buddha or bust...just another modern book with a schnazy title and a catchy subtitle?

I just finished reading Buddha or Bust . It is a book which stemmed from a National Geographic article the author wrote about the world-wide historical spread of Buddhism.

This book and modern popular writing is a lot like blog writing...like '...this here ole blog.' Essentially the idea is formulated and then written down. I think his writing style is a response to the manner in which people want to read. In most non-fiction today there is little or no art to the writing. Even fiction, in my opinion such as The Da Vinci code, is sometimes hard to read. What would the real Leonardo think about the book? Especially in contrast to something like Oryx and Crake. Which just flows...beautifully...

That said, I did enjoy a lot of Perry Garfinkel's book. The parts in the book I enjoyed the most dealt directly with his life story. Well...I suppose...the most 'bloggy' parts. He had some ideas, which he finished with, that gave me pause to think. He wrote about why we do not question when we are in the moment.

"Often, so caught up in my own head, I drive by similar scenes here and take no note of them. But through my new door of perception, the ordinary took on extraordinary significance. We were perfectly content, with nowhere to go, nothing to do, no one to be. Questions come from dissatisfaction, from doubt and uncertainty, from thinking there is more to the picture than what you see in front of you. But to be fully in the moment, in such an altered state of satisfaction, is quite enough. Even the journalist, "stripped of his questions," can let go of his identity. Until that moment passes. As it did that day."

I like that passage. To me the idea is ironic though, because I feel one of man's defining characteristics; one of humanity's most endearing and lofty traits is the ability and act of questioning. Without it, without the desire to grow, we are less than human. Questioning comes from a desire to be something greater. To reach a higher level of being. There's the rub. The contradiction. That in order to reach enlightenment, to be free of desire, one must desire to be free. There must be hope and a dream of something better.

It seems we are all in prison. But a man with a dream and a desire and a plan on getting out of prison, is a free man indeed. And that man has a purpose...and hopefully a rock hammer...

But in order to do so, one must question.

Garfinkel talks about enjoying the moment. About not questioning, about just being. But that appreciation of the moment, can only come when one knows and understands that the moment is going to pass. When one has questioned the impermanence of things.