What I Don't Know About Death

Reflections on Buddhism and Mortality

What I Don't Know About Death
C W Huntington
RRP:
NZ$ 36.99
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NZ$ 31.44
Paperback
h229 x 152mm - 174pg
7 Oct 2021 US
International import eta 7-19 days
9781614297505
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
A Buddhist scholar reflects on life, death, and the ways we blind ourselves to the inevitable as he confronts his own mortality. In the winter of 2020 a renowned scholar of Asian religions, lifelong meditator, and novelist accustomed to vigorous health received a terminal diagnosis. By summer his cancer had run its course. In the short time in between, C. W. "Sandy" Huntington faced his own impending death, leading him to reconsider the teachings and practices, as well as philosophy and literature, he had spent a lifetime pursuing. In this, his last book, you' ll join Sandy as he traverses the gap between knowledge and true wisdom. "Sandy Huntington urges his readers to face up to life' s fragility as well as its many gifts. Written with elegance and verve, What I Don' t Know about Death is a deep meditation on what it means both to wake up to and to let go of life. Drawing on his lifelong engagement with Buddhism, Huntington remains a consummate teacher who demands intellectual honesty, humility, and compassion from his readers no less than from himself. This book is an intellectual and spiritual offering to Huntington' s students, past and future. "--Leora Batnitzky, Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies and professor of religion, Princeton University "What I Don' t Know about Death is a deeply personal, intellectually rigorous, and philosophically profound exploration of death, and in particular of Sandy' s own death, which he faced with exemplary grace, honesty, and clarity as he wrote this book. This is a gift of remarkable beauty that can open our hearts and minds to this most difficult topic. Read it and weep, with tears of grief, gratitude, and illumination. "--Jay L. Garfield, Smith College and the Harvard Divinity School
"What I Don' t Know about Death is a brilliant synthesis of Huntington' s lifelong spiritual and scholarly quest to uncover the truth of what it means to be human. It is one of the finest books on contemporary Buddhism to have emerged from the generation of those who lived and studied in India in the 1970s, then returned home to digest and share what they learned. Completed as the author was dying of cancer, this beautifully crafted and profound work will serve as a lasting tribute to the author' s integrity, intelligence, and humanity. "----Stephen Batchelor, author of The Art of Solitude "Sandy Huntington' s Emptiness of Emptiness made a seminal contribution to the study of Madhyamaka philosophy in the West. Yet for Huntington, the study of Madhyamaka was not simply an intellectual pursuit. As this book shows, the Middle Way was at the center of his reflections on birth, death, suffering, and liberation, providing a key to his understanding of a life well lived. Following this moving autobiographical sketch, the reader will come to understand why Huntington considered the study of Nagarjuna as ' among the most profound and satisfying experiences of my life. ' "----Jan Westerhoff, University of Oxford "This deeply affecting book represents a poetic distillation of Buddhist insights expressed with a moral clarity and existential vulnerability born from Huntington' s own unflinching encounter with dying. That Huntington' s last days were focused by the work of thus transmuting that experience, creating from it an essay at once philosophically profound and deeply personal, is a priceless gift--an expression, indeed, of loving compassion. " ----Dan Arnold, University of Chicago Divinity School "Written in the last months of life, What I Don' t Know about Death is a deeply nostalgic, insight-filled work of a truly American Buddhism, a heartfelt reflection on one person' s journey from an all-American childhood in 1950s Michigan, to India of the 1970s, and on through a life of teaching and contemplation to its heartbreaking end. Sandy Huntington passes effortlessly through the imagined walls between the personal and the academic, weaving a tale from strands of memory, Buddhist thought, literature, and modern life. Just as his in-person teachings and profound conversations did so often, this beautifully written book leaves one floating through a space of emptiness, awareness, and the gentle magic of existence. "----Jake Dalton, University of California, Berkeley
C. W. "Sandy" Huntington, Jr. translated and interpreted classical Sanskrit and Tibetan texts and was a professor at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. He is best known for his books The Emptiness of Emptiness and Maya. Sandy passed away on July 19, 2020, following a six-month struggle with pancreatic cancer.
Status: No local stock, title imported to order
ISBN-13: 9781614297505
Published: 7 Oct 2021
Published In: United States
Imprint: Wisdom Publications US
Publisher: Wisdom Publications US
Format: Paperback
Height: 229mm
Width: 152mm
Pages: 174

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