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ook REVIEWSThis TenderPlaceThe Story of aWetland YearBy Laurie LawlorUniversity of WisconsinPress, 2005Hardcover, 166 pages,$26.95LittlePilgrimBy Ko UnParallax Press, 2005Softcover, 381 pages, $18.95Reviewed by Judith ToyReviewed by Janice RubinIn a volume of fewer than 200 pages, Laurie Lawlor, author ofthirty-three books for children and adults, writes the story of a loveaffair with a swamp that is ultimately a clarion call to preserve ourwetlands if we wish to ensure adequate supplies of potable water.Lawlor and her husband, Jack, bought the eleven-acre property insoutheast Wisconsin as a way to “reconstruct” themselves followingthe deaths of their fathers within months of each other. In spring theyplanted a pin oak, beneath which were placed her father’s ashes.This Tender Place is permeated with Lawlor’s deep practiceof mindfulness in nature. As a Dharma teacher who has receivedthe Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, her stories reflect herten-year intimacy with the vegetation, animal life, and minerals in this14,000-year-old fen. In an enchanting tableau of the four seasons ofthe year, beginning with winter and going back to the start of the IceAge, she chronicles the gradual formation of the current wetlandslandscape and its seasonal changes.We are with her as she travels by kayak or canoe along thestreams and passageways of the fen to the lake, or walks the pathsand slogs through mud, observing the changes in water quality,vegetation, and animal life at each season of the year. We note thecoming of spring in the water bubbling up through cracks in theice on the marshes as winter ends, the incipience of summer inthe return of mated pairs of cranes in early spring, the crackling ofthe drying water-lily pads and the presence of scum, white swanfeathers, and dead insects on the pond foretelling the comingautumn and “the long slide into the beginning of silence.” On her lastkayaking trip of the year, she finds herself cutting through a thin filmof ice; the turtles and frogs are gone, vegetation is floating loose, andsnow begins to fall.Unrestricted hunting led to the extinction in the area ofelk, white-tail deer, black bear, wild turkey, sandhill cranes, andmassasauga rattlesnakes by 1850. Past practices of draining wetareas to create land that can be farmed or developed for housing,shopping centers, or industrial uses have resulted in the diminishedavailability of fresh water as the population grows. Grassrootsconservancy groups are now involved in promoting the reclamationand preservation of watersheds, prairies, woodlands, shorelines, andother sensitive areas from human indifference.We feel, with Lawlor, a growing sense of oneness with theenvironment as she makes her way. Twenty-two photographs, mostof them taken by her, reflect the peaceful aspect of this tender placeeven when animal and plant life are most abundant. For this, if for noother reason, wetlands areas must be preserved as places wherepeople can find refuge from the hurly-burly of everyday life.A novel twenty-two years in the writing by celebrated Koreanpoet and former Buddhist monk Ko Un (pronounced ‘Go Oon’),this book is a Dharma treasure brought to us by translators BrotherAnthony of Taizé and Young-Moo Kim. The protagonist is a tenyear-oldboy, Sudhana, who during his life’s fantastical journey,morphs more than once into an adult and even once into a leper.He encounters fifty-three teachers in all, sometimes in dreams, fromgods to singing snails to a boy who becomes a girl, to bums andbodhisattvas (sometimes the bums are bodhisattvas), a giant, anunderworld, heavenly realms, vanishing beings, and a kite that pointsthe way on his travels.Ko Un’s fiction without a plot is based on the thirty-ninth, the lastand longest section of the Avatamsaka Sutra, known as the GarlandSutra––a teaching that’s had an extraordinary impact on East AsianBuddhism since its introduction into China in the sixth century.Supposedly derived from a series of sermons by the historicalGautama Buddha––or possibly by his disciple, the bodhisattvaof Great Action, Samantabhadra, Ko Un’s poetic rendering of thepilgrim’s journey is like a string of wisdom pearls.Like St. Exupery’s Little Prince, who always felt he was at home,the little pilgrim Sudhana teaches us two crucial lessons: how to seethe signposts that show us where to go next on our life’s pilgrimage;and how to let go. At each stop, someone or something directs theboy to his next destination. He only hears them because this childwithout parents or roots is able to move through the universe with anopen heart. He simply allows each teaching to enter him, and thenthe young pilgrim moves on.The setting is India in the Gautama Buddha era, and someplace names are familiar to us from the life of the Buddha. Whilethe Buddha is not a character in the novel, there are increasinglyfrequent references to his teachings as the boy’s journey unfolds. Tofully receive the sweep of Ko Un’s novel as a metaphor for our lives,it’s probably best to read it through at once, rather than piecemeal.Readers will want to linger at the striking papercut illustrations byJason DeAntonis that pepper the text.As a sangha body we can apply these two lessons––trustingthe way enough to be available to the teachings that abound in everymoment and becoming still enough to know where as a sangha ourpath is leading us next; and allowing ourselves to let go of the manypeople who come and go in a sangha, loving them in a nonattachedway. Allowing the comings and goings to happen without anyresistance, without clinging. With the Buddha, Ko Un shows how to letgo and join the dance!44 Summer 2006
ook REVIEWSThe Wonderof the TaoA Meditation on Spiritualityand Ecological BalanceBy James EggertPublished by Humanics, LakeWorth, FloridaHardcover; 90 pages; $14.95Reviewed by Hope Lindsay andBarbara CaseyJames Eggert is an emeritus faculty member of the University ofWisconsin. As both economist and ecologist, Eggert offers a singularperspective on the workings of our world and our relationships in it.For example, he suggests that we consider the concept of marketcapitalism as a flawed gemstone. Inspecting it for defects from theviewpoint of an economist and then an ecologist, Eggert offers avision to bring balance and harmony back into our economic system.Eggert’s simple stories offer a wise view of life and practicalmethods for deepening our understanding of interbeing. To helpdevelop balance and an increased awareness of other species, hedescribes simple t’ai chi exercises that embody qualities of bear,crane, monkey, deer, and tiger. Opening our eyes to a larger view ofthe world, Eggert describes the unfolding of the universe, throughstellar contractions and expansions, the origin of water, the moon’sinfluence, and the development of life forms.Each chapter begins with a verse from the Tao Te Ching, a slimvolume written by Lao Tzu 2,400 years ago, and woven into the heartof Buddhist teachings. The wisdom of simplicity, balance, and lettinggo show us a way through the complexities of modern life and theconfusion of searching for happiness outside ourselves. The lastchapter, “The Wonder of the Tao,” begins with the verse:“If you don’t realize the source,You stumble in confusion and sorrow…Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,You can deal with whatever life brings you,And when death comes, you are ready.”Eggert gently leads us back to the source of true happiness,through his stories of connecting with nature and seeing the worldin all its remarkable beauty. In the book’s foreword, Thich Nhat Hanhwrites, “Please enjoy this offering of our friend, James Eggert, as aninvitation to enter into a deep relationship with our home the earthand all her creatures, to cultivate our awakened wisdom to findharmony and balance.”The Wonder of the Tao is generously illustrated with calligraphyand brush paintings by Li-chin Crystal Huang. A lovely snapshot ofone man’s walk in mindfulness through our world, this book reflectsthe simplicity and fullness of which it speaks.Request for SubmissionsThay very much wants to publish a book on EngagedBuddhism written collectively by practitioners in ourtradition. We have a number of practitioners in mind formost of the topics we want to cover, but we need helpfinding authors for the following topics:• Rural development• Mass media (journalists,TV, etc.)• Caring for the dying• Single parents• Parents and children--bridging the generation gap• Sports (athletes, trainers, coaches, commentators, etc.)• Artists• Helping professionals (nurses, physicians who work inemergency rooms, etc.)We would like to hear about the author’s personaltransformation through mindfulness in their work, aswell as how they have brought the practice into theworld: how it has helped transform their work situation orrelationships.Please email: deerparkmonastery@yahoo.com,attention: Sr. Jewel (Sr. Chau Nghiem).the Mindfulness Bell 45
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