Nine-headed dragon river, Zen journals, Peter Matthiessen

Nine-headed dragon river, Zen journals, Peter Matthiessen

As a naturalist and explorer, Peter Matthiessen has participated in expeditions to many remote regions, including the Amazon jungles, the far north-west of Canada, the Sudan, tropical Africa, Papua New Guinea and Nepal. But in this haunting new work he describes a spiritual journey, perhaps the most daring of all so far.

Nine-headed Dragon River is Matthiessen's most personal work to date. Written as a journal, somewhat in the form of his celebrated The Snow Leopard and sharing many of that fascinating book's concerns, it chronicles his quest for spiritual fulfillment. From an unlikely first meeting in the driveway of his home on Long Island in 1969 with "three inscrutable small men" who turned out to be Japanese Zen Masters, through periods of contemplation, travel and study in the 1970s to his initiation as a Buddhist monk and long pilgrimage to Japan in 1982, Matthiessen writes openly and candidly about his struggles for self-understanding.

Perhaps the most moving passages are those in which he tells of the illness and subsequent death of his wife, and his reawakening to life through Zen.

Interspersed with his own story are thoughts on the history of Buddhism and its teachings, and lyrical descriptions of nature. Observant as ever of the world around him, from the smallest dragonfly to the splendours of the Japanese landscape, Matthiessen brings alive his spiritual quest in a completely fresh and startling way.

Details

• Hardcover with dust jacket (good)
  
• ISBN: 9780002715096
• Condition: Very Good  
• Publisher: Collins Harvill