Review of ‘The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons’

As a big nerd, I was thrilled to discover the book ‘The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons’ by David Loy and Linda Goodhew and was double-thrilled when Joe from Wisdom Publications send along a copy for me to check out.

First off, this book doesn’t require you to be a Buddhist scholar or have read all of the Sci Fi/ Fantasy works cited such as: J.R.R Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings‘, Phillip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ Trilogy, Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘Earthsea’ series, Michael Ende’s ‘Momo’ and the anime film “Princess Mononoke”. The authors provide enough of a background to familiarize readers with the general themes of each piece so as not to alienate anyone from appreciating both their connection with Buddhism themes.

Loy and Goodhew examine concepts such as interdependence, renunciation, working with others, Boddhisattvic activity, karma, morality, right view, the suffering of change, the Middle Way, dualistic thinking, ecoBuddhism, letting go, life and death, selflessness, suffering, craving and our notions of reality among other topics.

“The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons” delves into the magical worlds created by these artists and provides a successful entertaining demonstration of how a segment of popular literature can be examined through a Buddhist lens. I appreciate the character analysis throughout this book and enjoy how various Buddhist masters are cited in the development of the authors thesis for each chapter.

The integration of Buddhism and Western culture is a hot topic these days and this book demonstrates how this can be successfully done by drawing on works from throughout the ages and not just those from the present day. It’s best for us not to throw the Buddha out with the bathwater in the blending of age-old dharma into that which is now hitting the bookshelves. I congratulate the authors in remaining true to the old-school works while exposing us nerds to a different way of looking at some of our favourite sci-fi/fantasy works