Alan Robert Lopez Knihy

The book explores the similarities and differences between Zen Buddhism and the Thai Forest Movement, two influential currents in World Buddhism. It delves into their shared commitment to enlightenment, self-cultivation, and the significance of charismatic teachers, despite their distinct cultural and historical contexts. By examining teaching methods, practices, and the awakening experience, the author reveals common threads that connect these movements. Additionally, the text addresses their interactions with modernism, offering fresh insights for scholars and practitioners alike.

"In an uncanny, distorted version of New York City, a man rides the subway through the chaos of an ordinary commute. He may have a gun in his pocket. He may be looking for someone--a woman named Esperanza. Between stops, we shuttle back and forth through time and see a man who stands in traffic, the same man seizing and shuddering on a sidewalk, an institution where the man is housed with other undesirables, a neighborhood where all the residents have forgotten their names. Over everything looms the specter of a nameless menace, a pervasive sense that something--more than just a ride--is coming to an end. With Robert Lopez's signature innovation, A Better Class of People delivers a network of stories interconnected and careening like subway tunnels through the realities of modern America: immigration, gun violence, police brutality, sexual harassment, climate change, and the point of fracture at which we find ourselves, where reality and perception are indistinguishable."-- Back cover