![[white text in rows that reads rick fields, how the swans came to the lake in three lines, fortieth anniversary edition, and light yellow text that reads a narrative history of buddhism in america below the swans text line, all over a dark blue background with red and white fish swimming diagonally down across at the top, surrounded by green lotus leaves and a single pink lotus flower at the top]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/how-the-swans-came-to-the-lake-40th-edition-book-cover.jpg)
Rick Fields’ classic narrative history of Buddhism in America is back in print with a new introduction by Benjamin Bogin, director of Asian Studies at Skidmore College. As Buddhist traditions continue to expand and evolve in the 21st century, this key work offers a substantive reference for a new generation of readers.
Fields set the stage with a journalistic description of July 4, 1976, the Bicentennial of the founding of the United States. Starting with a key event in the history of Buddhism in America, the dedication ceremony at the first traditional Japanese Zen monastery in North America, Dai Bosatsu Zendo in upstate New York, attended by many of the leading teachers of the various Buddhist traditions; then a mention of the appearance that day of Tibetan Buddhist teacher Dudjom Rinpoche on the WBAI radio program In the Spirit; and finally a description of the participation of over 2,000 Soka Gakai members in the Bicentennial Parade down Fifth Avenue in New York—this panoramic view of the day, an important milestone in the nation, immediately promised a presentation of the Buddhist history in America that went beyond all previous expectations, and would chronicle the intersection of the two over the two centuries.
Fields was a key figure in all that followed. The first edition of the book was published in 1981 after over five years of work, and he went on to serve as editor-in-chief of The Vajradhatu Sun which became what is now Lion’s Roar. He was a contributing editor for New Age Journal, a founding director of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review (where he served as editor-at-large), went on to be editor-in-chief of Yoga Journal, and was an early member of the team that founded Buddhist Film Foundation. His other books include The Code of the Warrior; Chop Wood Carry Water (co-author); The Turquoise Bee (with Brian Cutillo); Instructions to the Cook (with Bernie Glassman); Taking Refuge in LA (with photos by Don Farber); The Awakened Warrior; and Fuck You Cancer, and Other Poems. He died in 1999 after a long battle with lung cancer.
Besides the extensive and personal new introduction by Bogin (who is Fields’ nephew) which reflects on the impact of the book and addresses the significant changes in the Buddhist landscape since, there are new and enhanced photographs, and an expanded index. The book is available from local booksellers, and the publisher, Shambhala Publications.
![[black and white photo of young man with tied back long dark hair, wearing a thick light colored sweater with dark pattern, with left arm around an older man in woolen hat, light sweater, down vest, and sunglasses, both smiling and gazing to camera with treetops, mountains, and a strip of white clouds in an otherwise clear sky in the background]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/rick-benji.jpg)
Benjamin Bogin with Rick Fields
“Heroic in scope and of undeniable historic importance.” –Los Angeles Times
“This fascinating book delivers more than it promises. It takes the reader from the origins of Buddhism right up to the immediate past, through Buddhism’s growth and spread in Asia to the personalities that opened it up to the West and those that brought it to America as well as those who were affected by Buddhism or nurtured it here. Fields possesses a clear style and infectious enthusiasm for his subject.” –Library Journal
“The definitive treatment of the impact of Buddhism on American thought.” –Roderick Frazier Nash, Professor of History & Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
“I found this engaging book literally crammed with the sort of lively and accurate information which I had for years been longing to find assembled. The leading characters emerge with a quality of independence and individuation that certainly dispels any stereotype of the Buddhist practitioner, teacher, or layman.” –Nancy Wilson Ross, The Washington Post
“Reflections on the Lake” by Benjamin Bogin.(Tricycle Spring 2022)
Black and white photograph courtesy Marcia Cohen Fields.
Home page photograph of Dai Bosatsu Zendo gathering © Gaetano Kazuo Maida.
