Beyond the House of the False Lama : Travels with Monks, Nomads, and Outlaws

Book Description: HarperOne, 2005. Cloth. Book Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition. 0060524413 From Publishers Weekly In the southwestern reaches of the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia, near the Wolf Mountains, beyond the House of the False Lama, lies a lost temple, one of the few that escaped the mass destruction by the Communist Chinese. Readers of Bones of the Master (2000), Crane's book about his earlier travels in the area with the Zen monk Tsung Tsai, might reasonably expect a second quasi-mystical nomadic quest, especially as that's the setup for this new book. But it doesn't happens. Instead, Crane, an aging hippie-poet whose zeitgeist is unrepentantly lodged in the countercultural 1970s, uses the excuse of a failing marriage to leave home (Woodstock, N.Y., where else?) to spend a couple of years on the road?solo. First, he signs on to help deliver a boat from Key Largo to Grenada. Next, he's off to Paris to reminisce about past adventures, past loves, old friends. Late in 2003, he does get to Inner Mongolia, and it hardly matters that no temple is found. There's definitely a select audience for this kind of personal travel book, peppered with poetry and somewhat wacky though amiable reveries. Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Poet and renegade Crane chronicled his trip to Mongolia with the Chinese Buddhist monk Tsung Tsai in The Bones of the Master (2000). Tsung Tsai is still trying to orient Crane to the path to enlightenment, but Crane is resistant to routine, convention, and staying put. As his third marriage disintegrates, he heads for the Florida Keys, where he and a friend launch a poorly refurbished cement-hulled sailboat smack into a hurricane. Crane's descriptions of the otherworldly power of the storm are matched by often startling musings on death and survival, subjects that continue to occupy his thoughts as he returns to Mongolia on what turns into a belated journey of mourning for his father. As Crane writes with bracing candor about his free-form approach to Zen Buddhism, the fictiveness of memory, and the wisdom of the body, he reflects on both Mongolia's austere beauty and terrible poverty. Crane's gusto, frank humor, insistence on freedom, cosmic sensibility, and compassion make him a boon companion and make his down-to-earth Zen an antidote to many ills. Donna Seaman Copyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved Stephen Batchelor, author of Living with the Devil "A finely crafted prose poem of a book that sparkles with the wisdom born of anguish and longing." Dallas Morning News "If you?ve ever wondered whether your quest ?is more a direction than a mere destination,? read this." Booklist "Crane?s gusto, frank humor, and compassion make his down-to-earth Zen an antidote to many ills." Book Review By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Beyond the House of the False Lama Travels with Monks, Nomads, and Outlaws George Crane HarperSanFrancisco 10/06 Paperback $14.95 ISBN: 0060858281 "Writing and travel are the best things, the only things, that always work, that always make me feel connected, whole. With both, there is nothing to understand, nothing to explain; no family, no phones, no bills, no worries, no past and no future, just now and just movement," writes George Crane, author of Bones of the Master, his fascinating account of his journey to Mongolia to find the bones of his spiritual mentor Tsung Tsai's teacher and the cremate them. However, a fierce sandstorm stopped them from completing the mission. Now, years later, Crane is in a bit of a funk. He's tired of the rigors of Zen Buddhism: "Become, I've spent the last twenty-five years of my life trying to become, and it hasn't been easy, because the man I am is always getting in the way." In order to perk up his spirits, Crane decides to join a buddy who is sailing a fifty-eight foot cement-hulled Samson ketch from Key Largo to Granada. The trouble is, this journey is scheduled during the hurricane season. But that doesn't bother Crane, who loves ta. Bookseller Inventory # 001220

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Book Description: HarperOne, 2005. Hardback. Book Condition: New. 232 x 162 mm. Brand New Book with Free Worldwide Delivery. From the author of the acclaimed and delightful lt;EMgt;Bones Of The Masterlt;/EMgt; comes a whole new set of rollicking and moving adventures. From the peaceful woods of Upstate New York, to sailing through hurricanes in the Carribean, from the cafes of Paris to the deserts of Mongolia, and New York, as Woodstock poet and rogue Crane follows a crooked Zen path toward his own life's meaning. In lt;EMgt;Bones of the Masterlt;/EMgt;, George Crane and his good friend, Zen monk Tsung Tsai, went to Mongolia to find the grave of Tsung Tsai's teacher and build a shrine in his honor. Now, this is the story of the second journey. Crane's prior book was a surprise success that sold well and got great endorsements, reviews, foreign rights sales. Crane is an excellent writer--a mix of Jack Kerouac, Bill Bryson, and Peter Matthiesen--and his adventures in China, Mongolia, and the US with his delightful, profound neighbor and friend, Zen Buddhist monk Tsung Tsau is one of the great unlikely pairings in the Don Quixote/Sancho Panza tradition. lt;EMgt;Beyond the House of the False Lamalt;/EMgt; traces Crane's adventures as a writer, wanderer, and anarchic but still failing student of Zen. It begins in 1996 at the edge of the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia, where he and his teacher and friend, Zen Master Tsung Tsai, are forced by a sandstorm to end their quest to find the lost temple at Two Wolf Mountain. It continues with a harrowing, near disastrous attempt to deliver a ratty, 58 foot ferrous cement sailboat to Granada. Setting sail from Key Largo into the heart of hurricane season, with a crew of eccentrics and outlaws, led by the infamous Captain Bananas. They run with a disintegrating sailboat into the perfect squall. The tale ends in the winter of 2003, when after weeks of desert travel, Crane and his companions---the nomad Jumaand and the young, beautiful Mongol girl Oka, his bed mate and bodyguard---stand beneath the remote cliffs of Delgaz Khaan in Outer Mongolia's South Gobi. Here, Crane, after burying his long dead father, sets out on a new quest, looking to find what the nomads call Windhorse, "the beginning of the wind," but finds what every nomad knows, that every road is more a direction than a destination. Living on the edge---flirting with death, sex, and lust, with nomadism and Zen---Crane is a passionate observer of the physical and metaphysical world, able to bring alive the emotions and desires that lie at the heart of a life. Wind is the Purpose has the texture, vividness and intimacy of a conversation with the reader. It is a story of people, places, and adventures; of myths and mysteries transmuted and transposed into poetry and prose. It is a travel memoir and a wild spiritual search. Bookseller Inventory # NLF9780060524418

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Book Description: Book Condition: New. Brand new. Bookseller Inventory # QX-002-31-6770006

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