The Passionate Buddha

by Robert Sachs

a review by John Gilbert

The Passionate Buddha, Wisdom on Intimacy and Enduring Love by Robert Sachs (ISBN 089281914-6) is published by Inner Traditions and available through your local bookseller.

I don't normally consider myself to be complacent. Perhaps that's because whenever I think about getting complacent, something happens in my relationship to abort that feeling. So it's natural to suspect the subtitle of this book would get my attention. It did.

Author Robert Sachs is obviously Buddhist. While we share one teacher in common, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, we travel different spiritual paths. You don't need to understand Buddhism in order to understand what Robert has to share. It does help if you have a well-defined spiritual path or are willing to find such a path for yourself. It doesn't matter if that path is Buddhist, Christian, Pagan or anything else.

This book is divided into three parts. Part One discusses who and what the Buddha was and gives an overview of his important teachings. You might be surprised at how the Buddha views Anger. You might also be surprised to discover how easy it is to meditate using the techniques described. You're free to use your own concepts and meditations.

Part Two discusses how to build the relationships you want. You'll find no surprises here, just some reminders and good common sense. But if you're rather naive about relationships as I am, you'll find this section to be most beneficial. It's all about finding the right partner, opening up and following the path of your own loving nature.

Part Three is all about sex. The most important thing to be learned here is being in the moment and building a lasting relationship together. If you have any concerns about doing things right, you'll find help in the section about Killing the Moment. I'm beginning to understand...

This truly is a book about the Wisdom on Intimacy and Enduring Love. It's a textbook for building maintaining great relationships. It's a book to share with your lover so the two of you can work together in this process. It's a book for increasing your ability to give and receive love.

Here's a sample of the sound advice offered by the author:

In relationships, don't wait in ambush and don't act with a twist toward your partner. {The 'Gotcha' syndrome...}

Neither denial nor retaliation will remedy negative circumstances for us. Trusting and living out our loving nature in our dealings with ourselves is the only solution.

Bliss is not out there. It doesn't arise because of someone else. Its source is our inherent loving nature.

Our Beloved, to whom we have opened up, mirrors back to us the glory of ourselves and the love we are willing to open up and share.

Assumptions, in the end, are what deaden a relationship most in the short and long run. As soon as we think we know our partner, we have already begun to kill our intimacy.

My partner has nothing to fear. I haven't even begun to figure her out. My hope and fear is it may take me a lifetime to do so. In the meantime, I'm sharing this book with her and pledging myself to be more open and loving in our relationship.

This book had a profound effect on my thinking. May you fare as well.

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