Dreamers and Their Shadows

Two ancient scrolls, The Secret Annals, are discovered in the 1950's in a Tokyo bombsite. They purport to be the history of an unknown 15th-Century Japanese spiritual teacher who, in a time of social chaos, sets out to establish enlightened society. He begins his teaching saying: "Abstinence is no path at all. We are gambling on true love. It is an untested path." In documents from students and spies, the Annals then give an intimate portrait of a charismatic leader, his teachings and the transformative journey he shares with his eccentric band of followers. The scrolls are unmasked as forgeries, but ten years later, a retired professor becomes obsessed. Who created this hoax? And why? To the professor the Annals offer new possibilities from a kind of parallel reality. On his deathbed, he makes his American assistant promise to continue searching and to translate the scrolls. The assistant moves to New York. It is the time of the Vietnam war and the counter-culture. He has doubts about the professor, but the world of the Secret Annals begins to seep into his life. He finds within the Prince's teaching a path through this world of trackless uncertainty. Tantalized, he senses a new world of passionate intensity just within reach. **************************************** "A compelling, passionate evocation, an ethos of the imagination, a new kind of metaphoric history, DREAMERS AND THEIR SHADOWS channels a chorus of intimacies in a chronicle of age-old conflicts." - Gaetano Kazuo Maeda, Founding Director - International Buddhist Film Festival and Festival Media *************************************** "This incredibly beautiful and unique. DREAMERS AND THEIR SHADOWS entices the reader into rich new worlds of understanding and enjoyment." - William Osborne, composer, author, journalist and, with Abbie Conant, founder of The Wasteland Company.
About the Author: Douglas Penick was a research associate at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies. He studied and practiced Tibetan Buddhism for more than 35 years. He has written and taught on Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian religion, history and culture. He wrote the National Film Board of Canada's prize winning two part series on the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the libretti for two operas: KING GESAR (Sony CD w/ Ma, Serkin, Ax et. al.) and ASHOKA'S DREAM (Santa Fe Opera) with composer, Peter Lieberson. He is the author of three books deriving from the epic cycle on the life of King Gesar of Ling: WARRIOR SONG OF KING GESAR, CROSSINGS ON A BRIDGE OF LIGHT, and THE BRILLIANCE OF NAKED MIND. His novel about the 3rd Ming Emperor, A JOURNEY OF THE NORTH STAR was published last year by Publerati.