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The two main sections of the book deal with daily living and the cycles of life.
These are then further categorized according to activities or significant stages
of life and an appropriate selection of ritual, scripture or tradition is examined
for its lesson to us. The authors are not scholars, and their knowledge is sometimes
a bit unfinished but their heart is in the right place, and that carries them over
any rough spots. They make many points of value, but one of the most important is
that modern society has suffered a terrible loss of tradition. For tradition is
derived from the Latin tradere, 'to hand over', and signifies the accumulated
experience and wisdom that one generation passes over to the next. I agree with
their unspoken contention that the past is not to be dismissed wholesale, merely
because we have new systems of society in place. The business of being human is
still a complex business and the past has much wisdom to offer where that is concerned.
It is not a book that you can read once and be done with it. It is what I call a
spiral narrative, one of those books which keep expanding in great conscious loops
as your mind expands and reveals fresh facets of understanding that incorporate
your previous levels of awareness instead of negating them. The book can be used
over a lifetime and it will continue to resonate with you. I particularly like that
they do not flinch away from the two great bugaboos, death and the insane cult of
youth, but deal with both subjects without sentiment or resentment. They quote E.
M. Forster's crackling aphorism, "Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves
him." Koans are not to be found only in Zen compilations. This is an attitude of
maturity towards an inevitable truth that is sadly lacking in most places of the
world. I can assure them however that India has long ago forgotten any wisdom it
had in dealing with the reality of death - and fear and wail and deny it as much
as any other people now. The authors quote Manu approvingly, without realizing that
the living tradition has long ago moved away from him. Also I fear that the section
on martial arts, even though there is a beautiful photo and description of an aikido
session, is rather less than adequate. The authors are innocent of the history and
development of these arts and repeat whatever gloss is put forth in the normally
inadequate books on the subject. It is a minor flaw, for they are dead on target
about the spiritual value of the martial arts.
There are many good sections in the book and it is perhaps best that the reader
gets to grips with them personally, for each person will definitely get his unique
meaning out of what is in there. The book has some extraordinary photographs illustrating
it. They are a pleasure to contemplate in themselves. On Page 80 for instance, there
is one that looks like a Japanese watercolor, perhaps painted by Musashi. It is
also peppered with apt quotations of which this one by Thomas Carlyle is a good
working definition of Karma Yoga. "Blessed is he who has found his work; let him
ask no other blessedness." The spiritually transforming nature of work performed
with awareness as against mere bitterly resented toil is well brought out. "Laborare
est orare" [to work is to pray] said the monks of the Benedictine order
and it is something we can all fruitfully adopt.
The authors have brought out well the poverty in contemporary society of rites of
passage and I fully understand the gloom of the writer who had to confess to his
class that he had no coming of age ceremony. It is something that really retards
the emotional growth of a person. I recall just two months ago, in September 2001,
reading that sociologists have now shifted the age of adulthood in Western society
to 35! People are too busy trying to stay young and doing post adolescence activities,
for that is what is being communicated relentlessly in the media as worthwhile activity.
Delayed emotional maturity even as physical maturity comes earlier is not a good
mix and rites of passage could help in providing some much needed perspective here.
There is a section on naming children which is a personal favorite, as it mounts
one of my hobbyhorses. "A man's life proceeds from his name, in the way that a river
proceeds from its source." They explore various manners in which cultures decide
upon names for children. All of them are good, because the seriousness of intent
is what counts, not the actual system followed. There is also some much needed plain
speaking about the current trend for weekend spiritual quests, the adoption of ancient,
usually American Indian religious practices for a spiritual quick-fix. As the authors
correctly see it, you only end up making a fool of yourself with such an attitude.
The book is therefore unreservedly recommended
Reviewed by Rohit Arya
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