Peter Clothier

By one of those no-coincidence coincidences-I myself am Buddhist enough to believe there are no accidents-I was reading the passage in Ultimate Journey about the Bamiyan Buddhas when news arrived about Taliban intentions to destroy these monumental icons carved in a mountainside in Afghanistan. International hostilities made it impossible for author Richard Bernstein to visit there on his personal mission to recreate the path of the seventh century Chinese monk Hsuan Tsang, who crossed Asia in search of answers to fundamental questions about his Buddhist faith. Yet the paradox of the tragic cultural vulnerability of these two centuries-old sacred images is an apt metaphor for the core experience of Bernstein's book-the vanity of attachments and the impermanence of all things, from a personal life's journey to the tectonic shift of religious, political, and cultural establishments through the centuries.

Long a foreign correspondent in the Far East and more recently a book reviewer for the New York Times, Bernstein is clear that his own purpose differed from Hsuan Tsang's. The monk, he writes, traveled "to achieve the exalted understanding, what he saw as the Ultimate Truth, that alone permits us to achieve the purpose of Buddhism, which is the cessation of otherwise inevitable and inescapable suffering." For himself, more modestly, he notes, "I traveled because I wanted to travel and I thought I would possibly enjoy it." At a deeper level, we discover, he also needed to exorcise a personal demon that drove him always to keep moving, to escape the dreaded stasis of a conventional home life and the commitment of a love relationship, and finally to settle down. Monk and author, it turns out, may not be so very far apart.

In part this book is a travelogue, the story of one man's adventures along The Road of Great Events that marks the often torturous history of Asian peoples between China and the Middle East, from ancient times to present-day regional conflicts. Bernstein's peregrinations include traumatized areas where ideologies are still in conflict, from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India. A keen observer and a writer who easily shifts from the lyrical notation of a colorful urban scene or landscape to the epic breadth of great historical upheavals, Bernstein engages us in the details of a journey to which the religious themes provide the bass line, sometimes subordinated to the ephemeral melodies of geographical detail, historical notes, and philosophical reflections, but never far from the surface. And while Buddhism clearly remains the major thematic focus, it is presented in the historical context of competing religions which vie, often in the form of violent conquest, for the hearts and minds of people. Islam, Taoism, Confucianism, and Hinduism are seen in the inconstant geological and cultural flux of the centuries.

To all this, Bernstein brings the perspective of his own background: "In matters of the spirit," he tells us early on, "I am a Jew, not a Buddhist, though even there the word 'spirit' might be misleading. The truth is that I come to all religion as a skeptic, [….], a strangely religious non-believer, a devout sort of atheist"-a familiarly Jewish perspective that of course aligns him precisely with the spirit of Buddhism itself, as Bernstein is quick to point out: "Both Judaism and Buddhism are intellectual religions," he notes, "requiring not so much acts of faith as the study of the most difficult this-worldly questions. Talmudic Judaism is arguably the most sustained examination of right behavior in history."

As for the monk whose journey he emulates, Bernstein presents him as a sage and scholar whose need to answer ultimate questions sets him forth on his unbelievably arduous and hazardous pilgrimage through deserts, mountain passes, and bandit country to the source, the birthplace of the Buddha, the place of enlightenment, and the intellectual wellspring of the dharma. It was here that Hsuan Tsang came, as Bernstein sees it, to debate the Great Question that follows on all other questions (and a Talmudic one, to boot!): "If all is illusion, then isn't the very belief that all is illusion an illusion as well?"

Around this paradox swirl the elements of Bernstein's narrative of the great vanities of human history: religious beliefs that harden into intolerance and hatred; the lust for temporal power that transforms into violence, conquest, and genocide; and the quest for beauty and for the sacred, whose dark side manifests as the desecration of great works of art such as those at Bamiyan. On the more intimate scale, the journey allows him to resolve his inner battle, surrendering to a calmer embrace of life and love on his return. Ultimate Journey is an engaging read, a trek that rewards with its rich historical background and its intelligent insights.

--More from Peter Clothier: articles, art reviews, art catalogues, book reviews, and essays.

Peter Clothier also offers creativity coaching and mentoring for writers, artists, and men as well as various workshopsand lecture appearances.