Entry 2 I have read through the tenth chapter and just now in the eleventh chapter, I understand why the book is called Breakfast with Buddha. Rinpoche offers to answer one of Otto’s personal or spiritual questions each morning at breakfast before the depart on the road for the day’s travels. I’m not sure why it is only one question, but I guess that Rinpoche knows a lot about spirituality and it would probably take a really long time to explain everything at once. Regardless of how Rinpoche decided on the one question a day offer, he said, “You can ask me now any question and I will give you a wesson...I am guru. I know other things than you. You should ask. Every morning at breakfast I let you ask one question”(75-76). Rinpoche poses his …show more content…
As Otto with Rinpoche in tow approach Ohio on their cross country road trip, they get a note in the mail from Otto’s sister saying that he has to attend some speaking events along the way. Otto is upset because the events take them out of their way and will make the trip longer, but he is also really uncomfortable with the idea of Rinpoche in the role of famous and important teacher. Otto is so weirded out by the idea of people choosing to spend time and to learn from this man who he only grudgingly tolerates that he refuses to stay for the talk, “I had not sat down, was not intending to stay for the talk. Even when I saw how enticing the options were for an hour of strolling in downtown Youngstown near dusk, I didn’t feel like staying” (105). The fact that Otto would rather sit in his car in Youngstown, Ohio, which is described as a prime example of urban decay and poverty, just shows how Otto is completely close minded about his spirituality. He can’t even bear to question his way of life or his own authority over his spirituality. However, Otto misreads the timing of the talk and thinks that it is over so he walks in and has to listen to the last questions of the question and answer portion. Seeing Rinpoche in this position of authority with his followers reverently listening to him, Otto’s closed mind just begins to open, “I had not seen that look from him in our time together. And when he started to speak I realized it was in a voice that I had not heard from him either, His command of the language was stronger, but it was something more than that, a certain force, a charisma I had missed.” (108). When Otto says that he must have “missed” the power and charisma that Rinpoche was exhibiting, it shows that he is starting to see the spiritual guru in a different light. He sort of