An appealing, instructive mixture of Eastern spiritual practices and modern psychological research.
A Tibetan Buddhist monk and a psychologist offer a poetic and practical treatise on the practice and science of meditation.
In the same vein as The Art of Happiness, in which psychiatrist Howard Cutler explored Dalai Lama's wisdom from his Western perspective, Goleman and Rinpoche offer a dual perspective on meditation. The authors successfully synthesize their ideas and viewpoints, demonstrating their shared interest in science as well as their extensive experiences with meditation. The text is a smooth, interwoven narrative of science, religion, and poetry, and each chapter begins with a discourse of various aspects of Buddhist meditation practice by Rinpoche, followed by a discussion of the relevant scientific research by Goleman. Alongside Rinpoche’s discussions of classic meditation practices—particularly those that help us to let go of worry, cultivate empathy, or quell our anger—are Goleman’s clear explanations of the evolutionary basis for such emotions and the ways in which science has confirmed the efficacy of ancient Buddhist practices in helping us regulate these emotions. The book is highly practical by nature, and each chapter ends with a step-by-step guide to various meditation practices, elements that will be useful for both experienced meditators and novices. For every specific emotional problem addressed—e.g., chronic worrying—the authors present actionable steps based on both Tibetan Buddhist meditation techniques and modern psychological tools. Far from being another fluffy self-help book in which meditation is characterized as an emotional and mental panacea, this book does not shy away from discussing the potential downsides of practices such as compassion and mindfulness and offers ways to combat negative side effects. Although experienced meditators might already be familiar with most of the information found in the book, they will still garner inspiration from Rinpoche's delightful, and often funny, discourses.
An appealing, instructive mixture of Eastern spiritual practices and modern psychological research.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982-17845-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
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
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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