Summer Reading

I just finished Volume 6 in Buddha, a manga series by Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka is an amazing storyteller. As usual, his works are not entirely true to historical accounts, but I would be hard pressed to find someone who would say he doesn't stick to the spirit of the story.

I think my favorite passage in this volume was Chapter 8, the Sermon at Elephant's Head Mountain. Buddha speaks to his disciples about tempering desires and living simply without grasping so much:

Think of yourself as a fire, and let all your desires and worries die out, just like a fire... you will then gain health, of mind and body alike.

As ususal, the art is amazing.

I'm also reading a work by Paulo Coelho. Several passages in By the River Piedra, I Sat Down and Wept are likely to become favorite quotes, like this one:

You have to take risks, he said. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Every day, God gives us the sun-and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't preceived that moment, that it doesn't exist-that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting our front door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. But that moment exists-a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.

I'm about a fourth of the way into this one. If you liked The Alchemist, try this one out... It's good.

Comments

[Eric]

I've been meaning to get those Tezuka manga for ages now. Now that I hear you like them, I'll have to make more the effort to snag them. Time to fire up eBay!

[chalip]

Hey Eric! I'd say "Go for it..." I think they are really good. Some people complain about the nudity, which I commented on a bit in a previous post. I think it is more "National Geographic" than "Playboy," but everyone decides for themselves. If you happen to pick them up let me know what you think.