Eternal Becoming

This book is a spiritual journey in the purest sense of the term: throughout the story, the reader follows Bodhi, a young man who has gone with the Peace Corps to Africa, as he attempts to find some meaning in life and the world. After facing the sort of philosophical disillusionment many young people face around their college years, he has a revelation under a baobab tree. While in the world of the story this revelation may take only a few seconds or minutes of meditation, in Bodhi’s mind it likely lasts hours, taking him from meeting ancient Greek philosophers to encountering modern atheistic thinkers, along with influential voices from Christianity and Eastern religions.

The story serves not only as a chronicle of a spiritual journey but as a sort of introduction to many philosophies. While some of the arguments produced feel rather simplistic, to go into more detail would likely have taken up too much space and drawn the reader too far from the story of Bodhi’s journey. Even within this simplicity, however, there are moments of incredible truth that made me sit back from the book and think about what I knew. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the book changed my life, but I do believe it has changed me in some small way, though I may not entirely understand the change yet.

The book did feel rather dry at times, but it isn’t meant to be something that keeps you eagerly turning pages. I think the book should be taken as something of a meditative experience, to be lingered over and pondered. Leave it on a side table, perhaps, and pick it up when you feel you need something to consider. Some portions will stir your emotions, but others will calm them, and you won’t be able to walk away without something to consider. Whether you have gone through your own philosophical disillusionment or not, you will be able to easily follow Bodhi through his, and you may well find your own ideas about the world changing.