The Buddha Walks into a Bar: A Guide to Life for a New Generation

There are far better "forced spirituality" books out there. Yeah, I get it - this is Buddhism for a new generation of alcoholics and womanizers chomping at the bit to fill the void after Chogyam Trungpa's reign but, seriously, it falls so short. If you want a taste of this sort of modern Buddhism then read anything from Brad Warner or Noah Levine and have fun with it. Both are good authors have led interesting lives, written memoirs and did a good job of applying Dharma principles to modern life. Lodro, on the other hand, did a wonderful job of re-purposing their work, adding a bow-tie and selling a new book.

Skip this one. The cover and the title are the best part of this one.

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Living up to the title, this book presents Buddhism in a way easily understood and relatable to the layperson. Rinzler includes myriad examples from real-life to fully explain the concepts. Though sometimes he seems rather repetitive, tying all problems back to one or two main ideas that may feel a bit of a stretch, he makes a fair argument for these and always presents solutions that are easily implemented. Readers will definitely want this on hand, with bookmarked pages, for easy access next time they have a problem; indeed, they will almost hope for a problem, so excited will they be to try his ideas! ( )

"The Buddha Walks into A Bar" is a great primer and guide for a westerner in search of a better understanding of Buddhist philosophy and practice. My interest stems from using meditation as a stress relief but I've gotten much more curious about the practice. Sometimes, primers on Buddhist thought often seem unrelatable when they stress attachment to nothing and learning to not want anything. At that level, Buddhism didn't seem any more practical to me than any Western religion.

But those ideas are not the essence of Buddhism and Rinzler does a fantastic job at making Buddhist ideas accessible to modern, secular adults. I found his quirkiness endearing and identifiable and his reasoning sound. Structurally, my only complaint is that the book ends without much of a conclusion. It just ends.

However, I enjoyed this book so much I started to google search that loaded term "Shambala Buddhism" and Rinzler's book suddenly became much more complicated for me. It's fairly controversial and Rinzler sprinkles references to the organization and its leader throughout the book but does not do much in the way of explaining his organization. I now have a LOT of questions about Shambala Centers and their aims. However, his book does a good enough job of getting my interest up in visiting one, and leaves enough information out to leave me skeptical - which i thank him for.

In the end, I had the feeling like I'd love to meet Lodro Rinzler at a bar for a drink, and talk about the Buddha. That's a success in my book. ( )