The Dharma of "The Princess Bride": What the Coolest Fairy Tale of our Time Can Teach Us About Buddhism and Relationships; Ethan Nichtern

An engagingly contemporary approach to Buddhism―through the lens of an iconic film and its memorable charactersHumorous yet spiritually rigorous in the tradition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and The Tao of Pooh , drawing from pop culture and from personal experience, The Dharma of “The Princess Bride ” teaches us how to understand and navigate our most important personal relationships from a twenty-first-century Buddhist perspective.Friendship. Romance. Family. These are the three areas Ethan Nichtern delves into, taking as departure points the indelible characters from Rob Reiner’s perennially popular film―Westley, Fezzik, Vizzini, Count Rugen, Princess Buttercup, and others―as he also draws lessons from his own life and his work as a meditation teacher. Nichtern devotes the first section of the book to exploring the dynamics of friendship. Why do people become friends? What can we learn from the sufferings of Inigo Montoya and Fezzik? Next, he leads us through all the phases of illusion and disillusion we encounter in our romantic pursuits, providing a healthy dose of lightheartedness along the way by sharing his own Princess Buttercup List and the vicissitudes of his dating life as he ponders how we idealize and objectify romantic love. Finally, Nichtern draws upon the demands of his own family history and the film’s character the Grandson to explore the dynamics of “the last frontier of awakening,” a reference to his teacher Chogyam Trungpa’s claim that it’s possible to be enlightened everywhere except around your family.With The Dharma of “The Princess Bride ” in hand, we can set out on the path to contemporary Buddhist enlightenment with the most important relationships in our lives. September 12, 2017   About the Author Ethan Nichtern is a senior Buddhist teacher. He is the author of The Road Home: A Contemporary Exploration of the Buddhist Path (FSG Books, North Point, 2015) and One City: A Declaration of Interdependence (Wisdom Publications, 2007). He is also the founder and former director of The Interdependence Project, an organization dedicated to Buddhist-inspired meditation and psychology, transformational activism, mindful arts, and meaningful media. He teaches and lectures around the world and is based in New York City.