Insider Outlook

When a book of a meager 60 pages lands in my mailbox, I usually plan to read it over lunch. This book was no exception. Michael Wenger assembles 33 stories from uniquely American sources. From D.T. Suzuki to Yogi Berra, this collection truly pulls the American experience into the practice arena. Following each story, there is commentary and related poetry or a follow up quip. This makes the collection easy to read, and becomes familiar after just a few passes.

For a collection of direction finders, this short book blows the dust off of the old fashioned collections. Draped in American garb, these pointers resonate with the clarity and honesty of the traditional koan rocords. Getting into American heads is difficult enough, I am glad there is now some more direction.

I have been through some non-traditional Christian texts, but it has been a long time. I read the Lost Books many years ago, and was struck by how low quality the content seemed. It never ocurred to me this was because they were never developed into the overweight bloat of religious literature. After reading Beyond Belief I can appreciate the simplicity of those books not subjected to canonization.

The book covers much more history and context than actual Gospel, but that is expected because the book of Thomas is short and lacks narrative. The Gospel of Thomas is the equivalent of the Jesus Roku. The sayings and doings of Jesus strike a Buddhist mind in an oddly familiar way. He is stressing that his followers must do more than listen and understand. It must be practiced, not memorized. It can be lived, not just admired and worshipped. You can be as Jesus is.

As controversial and heretical as that sounds, I don’t disagree. In Christian terminology, we are all born in Gods’ image, but it took the example of Jesus to shake us back to that realization. In Thomas’s followers estimation, Jesus was not special. He was flesh and blood like everyone else, but saw how to manifest God’s grace personally. Heaven and Hell are right here when they are seen to be products of mind and are transcended.

This is a collection of the 301 Koans that Dogen used as examples in various places in his Shobogenzo writings. The pages are rife with the clarity of the incidents recorded and have a coherent commentary to explain the cultural references we miss. The collection is not organized per se, nevertheless the stories come alive and move directly in our lives today. We can easily identify with the thirsty monks, and we can learn from the caring responses they get from their masters. This is true of any collection, but this group of stories cuts across all organized collections and classifications. Having so many stories between two covers is a rare find.