A cogent, concise, and personable guide to a transformative faith.
A retired Japanese university professor and Buddhist priest introduces a major religion of his home country.
Widely practiced in Japan but less well-known in the United States, Shin Buddhism offers its practitioners salvation from the myriad cares of the world. “Salvation,” debut author Hirose explains, is “strictly a mental process such that one becomes able to cope with difficult situations.” In this, Shin Buddhism differs from other branches of the Buddhist faith; unlike Tibetan Buddhists, for example, Shin’s adherents “have no magical instruments, no sacred places believed to have supernatural powers, no magic words.” Instead, devotees concentrate on trying to “see things as they are without any bias or self-interest.” In pursuit of this, questions of morality and religion become uncoupled, selflessness is prized over selfishness, and various scriptures become simplified. Hirose describes how Shinran, the faith’s 13th-century founder, turned to the original Sanskrit teachings of Gautama Buddha to figure out which lines were intended literally and which symbolically. The tool he used to do this was a search for “universality,” as “a universal idea makes sense in any place at any time,” Hirose explains. Accordingly, teachings of the Buddha that would be acceptable in all cultures were thereby incorporated as canon in Shin Buddhism. Hirose compares this process to the formation of English common law in one of his brief and always useful personal asides. Readers will come away from this short book with a firm, uncluttered idea of an important and potentially alluring faith. Hirose is cleareyed about his own subject and aware of the ways that its teachings can seem abstruse, as when he admits that the essential part of one teaching is “very simple—perhaps too simple.” The dialogues that he includes at the end of each chapter serve as a sort of catechism, answering questions and reinforcing previous lessons. The author shows the patience of the practiced teacher that he is, and, with luck, he’ll be rewarded with worthy students.
A cogent, concise, and personable guide to a transformative faith.Pub Date: June 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4575-5004-1
Page Count: 154
Publisher: Dog Ear
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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