BOOKS

O

Detroit's Volume Honda Dealer

WHY BUY HERE

The Sound Of Silence

1. SATURDAY SALES & SERVICE
2. FREE LOANER CARS•
3. LOWEST PRICES
We Will Not Be
Undersold!

In his new book, writer David A. Cooper
suggests going on retreat, even if you can't
leave home.

IRA RIFKIN

Special to The Jewish News

T

FERNDALE

CI ID A mill

21350 WOODWARD • FERNDALE
(3 Blks N. of 8 Mile Rd.) 548-6300

*some restrictions may apply. See dealer for details.

eyo

A classic chair rail...

A unique chair to bump
the rail...

A special room for the
chair that bumps the rail...

Uncommon woodwork and
trim for the exceptional
home around the room that
holds the chair that bumps
the rail.

Timeless design...
Installation that endures.

Call Bruno Trentacost to view
our portfolio. 10 years of
designs and installations.
From one-of-a-kind pieces to
complete trim and woodwork
for many exclusive, fine
homes.

(313) 628-1406

theboaldlwilik

Orchard Lake Rd., South of Maple, West Bloomfield

Breast
self-examination —
LEARN. Call us.

i'AMERICAN

SOCIEW
CANCER.

• I A _

here are stories that
transcend traditions
by humorously impar-
ting bits of wisdom through
a central figure who plays
the fool. It's a lode that
writer Isaac Bashevis Singer
mined masterfully.
David A. Cooper, a one-
time Washington political
consultant who chucked the
fast lane to write books on
the spiritual process, likes to
tell one such story that has
its origins in the Middle
East — albeit the Middle
East of Islam's mystical Sufi
tradition. It's about a
character named Nasrudin
and his search for a missing
key.
One dark night a neighbor
comes across Nasrudin sear-
ching for his key beneath a
street lamp and pauses to
ask him whether he's sure
that's where he lost it.
Nasrudin says no; the key
was lost elsewhere. Then
why look here? asks the con-
fused neighbor. Because no
light shines where the key
was actually lost, and
without light his chances of
finding the key are nil,
Nasrudin explains.
Beneath the absurdity of
the story is a lesson. For Mr.
Cooper, the lesson is the
need to question the efficacy
of looking for easy answers
to life's difficult questions.
And for Mr. Cooper, the most
difficult questions of all are
spiritual in nature and are
best wrestled with away
from the distracting glare of
everyday life.
"Daily life is so filled with
survival and maintenance,
with the profane, that it
leaves us with no time to
access the inner sense of
knowing that we all
possess," Mr. Cooper said.
"We need a sense of separa-
tion — of retreat from daily
life — to give this inner
sense a chance to be heard.
Going on retreat. For most
people, the word conjures up
images of ascetic withdrawal
to the mountains or desert;
something entirely foreign
to contemporary America's
fast-paced, hyper-stimulated
lifestyle.
Moreover, for Jews the
idea may also be colored by a
concern that going on
retreat is something that

Christians, Buddhists or
even New Agers may do —
but not Jews, at least not
since the days of the Essenes
or the Baal Shem Tov.
Mr. Cooper's recently
published first book — Si-
lence, Simplicity and
Solitude: A Guide for Spiri-
tual Retreat (Bell Tower
Books) — is an attempt to
counter both those percep-
tions. A second volume on
the subject, The Heart of
Stillness: The Elements of
Spiritual Discipline, for the
more advanced, will be
published by Bell Tower in
the fall.
Like Mr. Copper, Silence,
Simplicity and Solitude is
eclectic in its reach and
ecumenical in its outlook.
But it also has "a very

"We don't need to
go off in search of a
teacher. The
teacher is not out
there somewhere,
but within each of
us."

David A. Cooper

strong Jewish undercur-
rent," said the 53-year-old
Mr. Cooper, whose own level
of Jewish ritual observance
is Orthodox, even if his ap-
proach is not.
"I wanted to let my fellow
Jews, as well as the rest of
the world, know that
Judaism is a deeply spiritual
path," he said during a re-
cent visit to the Baltimore
area.
Moreover, said Mr. Cooper
— who now lives near
Boulder, Colo., after spen-
ding most of the past decade
in Jerusalem — Judaism has
a built-in bias in favor of
retreats.
"The beauty of Judaism is
that we're told to take one
day a week —Shabbos — for
retreat from daily life," Mr.
Cooper said. "The very ar-
chetype of the spiritual
retreat in Western theology
is based on the image of
Moses going up on Mt.
Sinai."
Mr. Cooper's book begins
with an overview of the role
that spiritual retreats have
played in Buddhism, Chris-
tianity, Hinduism, Islam
and Judaism. However, his
emphasis is on the Western

