Poems of the Laughing Buddha

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Pub Date 13 May 2015 | Archive Date 03 Sep 2015

Description

These poems are accessible and still literate, funny and still wise. Also inspiring, honest, deep, and fun. They document the award-winning poet's journey into greater and greater joy as she spends more and more time with her statue of a Laughing Buddha, and ultimately learns to let "laughter triumph over whatever comes her way."

These poems are accessible and still literate, funny and still wise. Also inspiring, honest, deep, and fun. They document the award-winning poet's journey into greater and greater joy as she spends...


Advance Praise

“Lucky Buddha to find a home in Jane Marla Robbins’ Topanga Canyon garden and have her take down his every wise word. Her poems will set you smiling, then laughing, then seeing, then smiling a deeper kind of smile. Step into her garden and make your day.'” -- John Guare, Pullitzer Prize winning playwright, House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation

"Lively- cerebral-witty, yet filled with profound reflections, Robbins’ work reminds us that poetry can be both a celebration and an entertainment- not to mention food for thought." -- Patricia Bosworth, Vanity Fair, contributing editor; author of Anything Your Little Heart Desires and An American Family Story

“In these brightly lit and joy-filled poems, all inspired by a stone statue of the Laughing Buddha, Jane Marla Robbins practically dares the universe to bring her down, and it cannot do so. In poem after poem, laughter triumphs over whatever comes her way, and it is a literate, knowing laughter, a cosmic, Buddhist laughter that will make even the most jaded reader say with the poet, 'Okay, I’m smiling now./Okay, I’ll have fun. With you./FUN!’” --Gail Wronsky, poet, author of Blue Shadow Behind Everything Dazzling

"The great thing about Jane Marla Robbins is she conclusively proves that wisdom can be funny." --David Finkle, critic, New York Times Book Review; author, People Tell Me Things

“Laugh with these poems.... all saturated with the essence of the ancient wisdom of the Laughing Buddha.” -- Qiu Xiaolong, poet, translator, author, 100 Poems From Tang and Song Dynasties

“These poems touch heart and mind. They tickle, too, as well as possessing a unique power -- to transform all of us who read them into Laughing Buddhas ourselves” -- Enid Zuckerman, psychotherapist, LMSW, MA

“Laughter is one of the messages that the Buddha, ‘The Enlightened or Awakened One’, and so many other wise people teach us, and Jane’s wonderful book reminds us why. I recommend it to all of us who need more smiling and laughter in our lives.” -- Rabbi Stan Levy, congregation B’nai Horin

“Delve into Jane's musings with delight, nearly one for each week of the year. A cross between memoir, proverb and aphorism, these poems will charm and entice you with a new-found sense of delight and wonder at our crazy, crazy universe and our place within it.” -- Millicent Borges Accardi, CantoMundo and NEA fellow, author of Injuring Eternity and Woman on a Shaky Bridge

“Lucky Buddha to find a home in Jane Marla Robbins’ Topanga Canyon garden and have her take down his every wise word. Her poems will set you smiling, then laughing, then seeing, then smiling a...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781512117653
PRICE $9.95 (USD)

Average rating from 5 members


Featured Reviews

Poetry and Buddha seem to be a perfect mix of insight and harmony, but I was expecting a very cutesy type of poetry with this mix. Although it did contain a touch of that cutesy element, I thoroughly enjoyed the small collection of poems that center around the stone Buddha in Jane Robbins' back yard. The theme is pretty straight forward; keep laughing or at least smiling. To be more Buddha-like means to imitate her statue that, like the Buddha, never lets things get him down. Even when the neighbor's dog gets loose and wanders into the author's yard and urinates on the Buddha statue, Buddha keeps laughing.

This is a feel good collection of poetry and will bring a smile to the reader and a bit of relaxation. It is not a deep look into Buddhism, but rather like most religious statues and paintings a reminder of our purpose. Bad things happen as well as good and often we are powerless to change their course. We must accept what we cannot change, much like Camus said in the Myth of Sisyphus -- "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

Poems of the Laughing Buddha is nice collection and reminder to all of us to that we cannot control everything in our lives and sometimes laughing with the Buddha is much better than cursing the world. Also to Robbins credit, her message of being positive is not overdone like so many self-help, find happiness in your life books that flood the market. Confucious said, "Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." Buddha said, "There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path." Robbins clearly demonstrates these ideas with her words.

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I enjoyed these poems, written by Jane Marla Robbins and inspired by a laughing Buddha sculpture in her garden. Robbins' devotion to her Buddhist practice allows her to find her zen in laughter. And it is that laughter to which she holds on and which lifts her above the potholes in life. An enjoyable book that offers a new perspective and just might put a smile on your face too.

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I really am enjoying this. I will have to get my friends to read this too...

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