Lunch with Buddha
(Book)

Sequel to: Breakfast with Buddha.

Includes readers' guide and discussion questions.

Otto Ringling and his sister Cecelia could not be more different. He's just turned 50, an editor of food books at a prestigious New York publishing house, a man with a nice home in the suburbs, children he adores, and a sense of himself as being a mainstream, upper-middle-class American. Cecelia is the last thing from mainstream. For two decades she's made a living reading palms and performing past-life regressions. She believes firmly in our ability to communicate with those who have passed on. It will turn out, however, that they have more in common than just their North Dakota roots. when Otto faces what might be the greatest of life's difficulties, it is Cecelia who knows how to help him. As she did years earlier, Celia arranges for her brother to travel with Volya Rinpoche, a famous spiritual teacher -- who now also happens to be her husband. After the family gathers for an important event, Otto and Rinpoche make a road trip in a rattling pickup from Seattle to the family farm in North Dakota. Along the way the brothers-in-law have a series of experiences -- some hilarious, some poignant -- aimed at bringing Otto a deeper peace of mind. They visit American landmarks; they have a variety of meals, both excellent and awful; they meet a cast of minor characters, each of whom enables Rinpoche to impart some new spiritual lesson. In the end, with the help of their miraculous daughter, Shelsa, and the prodding of Otto's own almost-adult children, Rinpoche and Cecelia push this middle-of-the-road American into a more profound understanding of the purpose of his life.