{"id":6553,"date":"2012-09-28T17:15:03","date_gmt":"2012-09-29T00:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=6553"},"modified":"2012-09-28T17:15:03","modified_gmt":"2012-09-29T00:15:03","slug":"buddhist-writing-wisdom-or-chicken-shit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/buddhist-writing-wisdom-or-chicken-shit\/","title":{"rendered":"Buddhist Writing — Wisdom or Chicken Shit?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Glacial
Something to meditate on if I were a meditating sort: Glacial erratic rocks perched tentatively on a lakeside slope at Inyo National Forest. Photo by BF Newhall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

Sylvia Boorstein and Jack Kornfield are two of my favorite Buddhist writers. I learn a lot from them about how to lead my life, how to be a better me.<\/p>\n

Sylvia\u2019s Happiness Is an Inside Job <\/em>fits right in with what I need to be doing right now. I like Kornfield\u2019s writing, too, though I\u2019m not at all sure I want to follow him into \u201cinner deconstruction\u201d \u2013 the wrenching process experienced by advanced meditators \u2013 without a well-trained psychotherapist at my side.<\/p>\n

\"jack
Jack Kornfield. Photo by Robert Vente<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for actually taking time out to sit myself down and meditate, I can\u2019t help thinking (as I’ve thought in an earlier post<\/a>)\u00a0\u2013 why meditate when I could be sweeping the garage? Or emailing my son in Minnesota? Or thinning the camellia buds in the front yard? Or writing this post to you?<\/p>\n

Or, better yet, curling up with a good book about Buddhism?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I was startled and amused when I read a passage devoted to this very issue in Kornfield\u2019s newest book, Bringing Home the Dharma<\/em>. There it was, righteous and incisive, in a chapter about Ajahn Chah, who was Kornfield\u2019s teacher years ago at the Wat Ba Pong forest monastery in Thailand.<\/p>\n

During a visit to England, Ajahn Chah had an encounter with a staid English lady who was part of the British Buddhist Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The woman pummeled the teacher with complex philosophical questions. But when asked whether she did much meditating, the woman said no, she didn\u2019t have time; she was too busy studying the texts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMadam,\u201d Ajahn Chah said to her. \u201cYou are like a woman who keeps chickens in her yard and goes around picking up the chicken shit instead of the eggs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hey, that’s me!<\/p>\n

\"Mug
Sylvia Boorstein. Photo by Christine Alicino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s true — by reading about Buddhism instead of taking the time to meditate I am probably missing out on some nice eggs. But I don\u2019t think I\u2019m picking up chicken shit.<\/p>\n

Not as long as Sylvia Boorstein<\/a> and Jack Kornfield<\/a> are writing books.<\/p>\n

Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are<\/em>, Jack Kornfield, Shambhala<\/a>, 2011, $24.95 hardcover.<\/p>\n

Happiness Is an Inside Job<\/a>: Practicing for a Joyful Life<\/em>, Sylvia Boorstein, 2008, Ballantine, $14 paper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Don’t miss my comments on Kornfield’s book, <\/em>Bringing Home the Dharma<\/a>.\u00a0 Or, you might want to read my post about the human potential movement’s George Leonard at\u00a0 “The Tao of Writing<\/a>.”<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"jack<\/a><\/p>\n

Jack Kornfield and Sylvia Boorstein are two of my favorite Buddhist writers. But I don’t follow their advice entirely — I don’t meditate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[751,34,273,746,750,275],"class_list":["post-6553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey","tag-ajahn-chah","tag-dont-miss","tag-i-dont-meditate","tag-jack-kornfield","tag-spiritual-journeys","tag-sylvia-boorstein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}