Buying Buddha, Selling Rumi
Orientalism and the Mystical Marketplace

This is an excellent book to explore the commodification of "the wisdom of the East" from Buddhism to Sufism. The writer uses the concept of "muddled orientalism" to capture the process of making a hot-pot of non-Western religions, practices and concepts. Yet, the book suffers from repetition, and i......more

An overview of religion-as-mystical-product in the United States (and to a certain extent Western Europe). There’s a strange combination of repetitive notes (a particular poor translation of Rumi is mentioned so often that I wished I’d kept a running tally) alongside such a broad scope that we don’t......more

Dnfing but I read a lot before I called it off so I’m counting it! I see why this book is valuable and necessary. The commodification of eastern cultures and religious that make people in the west a lot of money is gross and so common. We need to call it out. But we do not need to repeat the same th......more

It's impossible to not be outraged by this book. It invokes white guilt over the cherished practice of yoga and all our favorite movies among other things. I like how the book calls out religious freeloaders sampling the buffet of world religions, skimming the surface and leaving the substance. I hat......more