Buddha Wept: A Novel of Terror and Transcendence

by Rocco Lo Bosco, Rocco Lo Bosco

Against the lush and exotic background of a mid-1900's Cambodian landscape, Ona Ny's childhood unfolds like a dream. She is treasured by her family, particularly her brother, and though her ecstatic trances sometimes make her feel like a bit of an oddball, her ability to translate her visions into art is gratifying. But while her mystical nature may seem frivolous during her childhood, years later, after Ona has become a loving wife and mother, it enables her to detect the subtle changes around her that indicate that the blissful tranquillity of everyday life is about to come to an end. BUDDHA WEPT is the story of the life of an Asian mystic who lives through Cambodia’s self-mutilation at the hands of the despot Pol Pot during the late 1970s. The character of Ona Ny is so beautifully drawn, at once so ephemeral and so authentically human, that the reader cannot help but want to be at her side as her life's journey takes her from a world of bliss to a world of unspeakable cruelty. Her sufferings are the reader's sufferings, and her gift—the ability to muster the spiritual resources needed to transcend suffering—is the reader's as well. BUDDHA WEPT is about the many aspects of good and evil that lie within each of us. It is about saying 'yes' to life, even when the word feels like a contradiction to the chaos around us. Most of all, it is about the vast power that sleeps within the core of the human heart until heartache awakens it.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2003

Reviews

[Alesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a remarkable book. The author is a student of Eastern mysticism, and he brings this wisdom to the story of a woman surviving the death camps of Pol Pot in Cambodia. It's hard to imagine how an author might pull this off -- but he does, almost magically, bringing the reader to a place of transcendency that is quite amazing. Yes, he describes all the terrible things that happened under the Khmer Rouge, and how most people ended up dead inside. But much like Erich Fromm (sp?)'s The Art of Loving, he shows how the true mystic finds redemption in suffering, and learns to express love from an eternal core far beyond ordinary human experience. So although the book is technically about labor camps and death, it's also about compassion and opening up your heart to the divine. I can't think of hardly any other books that ever achieve this, and show you how terror can be transformed into peace and understanding.

[Kevin Orth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it when an author packs a lot into a little book such as this. highly recommend.

[Gaylene · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is interesting to me to think of certain people as being born with more spiritual sensitivity than others. The heroine in the story is named Ona which means oneness. Perhaps she symbolizes the human ability to be receptive to subtle energies of the spirit.

The foreshadowing in the book was done in a story about a little boy who was shunned by the majority but accepted by Ona until she realized that he had an entirely different value system than she did. The image of this boy capturing bees and imprisoning them to die after he ripped of their legs and wings is a sickening image.

The image of Pol Pot's abuse of the Cambodian people is horrible and almost unbelievable. The distorted communism being practiced by Pol Pot and his army was disgusting and incredible. How could human beings treat other human beings in such a manner.

Ona's ability to be aware of and nurture her inner core in spite of the the horrors she suffered is an inspiration. To consider that she went on to inspire other people is a redeeming quality of this book.

In the Epilogue, at the very end of the book Ona is responding to a question about what caused the holocaust in Cambodia. Here is part of what she said:

"Within each of us is a limitless heart. We live in a world that appears to have been here before we arrived, but in truth each of us is already a world. We encompass everything around us, the six directions and all they contain: earth, sky, sun, moon, ocean, stars, and the innumerable beings who suffer to live. The fish swim and the birds fly inside each of us. Everything we encounter as something other than ourselves is but our true self in a myriad of forms, ever changing, ever becoming. Early in our lives, we were taught a world based on what existed before us, but it is the energy of our own life that carries that world forth in time. Therefore the shared world in which we live is not the central one. We are the central one. We are the power by which everything lives.

"Our actions are important not because they will bring us personal gain or loss, but because they will further hide or reveal the truth we are most deeply and fully. We best live when we live for the life that makes all living. Deciding to do this, we will act accordingly, reaching out in compassion to the lives that surround us. What is it? the mind asks. What are you talking about? I can't see it. I can't touch it. I can't hear it. I can't smell or taste or think it. How can I know it? And you might say, "oh yes, it might be something I can't see." And so you go on with that kind of thinking, looking for something you cannot see as if you might see it. As if you're looking for yet another object. But what I am speaking about is never an object. It can never be second to anything.

"Do you want what I am saying to be true? Maybe you think that if what I'm saying is true, your suffering has meaning and everything will turn out okay. Only this is not the case. It is up to you to make your suffering mean something. If no, you live without meaning, for the meaning of your life comes first from your suffering. Our suffering shapes our existence. Even the flower suffers to open its petals so that you may see its beauty. Your suffering is yours and yours only. And you must decide what to do with what belongs to you. You must decide. What will you do with your suffering once you realize how much it belongs to you? How will if affect your relationship with the other.

"Sit still. Turn inward in prayer and meditation. Consider the heart. It has been subjected to such indifference and brutality. It has been taught how to die, not live. The heart must empty itself of grief. The heart must be silent and alert. Then the secret will be revealed. Learn again to think with the heart and give with the heart, no matter how many times you have been hurt. Don't hide the heart like a turtle pulling in its head for fear of being trampled. Only a heart that knows pain can sing, only a heart that knows pain can care. Live in your heart, think with your mind, serve with your body. You must cry, you must laugh, you must live this life, this life that never ends. Taste it and be filled with it. To liberate the heart is the greatest of all human challenges. Spread your heart out. It will not hurt. It is very strong. The whole world is in it: the sky, the ocean, all living beings, all you fear, and all you love."

quoted from pages 171-173 Buddha Wept by Rocco Lo Bosco copyright 2003

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Most literature devoted to the Cambodian holocaust argues that no real recovery is possible for survivors. Though this is certainly true for many, Rocco Lo Bosco's close friendship with a Cambodian survivor, coupled with his own beliefs and the teachings of Gurani Anjali, motivated him to create a strong and passionate counter-statement through Buddah Wept."

The Cambodian holocaust is one of the tragic things that happened in history. Even though it is tragic and very sad I find myself searching for answers and information on the subject. I guess more than anything I seek for understanding.
This book was not too graphic as I was worried it would be. It also ended on a positive note, very surprising considering the event at hand. Bosco is not the best at writing novels, he is a poet by trade, and that shows in the book. But still it was good in my opinion.
Her closing statement, the woman that survived the holocaust, was very powerful to me and has truth to it. I will share my favorite part although there were many good parts:
"Don't think the power of you is far away. It lies waiting just beyond your next thought, your next breath, your next heartbeat. It lies waiting silently in the the silence you cover up with the noise of your days and the dreaming of your nights. When you realize this power your heart becomes gentle. You express knowledge of it as non-violence.
"The greatest expression of knowledge is non-violence. The knower does not wish to harm any living thing in thought, word, or deed. Not because one is afraid to hurt. Not because one was told not to hurt. Not because it is the right thing to do. But because one knows that it is impossible to hurt another without harming one's relationship with one's own life."

[Eriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The surviving tale of a family during the Cambodian Gendocide of Pol Pot. This short novel is powerful, sweet, tender, and deeply humanizing. Not know much about the event, this book has encouraged me to learn more about the less talked about annhilation of a race.

[Diane Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my personal favorites, the author was the yoga instructor at a local studio. This historical fiction places the reader into the life of an amazingly resilient woman caring for her family during the Cambodian Holocaust.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sad tale of one family and the rise of Pol Pot in Cambodia. Centered on one very spiritual girl and her family, the grisly rise of a new regime, capable of unthinkable horrors, is chronicled.