The Accidental Buddhist: Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still

"Accidental Buddhist" was exactly the book I was looking to discover. I have been searching for someone to explain the philosophy of Buddhism to me, instead of searching the "...for Dummies". Though I first started with the "dummy" book, I found more information through Dinty's encounters of "self discovery". I felt I was he having those same experiences and thoughts come about - I too suffer from "Mind Monkeys". I am glad to have a name for them now, as well as knowing I am not the only one who needs to get a chain for them. I was shopping in a local market this past weekend, when I came upon several different Buddha statutes. Looking and looking at these delights, I saw one with gold coins. I questioned the the shop keeper about the gold coin buddhas. "They are to bring your household money," he answers me. "You are not to have attachments in Buddhism," I replied. As if straight from Dinty's mouth came the whole section about from "The Work Koan" chapter on the whole money issue. "In order for us here in America to survive, we must have money, otherwise you are out in the street living on garbage," the Buddhist man told me. I thought I was rereading the book. If you are curious about Buddhism, especially in America, this is an excellent book to read,not to mention utterly hilarious reading. I was chuckling with every chapter.

The author of this book set out on a search to find out what American Buddhism might be like. What we have in U.S. is Tibetan Buddhism, Japanese Zen Buddhism, Vietnamese Buddhism, etc. All Asian. If you stripped away all the cultural adornments, what would Buddhism look like in modern America? Is it even possible? Or is Buddhism so naturally Asian that when you strip it clean of Asian-ness, nothing is left? That was Dinty's question.The Accidental Buddhist is the story of his search. He went to weekend retreats where he meditated all day (and sometimes got to ask the head Buddhist dude some questions), he set up personal interviews with some of the most famous Buddhists in America. He talked to John Daido Loori of the Zen Mountain Monastery, the Tibetan Monk Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, Father Robert Jensen Kennedy (Zen teacher and Jesuit priest), Helen Tworkov, the editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana (author of the excellent book, Mindfulness in Plain English), and he even got to ask the Dalai Lama a question. Dinty found many different kinds of Buddhism, many different levels of intensity of practice, but they all shared the core of Buddhist principles, which, by the way, I found beautifully explained in a book called The Heart of Buddhism by Guy Claxton (who is a British writer, and ironically, is the closest I've seen to what Dinty was looking for: American Buddhism).Dinty tells you what he found, and in the process, you get a pretty good understanding of what Buddhism is about. Dinty is honest, charming and disarming. He's got a great sense of humor. The writing is good (easy to read, flows well, not academic-ese), and the author is very human and easy to identify with.I'm the author of the book, Self-Help Stuff That Works, and the principles of Buddhism work. But what we need is exactly what Dinty was searching for: Those principles without the shaved heads, chanting in a foreign language, superstitious beliefs, etc. The Accidental Buddhist is a broad look at several different forms of Buddhism, and points the way, in an entertaining book, of how we might find our own American Buddhism.

I wish I had read this book five years ago, when I myself started exploring Buddhism. At that time, there were many books discussing the different Buddhist traditions (Zen, Tibetan, etc.), but none clearly explaining the differences therebetween or how to implement such traditions in America. If you're curious about Buddhism, what the different options are, or how to practice, this book will give you the proper framework to begin your journey. Peace.

Thank you very much for providing an honest, simple yet not so simple exploration of the nature of Buddhism from an American cultural perspective. It has given me courage to inch along this path, using the Buddha's teachings to anchor me in ways of being, thinking and living while I am still here.

For seasoned spiritual seekers and curious novices alike, Dinty Moore takes the reader on a lighthearted journey to discover what the surgence of the Buddhist religion in America is all about. Anyone reading the author's witty and humorous account of wading in the waters of Eastern thought will soon begin to realize that Buddhism is not a mystical, bugaboo religion, but a viable path that doesn't challenge Judeo-Christian principles. The teachings of Buddha precede Jesus by 500 years and in many ways parallel each other, and the three types of Buddhism Moore describes in his encounters -- Zen, Tibetan, and Theraveda -- can peacefully co-exist with each other and any other religion in our complex society. I'd highly recommend this book to the aging American boomers who are tired of the material stuff of life and want to inject more peace and tranquility into their daily lives. Moore writes about the challenges of quieting his "monkey mind" through meditation. I got a kick out of how he "enlightened" my "monkey mind." I bet Oprah would, too.