LET'S get this straight at the outset - this is not based on a true story. It is a series of experiences by an American who went to Nepal for an adventure.
Frederick Lenz has admitted that it is a work of fiction and hopes it will be entertaining to the reader.
Having said that, Lenz spins a tale of Eastern mysticism and Western pragmatism having a head-on collision. When a person has the advantage of youth, the world looks like a gigantic playground every morning when the sun peeks over the mountain or perhaps the highest skyscraper, as the case might be.
Lenz is very much in love with the snow and he's even crazier about snowboarding. What could be more challenging than to blaze trails on the snow - covered slopes of the Himalayas and then return home to brag about it.
That's exactly what the author had intended to do, but destiny had other plans for him. Lenz's life on the mountains would have been more or less the same as the thousands of foreign backpackers who throng the huts, chalets and hotels of Kathmandu, Nepal, if not for a saffron-colour robed monk named Master Fwap.
At this point, the reader (if old enough) may think that he has stumbled across another Lobsang Rampa clone. Fortunately, here's where Lenz starts to get serious.
Master Fwap is more than just a passing stranger in the night. The first time the writer met him, he nearly collided with him while snowboarding down a slope. Their second encounter began with Master Fwap saying "Our meeting was fated, and your karma caused it to happen."
Putting all his cards on the table, so to speak, the monk identified himself as Master Fwap Sam-Dup. He's the last master of the Rae Chorze-Fwaz School of Tantric Mysticism and Buddhist Enlightment. At this juncture, the reader is apt to exclaim: "Ah phooey, and my grandmother is Wonder Woman!"
Luckily, my initial reaction was to humour the writer. Lenz has a gift of spinning a yarn but it is a tale filled with infinite possibilities, just like an episode of Star Trek.
Master Fwap, after having established a vise-like grip on the snowboarder's attention, begins to educate him on siddhas (miracles), chakras (mystical energy centers in the human aura) and samadhi (state of emptiness).
A word of caution before proceeding to read further: this book is filled with a lot of spiritual mumbo-jumbo which those who are not so inclined may discover while ambling along the chapters to be disagreeable to their calm disposition.
But if, by chance, it has caught your interest, it does become terribly fascinating. Frederick Lenz is not an urban roustabout who just happens to also be a fine storyteller; his credentials speak volumes. Lenz is a Phi Beta Kappa and a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Connecticut. His resume shows that he also has a PhD from the State University of New York.
However, the central character of Surfing the Himalayas is undoubtedly Master Fwap who constantly comes up with gems like "each person has a soul - an inner core of light and intelligence as vast as the 10 thousand worlds - whose true nature is emptiness, ecstasy and happiness" and "in deep meditation, when your thoughts have become silent, and your emotions are calm and at peace, you can travel into and experience the inner worlds and dimensions of light and perfection, and even experience nirvana itself."
It is not necessary that you be a Buddhist to enjoy this book. Your religious beliefs are your own but as someone once said: "A mind is like a parachute. It works best when it is open."
Hence, this book must be approached like so. Lenz's story is a splendid tale well-told. It is thoroughly enjoyable, captivating and packed with all that is wonderful and refreshing.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
One of the hottest TV shows right now is Desperate Housewives, but about 42 years ago, Betty Friedan wrote a book about the faceless desperate housewives in America.
The book was an overnight sensation. It brought relief to many silent women who had for a long time sensed that there was something wrong with their lives.
Social activist Friedan, who studied psychology in university, realised that "the problem with no name" was eating away at the lives of American housewives.
More than four decades later, the book remains a talking point among women. From it, emerged the frustrations, hidden desires and secret wishes of all women in the Land of Stars and Stripes.
This book zeroes in quickly on the heart of the feminine mystique - the issue of women's identity crisis. The accepted practice that American women's life ambition was to be a housewife and a good mother to her children. It was only when Friedan - a pioneer feminist - asked them to, that some women found the courage to express their inner pain.
The Feminine Mystique is the fruit of a questionnaire Friedan conducted among 200 college mates at her 15th college reunion. The survey revealed what had been obvious to Friedan and many other women of her time. Most American housewives were desperately unhappy.
Magazines rejected Friedan's findings and she spent the next five years delving more deeply into the subject. The result - this treatise that shook a nation and sent ripples across the world.
This book shows that Friedan had done her homework and legwork and her findings more than proved her case.
Friedan echoes the sentiments of other eminent feminists like Germaine Greer and Gloria Steinem. The bottom line, as Friedan says, is that women have been trapped in societal roles created by community leaders - usually men - since time immemorial. After eons of conditioning and practice, even the smart ones yielded to this conformity without question.
In the closing chapters, Friedan admitted that there are no easy answers to the problem. The only advice she offers is: "First, she must unequivocally say 'no' to the housewife image.
"Second, women must recognise marriage for what it really is. To see it as the final fulfilment of their lives would be a disastrous perception."
Generations later, it is revealed that Betty Friedan's book has helped change the lives of American women forever.
Women heads of government (or State) like Sirimavo Bandaranaike (Sri Lanka), Indira Gandhi (India), Golda Meir (Israel), Margaret Thatcher (Britain), Khaleda Zia (Bangladesh), Kim Campbell (Canada), Hanna Suchocka (Poland), Janet Jagan (Guyana), Helen Clark (New Zealand), Luisa Dias Diogo (Mozambique), Angela Merket (Germany) and others are testimony that women worldwide have made considerable progress since The Feminine Mystique first appeared.
On the negative side, the feminine mystique still exists in numerous forms - some subtle - in many countries. Depending on culture, tradition and the make-up of their society, many women's roles have remained the same for centuries.
Though Friedan was referring specifically to American women, it is undeniable that this is one of the most important books of its time for women all over the world. It holds an exalted position in the feminists' hall of fame.
This seminal work - which Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock, described as "the book that pulled the trigger on history" - still has much relevance. It carries the strong message that all women must be allowed to realise and maximise their fullest potential at every level of society.
The book was an overnight sensation. It brought relief to many silent women who had for a long time sensed that there was something wrong with their lives.
Social activist Friedan, who studied psychology in university, realised that "the problem with no name" was eating away at the lives of American housewives.
More than four decades later, the book remains a talking point among women. From it, emerged the frustrations, hidden desires and secret wishes of all women in the Land of Stars and Stripes.
This book zeroes in quickly on the heart of the feminine mystique - the issue of women's identity crisis. The accepted practice that American women's life ambition was to be a housewife and a good mother to her children. It was only when Friedan - a pioneer feminist - asked them to, that some women found the courage to express their inner pain.
The Feminine Mystique is the fruit of a questionnaire Friedan conducted among 200 college mates at her 15th college reunion. The survey revealed what had been obvious to Friedan and many other women of her time. Most American housewives were desperately unhappy.
Magazines rejected Friedan's findings and she spent the next five years delving more deeply into the subject. The result - this treatise that shook a nation and sent ripples across the world.
This book shows that Friedan had done her homework and legwork and her findings more than proved her case.
Friedan echoes the sentiments of other eminent feminists like Germaine Greer and Gloria Steinem. The bottom line, as Friedan says, is that women have been trapped in societal roles created by community leaders - usually men - since time immemorial. After eons of conditioning and practice, even the smart ones yielded to this conformity without question.
In the closing chapters, Friedan admitted that there are no easy answers to the problem. The only advice she offers is: "First, she must unequivocally say 'no' to the housewife image.
"Second, women must recognise marriage for what it really is. To see it as the final fulfilment of their lives would be a disastrous perception."
Generations later, it is revealed that Betty Friedan's book has helped change the lives of American women forever.
Women heads of government (or State) like Sirimavo Bandaranaike (Sri Lanka), Indira Gandhi (India), Golda Meir (Israel), Margaret Thatcher (Britain), Khaleda Zia (Bangladesh), Kim Campbell (Canada), Hanna Suchocka (Poland), Janet Jagan (Guyana), Helen Clark (New Zealand), Luisa Dias Diogo (Mozambique), Angela Merket (Germany) and others are testimony that women worldwide have made considerable progress since The Feminine Mystique first appeared.
On the negative side, the feminine mystique still exists in numerous forms - some subtle - in many countries. Depending on culture, tradition and the make-up of their society, many women's roles have remained the same for centuries.
Though Friedan was referring specifically to American women, it is undeniable that this is one of the most important books of its time for women all over the world. It holds an exalted position in the feminists' hall of fame.
This seminal work - which Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock, described as "the book that pulled the trigger on history" - still has much relevance. It carries the strong message that all women must be allowed to realise and maximise their fullest potential at every level of society.
The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
NEVER make a brilliant woman angry. Someone obviously did because in
1970, Germaine Greer came out with a book entitled The Female Eunuch.
It was an overnight success. All the women who had always wanted to be
liberated fi nally found their icon. Those men who caught a glimpse of
Greer were aghast. "Who's this creature?" they asked.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1939, Greer was labelled as one of the
most powerful voices of feminism in the 20th century. Till today, this
professor of literature at Warwick University in Britain is a
controversial figure.
The Australian political journalist, Christine Wallace, who wrote a
biography of Germaine Greer described her as "hegemonic heterosexuality",
"anachronistic passivity", and "grooviness personifi ed".
In reply, Greer called her a "flesh-eating bacterium" and "dung-beetle".
This woman of socially-shocking proportions began her academic career back
in 1956 when she won a teaching scholarship. During her varsity years, she
acquired the nickname "Germainic Queer".
Life never became the same after she joined the Sydney Push, a bunch of
intellectual left-wingers who practised non-monogamy.
The six-footer Greer was a natural at academic pursuits as her peers
found out because, in 1963, she picked up an MA at the University of
Sydney.
Her sterling achievement gained her a Commonwealth scholarship that she
used to finance her PhD programme at the University of Cambridge. Five
years later, she accepted a lecturing post at the University of Warwick.
In The Female Eunuch, all the years of growing up as a woman restrained
by societal norms and restrictions allegedly created by man in general
manifested in expressions of anger and repressed frustrations.
Greer talks about the hostility of men towards women and how women were
conditioned to hate themselves from cradle to grave. She pounced on the
nuclear family system and suburban existence for enslaving women, thus
making them "eunuchs".
It was a most controversial conclusion reached by a feminist with a
brilliant academic background. The book triggered a runaway sale and, by
March 1971, it almost exhausted its second edition. Countries in other
parts of the developed world quickly took notice of The Female Eunuch and
it was soon published in eight languages.
In this landmark book, Greer's rallying cry was "subjugation". She
points an accusing fi nger at the Western concept of female sexuality
which she said made women ashamed of their bodies and sucked the joy of
life out of them. Any member of the male clan who has read this book will
be surprised that a woman can speak so frankly and in such strong terms.
The book is almost flamboyant in its intellectual rhetoric and nerve-
wrecking in its passionate arguments, especially to the men.
At best, Germaine Greer has done women worldwide a service by openly
revealing what have been their heart's deepest secrets but were socially
suppressed until it found expression in a proper avenue. At worst, she has
widened and deepened the misunderstanding between the roles of women and
men as cast by the Western society for centuries.
Today, the postulations and pronouncements of The Female Eunuch are no
longer an issue. Perhaps it is due to the groundwork laid down by
headstrong women like Greer and her admirers.
Whatever the personal opinions may be, this book was a wonderful read
three decades and five years ago, as it still is today. You may not agree
wholeheartedly with Greer but you certainly cannot help but admire her
intellectual depth and deep convictions.
A final recommendation: all women on the threshold of early adulthood
should spend some time with this book. All the young men, too, should read
it, if they want to be someone else's life partners of admirable social
intelligence and cheerful disposition.
1970, Germaine Greer came out with a book entitled The Female Eunuch.
It was an overnight success. All the women who had always wanted to be
liberated fi nally found their icon. Those men who caught a glimpse of
Greer were aghast. "Who's this creature?" they asked.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1939, Greer was labelled as one of the
most powerful voices of feminism in the 20th century. Till today, this
professor of literature at Warwick University in Britain is a
controversial figure.
The Australian political journalist, Christine Wallace, who wrote a
biography of Germaine Greer described her as "hegemonic heterosexuality",
"anachronistic passivity", and "grooviness personifi ed".
In reply, Greer called her a "flesh-eating bacterium" and "dung-beetle".
This woman of socially-shocking proportions began her academic career back
in 1956 when she won a teaching scholarship. During her varsity years, she
acquired the nickname "Germainic Queer".
Life never became the same after she joined the Sydney Push, a bunch of
intellectual left-wingers who practised non-monogamy.
The six-footer Greer was a natural at academic pursuits as her peers
found out because, in 1963, she picked up an MA at the University of
Sydney.
Her sterling achievement gained her a Commonwealth scholarship that she
used to finance her PhD programme at the University of Cambridge. Five
years later, she accepted a lecturing post at the University of Warwick.
In The Female Eunuch, all the years of growing up as a woman restrained
by societal norms and restrictions allegedly created by man in general
manifested in expressions of anger and repressed frustrations.
Greer talks about the hostility of men towards women and how women were
conditioned to hate themselves from cradle to grave. She pounced on the
nuclear family system and suburban existence for enslaving women, thus
making them "eunuchs".
It was a most controversial conclusion reached by a feminist with a
brilliant academic background. The book triggered a runaway sale and, by
March 1971, it almost exhausted its second edition. Countries in other
parts of the developed world quickly took notice of The Female Eunuch and
it was soon published in eight languages.
In this landmark book, Greer's rallying cry was "subjugation". She
points an accusing fi nger at the Western concept of female sexuality
which she said made women ashamed of their bodies and sucked the joy of
life out of them. Any member of the male clan who has read this book will
be surprised that a woman can speak so frankly and in such strong terms.
The book is almost flamboyant in its intellectual rhetoric and nerve-
wrecking in its passionate arguments, especially to the men.
At best, Germaine Greer has done women worldwide a service by openly
revealing what have been their heart's deepest secrets but were socially
suppressed until it found expression in a proper avenue. At worst, she has
widened and deepened the misunderstanding between the roles of women and
men as cast by the Western society for centuries.
Today, the postulations and pronouncements of The Female Eunuch are no
longer an issue. Perhaps it is due to the groundwork laid down by
headstrong women like Greer and her admirers.
Whatever the personal opinions may be, this book was a wonderful read
three decades and five years ago, as it still is today. You may not agree
wholeheartedly with Greer but you certainly cannot help but admire her
intellectual depth and deep convictions.
A final recommendation: all women on the threshold of early adulthood
should spend some time with this book. All the young men, too, should read
it, if they want to be someone else's life partners of admirable social
intelligence and cheerful disposition.
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