My Buddhist Christmas by Jeremy Phillips
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Release Date: September 8, 2015
Buy Links:
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Book Description:
It’s not surprising that sixteen year old Chris Jones has no idea where he fits in…
After all, he’s a Buddhist kid in America—during the Christmas season. Add in the fact he plays guitar in a punk rock band called The Dharma Bhumz, and his life is one giant paradox. Caught between the principles of his religion and the influence of his hard-partying bandmates, Chris is in a constant struggle for balance.
An upcoming talent show is his chance to shine—or fail spectacularly…
It’s already hard enough preparing for the show, since his friends are more interested in getting high than practicing. And now Chris has to worry about impressing pretty Mary Simpson. To make matters even worse, Mary’s parents are fundamentalist Christians, a few steps above his family on the social ladder, and they firmly believe Chris isn’t good enough for their precious daughter.
Conflicted about his friends, lying to his family, and still mourning a devastating loss, Chris wonders if being an American Buddhist guitar wizard wanna-be is worth it.
Or does any of it even matter anymore? .
“So doesn’t it bother you?” I shudder, thinking of ending up like one of the various invalids that my father takes care of. Not to run and play anymore, or even to have proper control of your own bowels. Perhaps it would be better to lose your mind, like the one old fellow I’d seen earlier, staring blindly off into space. Only, perhaps that would be worse.
All of a sudden, I realize that what’s been bothering me is the Buddha’s so-called First Noble Truth, the one that set him onto the path of trying to find Enlightenment—Awakening, Satori, that type of stuff—in the first place.
This is the First Noble Truth set into flesh, in the bodies of a hundred different examples, scattered in the building all around me. The Truth of Suffering, that all who are born will come to suffer, at least once in their lifetime, from the unhappy triple curse of sickness, old age, and death.
I feel trapped. I know that I ought to just leave. I ought to just ditch the whole ridiculous Dharma Bhumz thing, despite what the other kids at school will say, despite all the fliers that are up around the building with my picture on it.
I know that being the only straight one, the only one who cares enough about our band to keep trying to get it back on track, is only going to be a lot of irritating and frustrating work. To try to stay will be foolish. But, at the same time, I know that I can’t do anything else but stay.
Author Bio:
My first novel will be available on September 8th, 2015. It's a Young Adult fiction story called: My Buddhist Christmas.
I enjoyed the excerpt, thank you.
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