The Gods Drink Whiskey

I just finished the book The Gods Drink Whiskey. I saw an excerpt of this book in the Chronicle of Higher Education and ordered it. The book is a prickly, thought provoking, philosophical, personal exploration of experiences in Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia. The author is a Professor of Buddhism at Columbia College in Chicago who was invited to teach in the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Phenh. The book is interesting philosophically, politically, and personally. His description of the actual practice of Theravada Buddhism and how that practice is anchored in the culture of Southeast Asia is illuminating. More importantly his descriptions, opinions, rants, and arguments reflect an authentic encounter with the confusion of experience that can happen in Southeast Asia. I felt at home reading this book, I will read it again. Here is a brief quote that rings very true. "The atmosphere is so thick with unfamiliarity that I couldn't help but be rapt with infantlike wonder all the time. I'd sit down at a sidewalk food stand, and the proprietor might come sit next to me smiling and introducing family members, while an elephant lumbered by slowly, and a man with no legs or lower torso rolled up on a cart and took my shoes off for shinning, and a snack plate of barbecued insects appeared on the table, followed by an amazing fish dish served inside a halved coconut, and the streets might literally flood in minutes with monsoon rains, leaving motos and cyclos to wobble slowly through the muddy streets. I was forced to focus on everything because everything seemed to require it-I had to practice mindfulness by necessity." To me, during my last two visits, Thailand was like being in a storm of impressions. It is not boring going to Thailand.