Probably the first book I ever read about Buddhism was Janwillem van de Wetering’s The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery.  It made a deep and lasting impression on me, although he later, characteristically, published a much more critical view on those same experiences in afterzen: Experiences of a Zen Student Out on His Ear.  So I was saddened to read in the Times that he had died on 4 July.

It turns out — I didn’t know this — that he was also the author of a successful series of Dutch detective novels, based in part on his experiences as an Amsterdam cop.  His literary agent reported that he lived in Surry, Maine (which is pretty much the best place to live, if you ask me) and used to sail up and down the Maine coast in an old lobster boat.  He also wrote children’s books featuring a porcupine named Hugh Pine (possibly a play on Bill Porter?)

Besides his family, all that — the Zen monastery, the Amsterdam cop, the novels, the Maine lobsterboat — adds up to a rich, enviable life, one that will be hard to top next time.