The Buddha and the Bard: Where Shakespeare’’s Stage Meets Buddhist Scriptures

What does Shakespeare have to teach us about mindfulness? What Eastern spiritual views about death, love, and presence are reflected in the writings of The Bard? The Buddha and the Bard reveals the surprising connections between the 2,500-year-old spiritual leader and the most compelling writer of all time.

＂Shufran’s compelling juxtapositions will encourage the reader to ask the deepest questions of themselves while delighting in the play of resonances across a cultural and historical divide.＂ - YOGA Magazine

Shakespeare understood and represented the human condition better than any writer of his time. As for the Buddha, he saw how to liberate us from that condition. Author Lauren Shufran explores the fascinating interplay of Western drama and Eastern philosophy by pairing quotes from Shakespeare with the tenets of an Eastern spiritual practice, sparking a compelling dialogue between the two. There’s a remarkable interchange of echoes between Shakespeare’s conception of ＂the inward man＂ and Buddhist approaches to recognizing, honoring, and working with our humanness as we play out our roles on the ＂stage＂ of our lives.

The Buddha and the Bard synthesizes literature and scripture, embodied drama and transcendent practice, to shape a multifaceted lyric that we can apply as mindful practice in our own lives. Shufran’s compelling juxtapositions will encourage the reader to ask the deepest questions of themselves while delighting in the play of resonances across a cultural and historical divide.

DAILY INSPIRATION: Dip into The Buddha and the Bard for insight and inspiration whenever it’s needed.

SURPRISING CONNECTIONS: Reveals links from the ＂theatricality＂ of human incarnation to the ＂great globe＂ that both Shakespeare and the Buddha gently guide us to remember is already within.

THOUGHTFUL GIFT: A beautiful gift for lovers of Shakespeare and followers of Buddha alike.

EXPERT AUTHOR: Poet and former University of California instructor Lauren Shufran has studied and taught literature and Shakespeare, informed by her personal yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practices, for more than 8 years.

Insight Editions is a publisher of illustrated books on photography, music, and popular culture. Elegant and informative, their books showcase the best of art, photography, and design in exquisite presentations of the bookmaker’s craft. They are located in San Rafael, CA.

Lauren Shufran holds an MA (English) and an MFA (Creative Writing: Poetry) from San Francisco State University, and a PhD (Early Modern British Literature) from UC Santa Cruz.

In her eight years of PhD candidacy at UCSC she taught a wide range of courses, from creative writing to Biblical Poetics in Renaissance England to The English Sonnet Sequence; but Shakespeare was the course she taught most consistently. She discovered yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practices while writing her dissertation.

Lauren’s first major publication was a book of poetry called Inter Arma (Fence Books, 2013), which won the Motherwell Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Best American Experimental Writing (Wesleyan University Press), as well as in Postmodern Culture, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Emerge: An Anthology of Writing by Lambda Fellows, and elsewhere over the years. She’s also had scholarly essays published in a handful of peer-reviewed journals.

Lauren presently works as a ghostwriter and content strategist for a startup in San Francisco.