Lone Ranger and Tonto Meet Buddha

Peter Coyote is an award-winning actor, author, director, screenwriter, and narrator who has worked with some of the world’s most distinguished filmmakers. Recognized for his narration work, he narrated the PBS series The Pacific Century, winning an Emmy Award, as well as eight Ken Burns documentaries, including The Roosevelts, for which he won a second Emmy. In 2011 he was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest and in 2015 received “transmission” from his teacher, making him an independent Zen teacher. The author of several books, he lives in northern California.

“Remembering that a neutral mask class in college was one of the few acting exercises I found really useful, I was curious to see how an accomplished actor like Peter Coyote would tie mask work to the tenets of Buddhist philosophy. Through the lens of the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Coyote cleverly conveys the message of finding oneself by losing oneself. I highly recommend this book to every actor--veteran or fledgling--indeed to every human who has ever felt constrained by the voices of self-criticism in their head.”

• AUTHOR’S PREFACE A True Holiday from Self-Consciousness PART ONE Finding the Secrets 1 Losing Myself2 The Wheel’s Spinning, but the Gerbil’s Gone 3 Working with Masks 4 Just Who Do You Think You Are? 5 Tricking and Trapping the Self 6 Inviting the Shock of Recognition7 You Think It’s a Game? Try It! 8 The Imaginary Performance PART TWOKeeping Your Learning Accessible 9 The Devil You Know 10 Masked in a Hall of Mirrors 11 More on Meditation and Masks 12 The Masks of Language13 Seeing for the First Time 14 Buddha’s Empty Hands 15 The Devil You Don’t Know 16 Even Buddha Can Betray You 17 Locating and Listening to Your True Self PostscriptAcknowledgments Notes Suggested Reading Index