| The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (Vintage Departures) |  | Author: Pico Iyer
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $10.17
You Save: $4.78 (32%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 1471324
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
ISBN: 0307387550
Dewey Decimal Number: 294
EAN: 9780307387554
ASIN: 0307387550
Publication Date: March 10, 2009 (In 201 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
So far, so good July 31, 2008
Im reading the book as I write this review and I have been surprised by the way the author describes the Dalai Lama as any human being with special and wonderful details. Im very glad to find out how many things he has in common with people around me and with myself.
 The Open Road July 11, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Pico Iyer's new book subtitled "The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama" takes its title and theme from an essay by D. H. Lawrence about Walt Whitman and his poem, "The Song of the Open Road". Lawrence wrote "The great home of the Soul is the open road. Not heaven, not paradise, not `above'" The human person (or "soul" for Lawrence) "is a wayfarer down the open road" and democracy flowers "where soul meets soul in the open road." (Iyer, pp. 13-14)
Whitman's poetry, with its journeying, democratizing, spirituality, and sense of the private makes a fitting motto for Iyer's book. In describing the Dalai Lama and his journeys, Iyer also makes excellent use of appropriate short head notes from Thoreau, Michael Faraday, Emerson, Thomas Merton, Aldous Huxley, Marcel Proust, Etty Hillesum (Holocaust victim), and Beijing journalist Xinran Xue. These introductory quotations illuminate the story Iyer has to tell. I found especially illuminating the following Hasidic proverb which introduces the final section of Iyer's book, "In Practice" (p. 163).
" You must invent your own religion or else it will mean nothing to you. You must follow the religion of your fathers, or else you will lose it."
Pico Iyer is a journalist who writes regularly for the "New York Review of Books." He has known the Dalai Lama for over thirty years. Iyer's father, who had been born in Bombay and went on to study at Oxford, was five years older than the Dalai Lama. Iyer's father became friends with the Dalai Lama after the latter fled to India in 1959. Iyer is not a Buddhist, but he writes of the Dalai Lama and his teachings with great sympathy together with a commendable attempt at objectivity.
The book begins slowly and meanders from place-to-place. Iyer's portrait of the Dalai Lama emerges only gradually. Iyer portrays the multi-faceted characters of the Dalai Lama as spiritual leader for Tibetan Buddhism (viewed as a god by some within the Tibetan tradition), political leader and statesman for the Tibetan government in exile, religious seeker, Buddhist monk, and ordinary human being. The Dalai Lama's most appealing traits include his humility and self-effacing character under the glare of constant media attention usually accorded to entertainers and some politicians. Iyer is impressed with the Dalai Lama's ability to communicate at a simple level basic human and religious values to people of varying religious denominations or of no religion at all. The Dalai Lama has tried to encourage people to explore their own religious traditions rather than convert to Tibetan Buddhism. Yet besides the openness of his message, he is a person of great learning and practice within the Tibetan tradition, which he explores in depth in seminars and trainings beyond his public appearances.
Iyer's book is in three parts. The first part, "In Public" focuses on the celebrity the Dalai Lama has become in recent years and examines his public appearances worldwide with emphasis on visits to Japan and to Vancouver. The second part of the book, "The Philosopher", gives a more in-depth picture of the Dalai Lama and of Tibetan Buddhism. Iyer shows rituals, teachings, and schisms within this school of Buddhism that will be unfamiliar to those who know only the public face of the Dalai Lama. He describes well an encounter between the Dalai Lama and the American monk Thomas Merton just before Merton's untimely death, and he compares the spirituality of these two different traditions. Both the Dalai Lama and Merton had the goal of finding commonality among different religious paths.
The final part of the book "In Practice" offers a detailed look at Dhramasala, India, home of the Tibetan government in exile. Iyer discusses the difficulties in the Dalai Lama's path in returning the Tibetan people to their homeland under a rapprochement with China. The Tibetan people will face an uncertain future upon the death of the Dalai Lama, with the loss of the prestige and respect he has garnered on an individual level.
For Iyer, the Dalai Lama recognized early, as did his predecessor, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, that Tibet erred in attempting to shut out modern life. The Dalai Lama has tried to learn himself the science and knowledge that the West has to offer. He has given, in turn, a perspective on spiritual growth and on humanism that people from many backgrounds and stages of life find inspiring. In Iyer's account the Dalai Lama is a possible guide to the open road that remains to be found by every person.
Robin Friedman
Very good July 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A soulful and insightful portrait of an important world leader. Written with real feeling and humility.
The Open Road; The Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama June 25, 2008
Not an easy read but if you stick with it, an overall interesting read. Well worth the time.
Loving it June 7, 2008
it came in about 2 days and it was in perfect condition. way to go book company
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