Marking a significant departure from Cicero's fictional and poetic works, Blood-Soaked Buddha/Hard Earth Pascal is a lucid philosophical treatise. Rather than entertain dogma, Cicero approaches a discussion of Buddhism from the refreshing perspective of the everyman, providing a profound spiritual analysis as well as a sharp critique of capitalism. There are even some pretty good ghost stories. 

"Buddhism isn’t for scholars and priests and masters. It’s not a religion. It’s for anyone who wants to find a better way. It’s practical, it’s logical, it’s sensible and it’s real. Just like this book.

"Far too many books about Buddhism get bogged down in scholarly doublespeak. Others are full of far-fetched fantasies. Noah’s book isn’t like that. It’s a real book for real people." - Brad Warner, Author of Hardcore Zen.

Noah Cicero was born in a field in Ohio. He had an unhappy childhood in a town with one red light, one convenience store, and several churches. To tolerate reality he would take long walks in the forest behind his house. In the forest he could think. The trees did not judge him. When Noah was 15 years old he started liking books. His high school principal gave him copies of Emerson’s Self-Reliance and Thoreau’s Walden. At the age of 23, after a trip to the mental ward, Noah Cicero wrote The Human War, which has been made into a movie and translated many times. Since then he has written many books of fiction, traveled to 43 States, lived in Asia, and traveled to South America. Noah has never been to Europe. He thinks this defines him in some way. After a traumatic incident in 2013, Noah lost his mind. He was trapped, snowed in on a mountain in the forests of Oregon, with nothing but a copy of Bodhidhara’s Teachings. After reading Bodhidharma, Noah dropped to his knees and said “Thank you, Hasheim.”

ISBN: 978-0-999-2499-0-1

Pages: 191

Publication: 2017