In this short book Silberberg weaves snippets from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
with personal anecdotes, classic Buddhist sutras, koans and popular culture to illustrate Zen approaches to the true nature of enlightenment: “When we get to the other shore, to what I am calling Wonderland, we may experience One Mind.” Rather than using Zen to explain Alice
, Silberberg playfully mingles, for example, the upside-down logic of the Caterpillar and Mock Turtle with the wisdom of the Diamond Sutra to explain key ideas. A longtime practitioner and former vice abbot of the Kanzeon Zen Center in Utah, the author is adept at explaining Buddhist teachings and ideas, such as the causes of suffering and Siddhartha's search for the truth of existence. Silberberg's description of the Zen path demonstrates more rigor than gentleness, reflecting a “warrior” approach to the search for knowledge that isn't present in all forms of this Eastern philosophy; indeed, a little more clarification about which approaches are specifically Zen among the range of Buddhist practices would have been helpful for the novice. While the Alice
analogies are thin, Silberberg's clear writing and in-depth knowledge of his subject make this addition to the “Zen of” genre engaging. (Oct. 1)
