Quest Magazine

Yoga Hotel: Stories

By Maura Moynihan
New York, NY: Regan Books, 2003, Paperback, 304 pages.

Although The Quest generally reviews only scholarly non-fiction books, every so often a remarkable work of fiction comes along, that not only conveys various spiritual messages by the characters in the stories, but does so with meaning and feeling that goes far beyond the fiction genre. These books can convey a message that has more depth than any academic study could ever hope for. Maura Moynihan's Yoga Hotel is such a book. It is a "must read" for Theosophists who desire a more balanced view of the "mystical" East and the "materialistic" West.

When Moynihan was fifteen, she moved to New Delhi, India, where her father, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, took up his U.S. ambassador duties. After numerous years in India and Nepal, she has become a spokeswoman for developing an improved East-West cultural relationship. Her many experiences are reflected in this book.

Hotel Yoga is composed of six stories; most are short except one which is a novella. As she explains in a blurb for the book, "I wanted to write about the India I know ... a place where worlds and people collide, with unpredictable and complex results." As we shall see, when the Indian household tradition meets the lure of Western novelty, it can lead to some interesting stories. Sometimes it is spiritually healthy to be reminded of what happens when the ancient religions are found amid urban chaos.

No matter which story you read, we find an underlying theme: Visitors from the West are most of the time “high maintenance” travelers. More often than not, they can be self-centered, and we, as readers, see this long before the people in the stories can. It's not surprising to sometimes find a Westerner's spiritual ways shallow. While, on the other hand, their Indian host often takes advantage of the Western's traits and exploits them as best they can.

In one of the stories an Indian manservant helps his British boss escape a prearranged wedding. The real intrigue of the story is the motives and scheming of the people involved; all done with a touch of the mysterious Indian culture. A good contrast of East and West is found in another story involving an American embassy worker who becomes disillusioned when her married lover uses her to get a visa. Yet another story brings to light the ultimate test, when a group of wealthy Westerners at a Himalayan retreat are asked to buy dowries for a poor Indian family.

My favorite story was about a dying guru called Masterji, whose disciples, followers, and hangers-on start vying to be his replacement. Among them was a young woman named Sam, who was my choice for his replacement, Her strengths and weaknesses, reminded me of the French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil, who was always looking out for the disenfranchised. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Sam was based not on Simone Weil but on the author at that particular time of her life!

There is a Yoga Hotel CD that can be ordered as an accompaniment to the book, on which the multi-talented Moynihan, who is also a musician, sings songs in English, Hindustani, and Tibetan exploring the East-West theme.

-RALPH HANNON

May/June 2004

Friends on the Path: Living Spiritual Communities

By Thich Nhat Hanh
Compiled by Jack Lawlor. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2002. Paperback, x + 306 pages.

We can set foot on the spiritual path, but can we abide others who are on the same path? We can profess love for all sentient beings, but how much do we really love those with whom we must live and work at dose quarters day after day? On the other hand, is there not something incomplete in a solitary spiritual life, in which nothing is shared and never is known the encouragement of a helping hand or a friendly smile from a wise companion on the way?

These problems and paradoxes have beset pilgrims in all spiritual traditions. We want and need spiritual communities, yet life in them is not always easy. They require sacrifice, both of substance and self-will, and we may be forced to contend with difficult conditions and difficult people. But without them, we have nothing but ourselves-and that may be even more difficult. Indeed, in Buddhism spiritual community is considered so essential that the Sangha, the fellowship of monks and their followers, is one of the three refuges taken by all who profess Buddhism, along with the Buddha and the Dharma, or teachings.

Friends on the Path is a new book about life in the sangha. It is a collection of wise and gentle instructions by the beloved contemporary Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, and others associated with him, on sangha forming and living. Some contributors, both Westerners and Vietnamese, reside and work at Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh's center in France. Others are at smaller centers throughout the world, including many in the United States and Canada. Some are monastic, others lay groups meeting regularly for meditation. The book also discusses the practicing family as a sangha.

All the writers in this collection have come to realize, as Thich Nhat Hanh emphasizes, that community is practice-not a setting for practice or a product of practice, but practice itself, along with meditation and mindfulness. Living with others directly teaches samadhi (concentration), prajna (insight), and sila (morality). Without others, these teachers admonish us, one will not get far.

Furthermore, being together on the path can bring the happiness it's all about. A great richness of Friends on the Path are the earthy, firsthand accounts of many sanghas across the globe, all with their good times and bad times, their problems and their pleasures, but all in the end vibrant with the sheer joy of life with companions who share one's own deepest values and yearnings. When Buddhists say, "May all beings be happy," they mean, "May we all be part of the great Sangha of life."

This book is highly recommended to all on the Buddha's path and to all who want to learn more about community. Many Theosophical groups and communities as well could glean much of value for their own life together from this volume.

-ROBERT ELLWOOD

May/June 2004

Hildegard of Bingen's Spiritual Remedies

By Dr. Wighard Strehlow
Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 2002. Paperback, xiii + 257 pages.

Civilization is currently experiencing an epidemic growth in the number of auto aggressive diseases. These are a result of our culture. We are literally killing ourselves. These illnesses were seen and cures provided 850 years ago by abbess, prophet, healer and writer, Hildegard of Bingen. In her five books on healing, she foresaw the time when the earth would need to be healed due to damage and pollution. She also saw humanity as being out of balance and gave specific steps individuals could take to restore the unity of body, mind and soul.

Dr. Wighard Strehlow has spent the last twenty years studying the works of Hildegard. He applies her remedies through his healing practice at the Hildegard Center in southern Germany. In his book he takes the writings and illuminations from five of Hildegard's books and arranges them according to the four dimensions in which she saw holistic health occurring.

These are: “Physical healing with natural remedies and nutrition,”; "Healing with thirty-five spiritual healing forces of the soul"; "Healing with the power of the four cosmic elements"; "Restoration through ‘oneness’ with God."

Hildegard knew that physical symptoms were the result of negative emotions and attitudes. Therefore the book includes some of the 35 healing forces or virtues of the soul with their opposite negative forces or vices. Each vice affects various organs and corresponds to specific spinal vertebrae. Healing steps are provided to correct each specific vice and thereby strengthen the virtues and heal the body. These therapies include crystal therapy, herbal remedies, meditations, and Bible passages for contemplation.

This book is particularly fascinating when one considers that so many answers were provided long ago. It is an inspiring source for self analysis. It is hard not to find vices with which the reader's soul is struggling. The analysis of each vice is illuminating as are the suggested remedies. This book provides a wonderful reference and guide for anyone trying to maintain or restore balance in life for themselves or others.

-SUSAN AURIN HABER

May/June 2004

Selections from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

By Swami Nikhilananda
Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2002. Paperback, 201 pages.

Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) was surely one of India's most famous-and eccentric-spiritual teachers of the nineteenth century. Particularly through his pupil Vivekananda, who helped to introduce Vedantic philosophy to America, Ramakrishna became and remains widely recognized as a great spiritual guru. He is one of the "patron saints" of the Vedanta Society.

One of the best-known works about him is Mahendra Gupta's The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, published first in Bengali in five volumes (1897-1932) under the pseudonym "M." Swami Nikhilananda first translated The Gospel into English in 1942.

With this work, he offers, excerpts from that much longer original, along with copious notes on each facing page, for those who are put off by the immensity of The Gospel or its sometimes unfamiliar terminology.

This brief work contains a series of fascinating conversations that Sri Ramakrishna had with his disciples, although it is unclear when these dialogues took place or whether they are arranged in chronological order. Ramakrishna's unusual behavior is hinted in the introduction but not in the texts themselves, in which he appears spiritually wise and full of good humor. For those already knowledgeable about Ramakrishna's teachings there will be few surprises. For the uninitiated, however, this volume provides a clear and readable introduction to his way of spirituality.

-JAY G. WILLIAMS

May/June 2004