Beginnings

This is a new collection of all the published and unpublished essays by Samanera Bodhesako. It includes a new edition of the Wheel booklet Beginnings, on the origins and relevance of the Pali Suttas; plus The Buddha and Catch-22, Change, and three previously unpublished essays connecting Western philosophy and literature to the Dhamma.

The first essay, Beginnings, discusses the authenticity and relevance of the Buddhist Canon. The second essay, Change, investigates the concepts of impermanence, change and time in relation to experience. The third essay, The Buddha and Catch 22, discusses the similarities between Joseph Heller's famous novel and the Buddha's teachings. The next essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, is a Buddhist reinterpretation of the Greek myth of Sisyphus, which is symbolizing the endless, recurring nature of our tasks. Bodhesako also discusess Albert Camus' interpretation of this myth. The essay Faith looks at the relevance of faith in the Buddha's teaching, while the last essay, Being and Craving, deals with the Buddhist concept of craving and its traditional interpretation.

Bodhesako was an American Buddhist monk who studied literature and creative writing at the University of Iowa. After he became a Theravada Buddhist monk in India in 1966, he moved to Sri Lanaka, where he spent most of his monastic life. He used his literary skills to write some innovative, witty, and thought-provoking essays, and to investigate the relations between the Pali Canon and modern, especially existentialist, Western philosophy and literature.