Entries tagged with philosophy

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5. The Mahabharata: a Modern Rendering - Ramesh Menon

5. The Mahabharata: a Modern Rendering by, um, it's complicated? Trditionally ascribed to Vyasa (who is also a character in the story itself), probably actually composed by multiple people at various points in time, this version translated and edited by Ramesh Menon.

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Indian epics (the other being the Ramayana), and I've been meaning to read it for ages. And I'm very happy that I've now done so! (Though I guess that means I need to read the Ramayana next.) I picked this translation off of a recommendation on this community, and though I can't compare it to any others, I did really enjoy it. It's quite long- two volumes of about 800 pages each- but it's a fantastic, compelling story, full of all kinds of awesome stuff: gods and secret identities and earth-destroying weapons and reincarnations and gender-switching and so much more!

To completely over-simplify the plot, there are two sets of cousins: the Pandavas, who consist of five brothers who are all the sons of gods, and the Kauravas, who consist of a hundred brothers who may be demons. The eldest son of each group wants to inherit the throne, and the machinations and secret assassination attempts and broken promises eventually lead to Kurukshetra and the Greatest War Ever, which causes the end of the age. My favorite characters were Amba, who holds such a grudge that she kills herself and is reincarnated as a warrior to kill her enemy; Draupadi, who marries all five of the Pandava brothers and is amazingly fierce; and Kunti, who is able to summon gods, and who uses this to sleep with them.

There's so many characters and sub-plots and side stories and so forth that it's hard to even describe the Mahabharata. But it's AWESOME, and I loved it.

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#18 - Meeting Faith, by Faith Adiele

Someone recommended this book here (couldn't find the rec by searching the tags and today is a busy one), so I got it, and I'm really glad I did.

This is a memoir of a biracial (Finnish/Igbo) American woman, the daughter of immigrants, who, depressed and failing at Harvard, decides to go to Thailand, where she had gone as an exchange student in high school. While studying women's issues in Thailand, she decides (on the urging of her Thai advisor) to become a maichi, a Buddhist nun.

The thing about Thailand is that you can become a monk or a nun for a time, then leave whenever you like. Faith spends one Lenten season with the maichis, and although she went more as an anthropologist than anything else, you get the impression that she left the temple profoundly changed.

This is a fantastic book, one that I'm going to be rereading a lot. Highly recommended.

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No Death, No Fear; Being Peace; & Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hahn

The first of Thich Nhat Hahn's books I read was No Death, No Fear.

This is from the very beginning of the inside front flap, but so far it's one of my favorite parts.

There is a story about a Zen master whose monastery was overrun by marauding soldiers. When the Zen master did not appear frightened, the soldiers' captain said, "Don't you know who I am? I could run my sword through you and not think twice about it." The Zen master replied, "Don't you know who I am? You could run your sword through me and I wouldn't think twice about it."

When I showed the book to a friend, he said it didn't seem like the sort of thing I would buy. I felt a little put out by that, and at the time I wasn't sure exactly why, but I've worked it out now. The subtitle of the book is "Comforting Wisdom for Life," which sounds much fluffier than it is, and much like some of the self-help books I dislike. (I can't stand fluffy.)

I finished Being Peace. It's a good book. I liked No Death, No Fear a little better, but this was good.

I have just begun to seriously study Buddhism. I've believed in many of the precepts for a long time, and I find that there isn't much in the books that is new to me. It's strange to read it, and have what I've believed be affirmed. And there are parts with which I don't quite agree...a few things about sex, and food, for example.

But then, I don't want to be a monk.

I still don't think of it as a religion, not as I practice it. But if Buddhism is as these books describe it, I have been a devout practitioner for a while now. It's becoming more important to me to be able to talk about it.

I've always found that what Thich Nhat Hahn writes is true, that anger evaporates in the face of understanding. I really can't be angry when I understand that the reason someone has hurt me is beyond their control, or they had good reasons that I can understand and support.

In Peace is Every Step, he writes a lot about being present, being mindful, simply being part of your environment. It sounds fluffy, which I hate, but I'm able to deal with it because at the bottom of it, Thich Nhat Hahn's mindful meditation on the cycles of life is compatible with physics and ecology. It works for me.

I just got The Art of Power in today's mail, and I'm very excited about reading it. I'm certain it's going to be a lot different than most books with "power" in the title.