An interesting memoir
3 stars
There's something very funny about the thought of a venerated Buddhist monk - an abbott nonetheless - escaping from his monastery in the middle of the night and running away. After months of meticulous planning that's exactly how Rinpoche begins what will become several years of a wandering retreat for him. I felt it was also a great way to begin this memoir. I had been concerned that aspects of the book might be beyond my understanding as I don't have much of an understanding of Buddhism beyond the usual preconceptions (and, as it turns out, misconceptions). However to be greeted with a flawed flight which involves slipping into a muddy puddle immediately made me realise that I could understand Mingyur Rinpoche. He might come from a completely different culture, but too much haste resulting in a muddy puddle accident is an event with which I could easily identify.
In …
There's something very funny about the thought of a venerated Buddhist monk - an abbott nonetheless - escaping from his monastery in the middle of the night and running away. After months of meticulous planning that's exactly how Rinpoche begins what will become several years of a wandering retreat for him. I felt it was also a great way to begin this memoir. I had been concerned that aspects of the book might be beyond my understanding as I don't have much of an understanding of Buddhism beyond the usual preconceptions (and, as it turns out, misconceptions). However to be greeted with a flawed flight which involves slipping into a muddy puddle immediately made me realise that I could understand Mingyur Rinpoche. He might come from a completely different culture, but too much haste resulting in a muddy puddle accident is an event with which I could easily identify.
In Love With The World is partly a memoir of the first month of Rinpoche's retreat and partly a tome for him to impart relevant Buddhist teachings to his readers. I did feel therefore as though I was starting to learn about the religion from the middle, but I could mostly keep up with the concepts being discussed and understood the points being made. It wasn't until the final chapters and Rinpoche's description of his near-death experience that I lost track of what he was trying to say. I enjoyed the earlier recounting of stories and the information imparted about the places visited. It was also very interesting and helpful to me to read about episodes such as Rinpoche's intense anxiety during his first ever unaccompanied train journey (he's 36 years old). I would have imagined that a Buddhist abbot would be serene under any circumstances, so to learn that he had to employ breathing and relaxation exercises to calm himself was reassuring to me.
I didn't realise that In Love With The World would only cover such a short period of Rinpoche's retreat. I would have preferred to have learned more about the whole period of travel with less religious theory, although I understand that teaching Buddhism is Rinpoche's vocation. My reading here has encouraged me to discover more about Buddhism and its history, and the whole concept of meditation.
