Overview

"""Adventuresome Human Spirit Seeking Same; Language Not Important."" What might seem the journey of a lifetime was not lightly undertaken, but a deliberate venture by a self-declared ""old white guy from the Midwestern US"" into the vibrant, unknown, exotic southeast Asian culture where everything, save the human spirit, is different and new. The Buddha Is Not In portrays the author's 2002 visit to Vietnam, to trace the footsteps of his teacher, the late Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, peace activist, scholar, and founder of engaged Buddhism, The Plum Village Tradition. With a backpack full of hope and the guidance, sponsorship, and company of The Loving Work Foundation, this septuagenarian, wandering poet narrates the sights of this spiritual and literal journey through the mountains and coasts of Vietnam and Thailand; quarantines from Covid in a remote monastery in Pak Chong, Thailand; and reacquaints himself and his body with tai chi on Hoi An Beach. Walking off sixteen pounds, and finding self and sense again, Smith, after surviving open heart surgery just nineteen months earlier, lays out a delightful tale of new friendships with other Americans, native Vietnamese, and self. In doing so, he finds resolution to very important questions about the American War some half century earlier. In twenty chapters of commentary, transformation weaves in and out of poetry written during and after the trip, ekphrastic because based on the many photographs taken during the trip. Narrative prose, haiku, haibun, and a deep commitment to numinous detail saunter through a countryside of rice paddies, temples, sacred sites, vibrant city dwellers on motor bikes, rural life in the serene countryside. The increasingly aware, and grateful student of Thay comes to terms with the Five Remembrances, confronting growing old, getting ill, separating self from others and possessions, and answering for the consequences of his actions. The tale successfully translates this difficult metamorphosis into the delicate, purposeful language of poetry."

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