{"id":8342,"date":"2010-12-29T23:39:13","date_gmt":"2010-12-29T15:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=8342"},"modified":"2010-12-29T23:43:49","modified_gmt":"2010-12-29T15:43:49","slug":"review-of-%e2%80%9cendless-path%e2%80%9d-by-rafe-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/12\/review-of-%e2%80%9cendless-path%e2%80%9d-by-rafe-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of \u201cEndless Path\u201d by Rafe Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Imagine this book morphing into a real-life friend: it will make for an earnest and sincere Buddhist companion, never preachy, though with a tendency to ramble on at times \u2013 understandably, like many well-intentioned people.\u00a0For it is a book that comes to life, made accessible to modern (in particular, Western) readers by its affable readability, honest humour and grounded sentiments. It is not authoritative in character, but reflects author, story-teller and Zen practitioner Rafe Martin\u2019s personal spiritual perspective on the Jataka tales (stories of the Buddha\u2019s past lives).\u00a0A collection of ten tales are retold here, with accompanying commentaries. Each tale illustrates a Buddhist paramita, or \u201cperfection\u201d of character: generosity, morality, patient forbearance, vigor, meditation, wisdom, skilful means, resolve, strength and knowledge.<\/p>\n

Reading the Jataka tales was an uplifting as many evoke inspirational awe; the Bodhisattva\u2019s aspiration to help all sentient beings is unfathomably unconditional, compassionate and unwavering. In one tale, the Bodhisattva was a monkey king who resolved to give his life to save his charges, resolutely expressing the ideal of the king as a wise, humble protector. The story may doubtless be familiar to modern readers, with similar portrayals common\u00a0in movies along this theme., yet I feel it remains timeless and affecting because of the selflessness of the deed. Indeed, modern readers new to the Jataka tales will find universal qualities such as bravery, persistence and resilience embodied in these tales, set in a time when the Buddha was still traversing the path to enlightenment, not yet totally free from defilements, but never disheartened by challenges.<\/p>\n

The stories did not all garner roses-in-the-heart experiences though. Some jolted me out of my comfort zone. One in particular stands out: the famous tale of the tigress where the bodhisattva, in an act of perfect generosity, fed himself to a hungry tigress on the cusp of devouring her own cubs. Without fear, without hesitation. Martin did a heartfelt and humorous commentary on this, which I enjoyed and connected with. His reaction was spot-on, giving expression to my muffled feelings: \u201cThe only response I know is silence. Stunned silence. Awed silence.\u201d Yet Martin also encourages us to practise generosity in our own little ways in daily life, with the deed of the bodhisattva serving as food for thought to fuel our own spiritual progress.<\/p>\n

In all, Martin\u2019s retelling of the Jataka tales is engaging and accessible, while importantly preserving the stories\u2019 elemental guiding inspirations. They can be funny without losing their essence, which is to illuminate the vista of the paramitas.\u00a0The commentaries fluidly connect the dots between the paramitas, and are markedly grounded in the reality of daily living. In this, the Buddhist concepts related here are expressed in an uncomplicated manner. While many references were made to Zen sources, the spiritual guiding light offered here is practical and likely easily understood by many Buddhists. Western readers may find connections with Martin\u2019s references to well-known personalities such as Shakespeare, Bob Dylan and cleverly, Gollum from the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d trilogy.<\/p>\n

My only grouse is that the commentaries at certain junctures, could be more concise, less meandering. Particularly in \u201cGentle Heart\u201d, a tale where the Bodhisattva was swayed by lust, Martin\u2019s comments, while relevant, appeared almost endless in elaboration. To be fair, I can be an impatient reader who likes to pummel through a book, and the real issue may be my preference for the sharp and sweet.\u00a0A more patient reader will be rewarded with insightful observations and interpretations that earnestly provide a bridge between the Jataka tales and practical spirituality in daily life. Ideally, this is a book to be read contemplatively, at a leisurely pace, for there is an array of spiritual nuggets to be found in Martin\u2019s commentaries.<\/p>\n

– By Guest Reviewer Faith Tan<\/span><\/p>\n

[ad#endlesspath]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine this book morphing into a real-life friend: it will make for an earnest and sincere Buddhist companion, never preachy,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[430],"class_list":["post-8342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-paramitas","wpcat-176-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}