Readers may not remember every word of this useful book, but its eloquent ideas should satisfy an audience seeking...
A book provides messages to help readers maintain calmness amid the many external and internal factors that stand in the way.
In this collection of personal stories and the insights gleaned from them, Shapiro (Tilting Toward Chaos, 2016) shares the conclusions she’s reached about how to become and stay tranquil. She first discusses how to face and embrace inevitable change, when “the world seems to tilt” around you. Drawing on her own experiences with traumatic shifts as well as those of acquaintances, she promotes courage in the face of fear; flexibility and adaptability; and the acquisition of a “yes, and…” attitude of acknowledging setbacks but moving forward optimistically. Next, she encourages readers to develop the skill of mindfulness, becoming aware of the stories they tell themselves and others. This can help free them from the expectations and limitations that are often placed on them by the outside world or (more often) themselves. She discusses the power of thoughts and the need to incorporate compassion into language, both in monologues and conversations. Finally, she shares her concept of alignment and suggests simple exercises and principles to help a person stay centered. Though this book offers a breadth of subjects, the content is extremely worthwhile and well-presented. Each chapter begins with a perfectly fitting and intriguing quote and ends with a stimulating “Awareness Question” tied to the chapter’s topic, such as: “Envision coming upon two conflicting parts of yourself while walking down the street. Extend your arms in welcome, encircling them both. What do you feel in this inclusive embrace?” The volume’s organization, however, could be enhanced by introducing each section with a concrete description of the following chapters’ main ideas, which would help audiences understand and recall what they read. Still, Shapiro uses a variety of effective tools to present her ideas—including stories, poetry, and scientific research—keeping the text balanced and engaging.
Readers may not remember every word of this useful book, but its eloquent ideas should satisfy an audience seeking tranquility.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63152-248-2
Page Count: 220
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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