Saltwater Buddha

by Jaimal Yogis

Zen and Buddhism have often found a resonance with surfing ideals and way of life and enjoyed a mystique in surfing lingo, graphics and in films. This book melds Zen insights with surf wisdom and stories in a clear, confiding, and frequently humerous voice. Fed up with his suburban teenage life, at age sixteen Jaimal Yogis ran off to Hawaii with little more than a copy of Hermann Hesse's book Siddhartha and enough cash for a surfboard. His wandering, searching journey is a coming-of-age tale that takes him from Hawaiian communes to French monasteries to the icy New York shore. Equal parts spiritual memoir and surfer's tale, this is his chronicle of finding meditative focus in the barrel of a wave. Trying to find Zen in the rhythmic crashing of waves, Jaimal eventually discovers something of eternal truth in the great salty blue.