I love the idea of Robert Thurman, but confess that I find his books impenetrable. Some of his writing I find downright strange. In "Inner Revolution," he claims that the European renaissance may have come about because of the good spiritual vibrations emanating from Tibet. In "Circling the Sacred Mountain," he and his co-author compare the sacred Mountain of Kailash not once, but twice, to a "cum-covered" phallus. Now maybe that's some sort of tantric thing, but I think it is weird.

Many in the west love the romantic idea of Tibetan buddhism, but the study of the actual teachings and practices leaves one with the conclusion that this is not really what we want in our buddhist searchings. It is all too supernatural, tied down to gods, personalities, realms and cosmology.

I have not yet read any histories of Tibetan society before the Chinese invasion, but when I do so how disillusioned while I be?