Buddhism: In the West, In National Geographic Magazine

This month’s National Geographic explores Buddhism in the West.

There is some beautiful Japanese flute music along with good pictures/video and an interview with the writer along with the article. It gives a good impression on why Buddhism is picking up here these days, and a tiny bit of what it is that goes on in meditation.

The most interesting point for me is in the interview with Perry Garfinkel, the author, and he describes a ‘Zen moment’ when, in a theological conversation with Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi, Ven. Roshi asks him suddenly, “who is this God you keep talking about?” Mr. Garfinkel, raised Jewish, describes it as a moment where he realized that he may not believe in God any more. Very strange. He says that, “in one fail swoop he blew away my construct of God. I mean, it’s not a person, not a thing, and from the Buddhist perspective, from which there is no such thing as God, or a God, I suddenly got what Buddhists were talking about…”

He also describes the meeting of the Dalai Lama, in which the hand-shake was “like a hand-to-hand tranquility transfusion. The man had me at hello.”

It all looks nice and well done. Well worth a read. I especially liked the slide show and video. Best wishes to all 🙂