Blues ain't nothing but a good soul feeling bad [antikvár]

Since the publication of If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him/, Sheldon Kopp has led us, insisting that we not be followers, on a search for real lives of our own. His precise vision of who we are not-and what no one can do-deleted the pretense and illusion separating us from reality. So, we found ourselves standing beside him, starkly disarmed, as unique but ordinary human beings, faced with the primal choice to do something honest and real or to do something worth nothing at all, or worse. If You Meet the Buddha . . . is still studied in major universities, still read and reread bv those who continue to be transformed bv it. Admitting his vulnerability, exposing his absurdity, and confessing his profanity, Kopp claimed for himself what goodness he could out of who he was. Incidentally he provided a critical catalyst for the rest of us: We came to believe that, as flawed as we may be, it is humanly possible to face our own darkness and learn to accept all that we are. That was, and still is, the requisite first step to any possible personal peace. Though his many subsequent books have dealt with various issues, he returns here to the essence of "the Buddha book"-that we have to do the most important things for ourselves, no excuses accepted.