest of my life.  Know Your Mind comes to mind.  And The Three Jewels.  Some books are indispensable:  Ten Pillars.  Vision and Transformation is amazing.  The book created from his talk on the Sutra of the Golden Light, is...  I'm trying to think of lofty terms.  I'd actually have to put that with the Survey, The Essential and Know Your Mind.  This man is a genius, but genius implies intellectual skill.  He is so much more than a genius, he is kaboom.  He blows it all up--the depth and breadth of his thinking is beyond words.

Two of his books I couldn't get through.  I would put this book higher than those, but the author himself doesn't see an audience beyond the Triratna community, which is probably why it was printed by ibis  Why wouldn't Windhorse publish it?  It would never ever make money.  Thus the lovely print on demand world.  Wow.

I did think a lot about letters, and I wrote one today.  I wish his letters in this book weren't full of travel planning.  OK, the dude traveled a lot, he was in demand.  He went on preaching tours in India, for goodness sake.  I've read the over a thousand pages of his memoirs.  He went forth.  He gave everything away and went forth from his home, his possessions, his family.  Think about it.  No, think about it.  You're joking right?  That's not thinking about it.  Think about it.  He did it.

A lovely woman gave me this book and I really appreciate that.


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