Buddha in Redface: Third Edition

by Eduardo Duran

Story is told by a narrator who is a psychologist working in Indian country. What appears to be a consultation with a patient ends up being a meeting with his teacher, Tarrence. Tarrence proceeds to take the narrator into a dreamtime journey that melts the worldview held by the storyteller. The dream leads the narrator to a place in which the energy generated by ancient dreamers must be balanced. The lack of balance brought on by the power dreamers and their ceremony has resulted in the atomic bomb. New realms also give insights as to why the bomb was dropped on the Japanese. Throughout the story there are conflicts between western and aboriginal ways of knowing, the main protagonist being Carl, who is a psychiatrist.

Genres: Buddhism, Indigenous, Spirituality

234 pages, Paperback

First published August 14, 2000

Reviews

[Sarah Sevedge · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been really hard to pick up and start another book after I finished Buddha in Redface. Almost as if I didn't know where to start or if there are other books to read after it. The story and message of this book is profound and rattling enough that it dispossesses you from where you thought you were and you've got to regroup before/if you move on. It's a show stopper. To say the least.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having met the author at an Indian Health Service conference (he's a practicing clinical psychologist working with Navajo and Apache people) I couldn't resist getting one of his books because he was pretty amazing in person. Funny, self-deprecating, insightful, without pretension. His book is really his personal story of meeting people and having experiences that led to his finding the need to integrate Native spirituality into his understanding of healing - which previously had been steeped in entirely Western cognitive-behavioral treatment methods. A bit "out there" but really interesting.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers ahead!
Who recommended this to me? I remember someone specifically saying I should read it, and it was probably around the time I was working in the plutonium part of the Lab and freaking out about my ethics around nuclear war, but I don't know who it could have been. The story is about a psychologist who works with Native Americans in NM who gets drawn into a series of ceremonies with other spiritual types who want to ... free the gourd of nuclear power that the Oppenheimer character buries during the Manhattan Project, more or less. Yes, it's out there. They connect in their dreams and they are reincarnations of previous versions of themselves. It's buddhist sort of and some Native stuff, so that was interesting to me, and of course I love NM stories. But yeah, it was too far out for me when "the awareness was aware of being aware in the awareness" -- that kind of thing. And I hated the anti-hero character who was a yuppie trying to be black or something really dumb. The author is probably a lovely man, but he is not a writer, and he admits that from page one, which is a red flag.

[Beej · Rating 4 out of 5]

I understand why this book is not popular-it’s difficult to read because it throws a lot of stuff at reader that doesn’t make sense. My advice is to surf on top of that s**t and mine the jewels that are in the wisdom which is spoken. It does a good job of pulling together what connects different faith or spiritual systems that exist in different cultures. And, It’s especially entertaining for anyone who is a practicing psychotherapist.

[Mark Beeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the exchange between Buddhism, Aboriginal spirituality and scientific rationale. The physical "reality" doesn't play much of a role and so also seems to lack a bit of depth on the story telling aspect. However the overall effect for me was an enjoyable read that cuts right to the essence of the three disciplines. A nice place in the path of my reading journey. Enjoy!

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing story telling ... the gate into a richer world

[Crystal Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Very spiritual!

[Maria Guzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of a therapist whom interacts with a patient whom is bedridden. Through the eyes of this patient wisdom and knowledge takes him into a self reflection that leads him to his ancestral Native American connections. The book gave me insight to the relationships sometimes we develop with others is not always about friendship but much deeper connections allowing us to self reflect and bring out the gray areas in our lives, so that we can work through our problems and become better human beings. There was also, historical data given in this book that is worth learning about and inspired me to learn more about our Native American tribes.