The Way of Solomon: Finding Joy and Contentment in the Wisdom of Ecclesiastes

The Way of Solomon: Finding Joy and Contentment in the Wisdom of Ecclesiastes is Rami Shapiro's new interpretation of one of the Bible's oldest books. Shapiro's fascination with Ecclesiastes began when he discovered that the Hebrew word commonly translated as "vanity" could also mean "empty." For Shapiro, this discovery added a new and Eastern dimension to Solomon's famous line, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" and drove Shapiro to engage the book of Ecclesiastes in a holistic way. "Solomon looked and saw that all was empty of permanence; and that so much of our energies are invested in a pursuit of permanence that is doomed from the start. Ecclesiastes is his report of his journey to the heart of reality, and his insights into how we should live given the facts of life's impermanence. The only way to do justice to the text is to follow its author in looking at reality," he explains. The Way of Solomon includes Shapiro's translation of Ecclesiastes, notes from his wide-ranging research on the text, and reflections on his practice of meditation with Ecclesiastes. In Shapiro's hands, Ecclesiastes becomes something that many, many Christians are looking for these days--a kind of missing link between Buddhism and Christianity.