How the West was Won

Living in postwar Poland, a hotbed of violent anti-Semitism, wasn't exactly easy for the writer's parents, either. In 1949, they made their way to St. Paul, moving to St. Louis Park nine years later. "I really enjoyed growing up in St. Louis Park," Sutin says. "I was one of those rare kids who really liked the 'school' part of high school." After attending a few different colleges, Sutin ultimately collected a law degree from Harvard and made his way back to Minnesota.

"I've never sat down and gone, 'what can I do that's unusual?'", he says as we settle into a pair of director's chairs in the very back of the labyrinthine shop, on the far end of a few fox stoles and within easy grabbing distance of The Rumsfeld Way and The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook. "There's no sense writing about something unless you really care about it. Buddhism has been a pleasure read of mine all my life. To a certain extent, I felt that I had lived through a period of great Buddhist expansion in the West. I noticed that, whenever people talked about Buddhism in the West, they talked about the last 40 years or so. I had inklings that the contacts went back way farther. I wasn't the first person to address the subject, but it was like a big box of candy to me."

All Is Change certainly doesn't lack for confections. The book touches briefly on East/West interactions dating back to the days of the historical Buddha, Siddhattha Gotama—who, by most accounts, lived between 563 BCE and 483 BCE. But Sutin's survey hits its stride when Catholic missionaries start traveling to China, Japan, and India during the Middle Ages. Given their intent, it's not surprising that the accounts of Buddhist life they brought back to Europe were tainted by prejudice and, often as not, a profound lack of comprehension. The same shortcomings persist even now, when, according to the author, Buddhism has approximately two million adherents in the United States alone.

The practice, for instance, does not necessarily match the placid and harmless image it enjoys in the West. Sutin recounts the exploits of India's first Buddhist king (originally dubbed "Akosha the Wicked" for his early fratricidal tendencies), who had extensive contacts with the Greek world. And he reminds the reader of the escapades of Vidyahara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the brilliant Tibetan teacher and unabashed lush who founded Boulder, Colorado's Naropa Institute back when the 14th Dalai Lama was still working on his English. "Trungpa was amazing for how quickly he adapted to the needs of Western students," says Sutin; he also, it should be said, fulfilled his own sexual appetites. "He was a great teacher," Sutin says. "If you want a cardboard saint, go find one. Trungpa became sort of a scandal-sheet item here, but within the Buddhist tradition he wasn't doing anything that hadn't been done before."

In a similar spirit, All Is Change recounts the experiences of 16th-century Singon monks who caught holy hell from Xavier Loyola for regularly bonking their students. Every time the Catholic theologian exhorted them to abandon their sinful ways, the monks would giggle profusely.

While unaffiliated with any particular belief system, Sutin respects them all—including Aleister Crowley's system of ceremonial magic. But extensive knowledge of esoteric lore hasn't prevented him from leading a relentlessly normal life, complete with wife of 18 years, three kids, and an enduring love of baseball.

"I often listen to baseball while writing," he says. "I love the slowness of the game, its elegance, the fact that players come in all shapes and sizes. I like that you don't have to be 6'10"."

Bearing the remaining bars, Fluffy catches up with us at the end of the aisle, in a zone rich with animal-related doodads and liquor decanters. She sets them down on a brass serving tray with an elephant foot base. "What kind of hors d'oeuvres do you serve on an elephant-foot hors d'oeuvre tray?" she asks. "Dodo ears? Pygmy toes? I'm not sure. But if I look hard enough, I might be able to find some in this place."

"I've noticed that the value of bric-a-brac is very stable in the long run," says Sutin as we head down the aisle beneath a draping of fox stoles. "That's all I ask for: stability and a little laugh every now and then."