Читать книгу Dharma Delight - Rodney Alan Greenblat - Страница 8

Foreword

“LIFE AND DEATH ARE OF SUPREME IMPORTANCE……TIME SWIFTLY PASSES BY AND OPPORTUNITY IS LOST…..DO NOT SQUANDER YOUR LIFE.” - from the traditional Evening Gata.

Wow. Serious stuff.

Indeed, the whole project of Buddhism can seem like heavy furniture in a room suffused with high seriousness of intent. And coupled with our American Puritanism and penchant for self-improvement, the prospect of alleviating our suffering and the suffering of others--a joyful aspiration indeed--can come to seem unnecessarily grim.

Enter Musho Rodney Alan Greenblat, bearing in hand Dharma Delight. If meditation is indeed the seat of ease and joy, Musho is a wonderful companion and guide. His book--a kaleidoscopic cornucopia of Buddhist history, teaching and symbol-- populated with a cast of characters both traditional and original, is a Dharma delivery system powered by pleasure as well as wisdom. Tortoises, pandas and sentient beans join hands with Bodhidharma, Avalokiteshvara and Buddha (in a spaceship, of course) to take us on a journey of liberation. And liberated is how I felt as I wound my way through its colorful and heartfelt pages.

And even though the images in the book are in many ways classical in their depictions of Buddhist iconography and Dharmic code, they are also a reminder of both the great Comedy of life and the hearty laughter of Zen itself --one of the funniest paths to freedom ever invented. As a Zen student I may not yet have realized the sound of one hand, but as an actor, I know very well the sound of two and I send thunderclaps of applause and nine bows in Musho’s general direction. Open his book and become intimate with joy!

Richard Thomas