i think teddy is preachy and one would think that salinger would respect his desired audience enough not to spoon feed them his thoughts on buddhism. but who really knows, maybe no one was getting it and he wanted to through out some hints at the time... I don't know that's for sure. But i do know that after i read Teddy i was more interested than before about buddhism - and if the story is about provoking interest, or for propaganda, then it worked on me. stephen