I got sort of disheartened while browsing the 'Eastern Religion' section of the book store yesterday. I looked to see if Hagen had written anything new (he hasn't). I skimmed Brad's new book for the controversial 'Jundo bashing' but got distracted by the sex before I could find it.

And then I looked at the rest of the shelf and became mightily dismayed. There was some practical self-help (Pema Chodron writes the best of these) - and it occured to me that these smiling Buddhist authorities were all selling big 'h' HAPPINESS on the covers of their books. 'You too can be happy, all you're missing are the 500-5000 words contained between the covers of these books!'

It isn't missing information that's the problem, of course - it's missing realization. No amount of reading can force that realization. It's not a technique or a belief that's going to help, in fact all techniques and beliefs ultimately must be let go. It's like people think they can 'effort' themselves into an extra-normal state..but in my experience, realization isn't EXTRA-normal - it's the natural state. In a way, it takes lots of effort to not realize it.

Maybe I'm just a grump.

Chet