How the Swans Came to the Lake

Rating:
Summary: How thw swans came to the lake
Review: I've been interested in the history of Buddhism and zen in the west for a number of years and was fortunate to pick out "How the Swans Came to the Lake" from the library at Mt. Baldy Zen Center in March.

I found the work to be a well told story. The detail of the common threads and relationships is fascinating. I really think this book is an important piece for anyone interested in how this wonderful flowering of the Dharma in the West was planted and fed.

Rating:
Summary: How thw swans came to the lake
Review: I've been interested in the history of Buddhism and zen in the west for a number of years and was fortunate to pick out "How the Swans Came to the Lake" from the library at Mt. Baldy Zen Center in March.

I found the work to be a well told story. The detail of the common threads and relationships is fascinating. I really think this book is an important piece for anyone interested in how this wonderful flowering of the Dharma in the West was planted and fed.

Rating:
Summary: Superificial in places...but otherwise OK
Review: This is indeed an ecyclopedic view of Buddhism in America, but I feel the author is a bit too uncritical in drawing from some of his sources. Or to put it another way, he's not drawing from enough sources.

There's a long section on Ms. Blavatsky. There's alot to be said here, but I can't help but get the feeling that the whole Spiritualist movement needs more criticism than he gives it.

Another, IMO, glaring deficiency is Field's introjected re-rendering of why Philip Kapleau came to break with Yasutani-roshi. It CAN'T be purely over "sutras in English or Japanese," and no doubt is much deeper culturally than merely an attempt to "Westernize" certain forms of services. What Fields doesn't quite come out and say - probably because he doesn't really know- is that the Chinese versions of sutras & dharanis are themselves translitterated from Sanskrit! (He does get it straight that the Japanse/Korean ones are translitterated from Chinese). What this all means is basically summed up by what my Chinese wife told me when we saw a video of Chinese monks chanting and I asked what they were chanting: she said "I don't know!"

Kapleau must have known this- or should have.

More stuff I'd like to know: why Sambokyodan broke from the Soto sect, and more up to date stuff. I will admit as of this time I haven't found out the stuff about Richard Baker.

My preference, as an American Buddhist, is to present the history of Buddhism in America warts and all. That might clash with more Eastern notions of Buddhism, but I do think more accuracy is needed in a history.

Rating:
Summary: Superificial in places...but otherwise OK
Review: This is indeed an ecyclopedic view of Buddhism in America, but I feel the author is a bit too uncritical in drawing from some of his sources. Or to put it another way, he's not drawing from enough sources.

There's a long section on Ms. Blavatsky. There's alot to be said here, but I can't help but get the feeling that the whole Spiritualist movement needs more criticism than he gives it.

Another, IMO, glaring deficiency is Field's introjected re-rendering of why Philip Kapleau came to break with Yasutani-roshi. It CAN'T be purely over "sutras in English or Japanese," and no doubt is much deeper culturally than merely an attempt to "Westernize" certain forms of services. What Fields doesn't quite come out and say - probably because he doesn't really know- is that the Chinese versions of sutras & dharanis are themselves translitterated from Sanskrit! (He does get it straight that the Japanse/Korean ones are translitterated from Chinese). What this all means is basically summed up by what my Chinese wife told me when we saw a video of Chinese monks chanting and I asked what they were chanting: she said "I don't know!"

Kapleau must have known this- or should have.

More stuff I'd like to know: why Sambokyodan broke from the Soto sect, and more up to date stuff. I will admit as of this time I haven't found out the stuff about Richard Baker.

My preference, as an American Buddhist, is to present the history of Buddhism in America warts and all. That might clash with more Eastern notions of Buddhism, but I do think more accuracy is needed in a history.

Rating:
Summary: Get this book!
Review: Though this book is currently out of print, I recommend it to all Buddhists; it is the best history book I've read about the Western Sangha and fills in alot of gaps between the centuries--Gassho All Beings!

Rating:
Summary: Priceless
Review: Wow -- only five reviews for a uniquely priceless 400 page history of Buddhism in America? Not to mention what's likely the best 12 page summary in print of Siddhartha Buddha's life and legacy? Erudite American Buddhist author and old hippie character Rick Fields (1942-1999) left an enthusiastic storyteller's history that brings to life every remotely key player -- starting even far before the unforgettable English rogue scholar Sir William Jones (1736-1794) singlehandedly sent the first translations from the East to England and our American Transcendentalists. Chinese Buddhist monks in Mexico in A.D. 458, the real kindly Quetzalcoatl? If you think the history of Buddhism in America started at the World Parliament of Religions in 1893 and can be told largely through D. T. Suzuki, Jack Kerouac, Alan Watts, Shunryu Suzuki, Tarthang Tulku and Chogyam Trungpa -- think again. Here is every gossipy thing you ever wanted to know and more about how and why Buddhism came to America, up to and beyond the Roshi Baker scandals (that mercifully ended the "silent denial of lies and abuse" and pointed the way to practice increasingly integrated with psychotherapy and more). The author's note and acknowledgments are priceless in themselves. (I confess to a long time habit of reading acknowledgments and indexes first.) Very highly recommended.