Accidental Buddhist it Is Difficult

Accidental Buddhist

It is difficult to no where or how to begin a response to Dinty W. Moore's book, the Accidental Buddhist. Though the book is first and foremost a narrative concerning the author's own experiences discovering Buddhism, generally through a series of examinations of and participations in various Buddhist retreats that have been established throughout the United States. In the pages of this book, Moore recounts his experiences learning some of the basic -- and some of the not-so-basic -- tenets of Buddhism, and the many characters he encounters who are at a wide variety of different points in their own journeys of discovering Buddhism. In this way, the book almost demands to be responded to as a single, individual, and personal account, as it is from such a single, individual, and personal perspective that the reader is introduced to the many different elements and figures of Buddhism and modern Buddhist practices that the author himself experienced and was exposed to.

At the same time, the book serves as an introductory template to the basics of Buddhism itself; just as the author discovers these elements through the journey recounted in the book, the reader discovers these same elements as the story is recounted. In this way, a response to the Accidental Buddhist must also take the form of a response to Buddhism itself, or at least a response to the particulars of Buddhism that are introduced in the text. The three different sections that Moore has divided his book into, and the individual chapters within these sections, each detail a specific aspect of Buddhism as it is understood and practiced today that requires both a personal and a spiritual/intellectual response.

Moore begins by introducing the concept of the Monkey Mind, which refers to the natural and undisciplined inclination of the mind to wander, and to jump from topic to topic in a haphazard and sporadic manner (pp. 10). This is certainly an element of the human mind that has personal resonance for me; I have often found it next to impossible (sometimes, simply and totally impossible) to relax my mind and allow myself to rest. Buddhism's desire to take control of the mind in a way that counteracts this "monkey-like" impulse seems to be an especially relevant and pervasive aspect of the religion/philosophy/spirituality. As the first part of the book continues, Moore encounters variations and expansions of his Buddhist thinking and principles, developing an understanding of "American Buddhism." In many ways, this has a more vacation-like and exotic quality than true Buddhism would actually seem to allow, and in this way is contradictory to many of the direct and explicit principles that are a part of Buddhism, particularly the non-imitative quality that the author learns from Father Kennedy is the essential part of Zen (pp. 19).

The book's second section generally has more to do with a comparison of Buddhism to other modes and methods of thinking and understanding the world. This begins with the author's relation of Buddhism to his experiences of Catholicism, but continues in many other forms. In the eighth chapter of the book, the seemingly basic concepts of work, money, and earning are delved into with some surprising conclusions. A practicing and entrepreneurial Buddhist recounts a disagreement she once had with her father, equating earning money in a non-rewarding job with selling out before realizing the full realities of the need for money in the modern age in a way that is decidedly un-Buddhist (pp. 94). The author definitely broadens and deepens his understanding of Buddhism by examining it from a variety of such unusual and unexpected perspectives, and this definitely aids in the readers' own appreciation of the complexities of Buddhist philosophy.