I have always found it interesting when books seem to randomly, perhaps auspiciously, find their way into my life. I find it particularly interesting when these books are dharma books. I am sure many of you out there have experienced this as well, but occasionally it is as if we do not find certain teachings, but they find us. A few days ago, while walking my dog, I found myself straying from the usual route and before long, the two of us were taking a long walk through the streets of Brooklyn. Brooklyn is a fascinating, complex, and vast borough, and I have always loved the fact that no matter how long I live there, I can still discover neighborhoods I’ve never seen before. On one block I came across an old man selling books out of a milk crate. Most all were novels save an old, beat-up copy of Introducing Buddha, a short illustrated introduction to Buddhism written by Jane Hope and illustrated by Borin Van Loon. Five minutes and five dollars later I found myself sitting on neareby steps reading while my dog caught his breath in the shade. As I read I quickly noticed that beyond it’s comic-book charm, it contained some surprisingly pithy and well-written descriptions:
Here are a few pages from it:
On lineage and knowledge:
On Mahayana:
On absolute and relative truth:
On Buddhism in “The West“:
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