From Library Journal
Roach, an ordained Buddhist monk, has crafted an enchanting, luminous introduction to the basic tenets of Tibetan Buddhism. The tale begins when a beautiful personification of Wisdom takes a never-named young man to a garden, where she tries to introduce him to life's truest values. Later, having abandoned the beautiful teacher as well as his home in pursuit of fame and career, the now not-so-young man returns to the garden seeking solace from life's wounds, especially the gruesome death of his mother. Through many visits, he fails to find the one he seeks, but on each occasion a different apparition of one of Buddhism's most sacred historical figures appears to teach him a new skill needed for his advance along the path. Highly recommended for all collections offering popular materials in religion.
-James R. Kuhlman, Univ. of North Carolina Lib., Asheville
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-James R. Kuhlman, Univ. of North Carolina Lib., Asheville
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Beliefnet
Roach captures the entire breadth of Tibetan Buddhist teaching in this spare, plain-spoken parable about a man led to a mystical garden by his young lover, a teenager who possesses more than average wisdom. Like many lovers, the youth disappears, and the man begins what looks to be a two-pronged quest: to reunite with "Her" and to comprehend the agonizing death from cancer of his good-hearted mother. Over the course of the book, the seeker returns again and again to the garden. Each time he is met by a Tibetan Buddhist saint, each of whom gives him one of the fundamental lessons of Buddhism and guides him on the path to realization. Some historical and philosophical context for these teachers and teachings Roach covers in "The Garden," and explaining the role of guru yoga, parable and debate, among other themes, in Tibetan Buddhism, would go a long way toward making the book accessible to readers with a budding, or general, interest in Buddhism. Still, launching headlong into the book has its merits. Unfiltered, these Buddhist concepts must settle in on their own and, like the seeker, we are left with a trove of spiritual lessons to test for ourselves.
