Editor, Brian Bruya

"Siddhartha"
by Hermann Hesse, translated by Sherab Chodzin Kohn
In the shade of a banyan tree, a grizzled ferryman sits listening to the river. Some say he's a sage. He was once a wandering shramana and, briefly, like thousands of others, he followed Gotama the Buddha, enraptured by his sermons. But this man, Siddhartha, was not a follower of any but his own soul. Born the son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha was blessed in appearance, intelligence, and charisma. In order to find meaning in life, he discarded his promising future for the life of a wandering ascetic. Still, true happiness evaded him. Then a life of pleasure and titillation merely eroded away his spiritual gains until he was just like all the other "child people," dragged around by his desires. Like Hermann Hesse's other creations of struggling young men, "Siddhartha" has a good dose of European angst and stubborn individualism. His final epiphany challenges both the Buddhist and the Hindu ideals of enlightenment. Neither a practitioner nor a devotee, neither meditating nor reciting, Siddhartha comes to blend in with the world, resonating with the rhythms of nature, bending the reader's ear down to hear answers from the river. In this translation Sherab Chodzin Kohn captures the slow, spare lyricism of Siddhartha's search, putting her version on par with Hilda Rosner's standard edition. Read more

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"Hidden Spring: A Buddhist Woman Confronts Her Life-Threatening Illness"
by Sandy Boucher
To an outsider, Buddhist meditation can appear self-indulgent, time frittered away buttressing an intransigent ego. To an insider, such as Sandy Boucher, the dividends of meditation can come at unforeseen times, under extreme circumstances, such as facing down malignant cancer. Boucher, a counterculture patchwork of pursuits and causes, sews together a memoir of suffering to rival any proof of the Buddha's first noble truth. Although her surgery is a success, like so many other cancer victims, Boucher's battle with chemotherapy causes the most damage. Having lost her home, her lover, and her health, Boucher collapses into the spiritual arms of her longtime meditation teacher Ruth Denison. Parallel to the drama of the cancer, we are treated to a minibiography of Denison, who proves to be an oasis of sanity in the desert of Boucher's life. Honest, occasionally compelling, and often unusual, Boucher's story contains glimmers of Buddhism's light amid many shadows of human frailty. Read more

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"Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation"
translated by Stephen Mitchell
On the list of the greatest spiritual books of all time, the "Bhagavad Gita" resides permanently in the top echelon. This poem of patently Indian genius sprouted an immense tree of devotional, artistic, and philosophical elaboration in the subcontinent. The scene is a battlefield, with the prince Arjuna pitted against his own family, but no sooner does the poem begin than the action reverts inward. Krishna, Arjuna's avatar and spiritual guide, points the way to the supreme wisdom and perfect freedom that lie within everyone's reach. Worship and be faithful, meditate and know reality--these make up the secret of life and lead eventually to the realization that the self is the root of the world. In this titular translation, Stephen Mitchell's rhythms are faultless, making music of this ancient "Song of the Blessed One." Savor his rendition, but nibble around the edges of his introduction. In a bizarre mixture of praise and condescension, Mitchell disregards two millennia of Indian commentary, seeking illumination on the text from Daoism and Zen, with the "Gita" coming up just shy of full spiritual merit. Perhaps we should take it from Gandhi, who used the Gita as a handbook for life, that it nourishes on many levels. Read more

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"The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen"
translated by Jeffrey L. Broughton
His name comes up in mentions of Zen's misty past, but without any writings or authentication, modern authors have often referred to Bodhidharma as semilegendary. In 1935, D.T. Suzuki had rummaged through a number of newly discovered Zen texts dating back over a thousand years, but not until recently did scholars agree that some may contain the words of Bodhidharma himself. Now Jeffrey Broughton has brushed off the dust for the English reading world. In question-and-answer style anticipating later Zen classics like the "Lin-Chi Lu" ("Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi"), Bodhidharma fields questions from his students on dharma, the mind, and reality. Vintage Zen iconoclasm permeates every line as dharmas are dispensed with and scriptures shot down. A rock painted with a Buddhist image is still just a rock. Just so, reality is just reality. A previously unknown student of Bodhidharma, one Master Yuan, shows himself to be a worthy adept, equal to the more well-known Hui-kuo, who also appears. The actual Bodhidharma texts are quite brief, with the bulk of this work consisting of Broughton's scholarly introduction, commentary, appendices, and translations of related finds. Read more

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"Mudras: Yoga in Your Hands"
by Gertrud Hirschi
Yoga for the hands--sounds too good to be true. Do it at the office, on an airplane, lying in bed. Seasoned yoga teacher Gertrud Hirschi has used these hand postures to ease asthma, relieve flu symptoms, think more effectively, relieve tension, even have a bowel movement. The possibilities she attributes to these ancient Indian techniques are endless. Join the tips of the index finger and thumb: this clears the mind. Switch the thumb to the little finger: this restores the body's fluid balance. It's not quite that easy, of course. Hirschi is careful to lay out exercise regimens, related herbal remedies, and associated affirmations. Like a classroom instructor, she guides with simultaneous breathing advice and conjures up helpful images. From building character to healing emotional pain, from bringing luck to connecting with the divine, mudras can work wonders. Now limber up those digits and lets get into spiritual shape. Read more

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--Brian Bruya is a comparative philosopher, writer, and translator. His latest publication is "The Wisdom of the Zen Masters."

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