by David John Black ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 2014
Economical entreaty to the mighty wisdom of the “Eternal Now.”
A pocketful of daily miracles to contemplate on the go.
At 34, Black had lost seemingly everything, from his house to his friends. Fearing he might also be losing his marbles, he did what scores of other shamans, gurus, and mystics have done before him: he camped out in a tent and invited the universe to grant him wisdom. This collection of quasi-Buddhist thoughts and Oprah Winfrey aha moments is the result of that desperate soul-searching. Far Eastern–tinged wisdom doesn’t get any easier to digest than the bite-sized offerings Black provides in this slim volume. Whether taken whole or parceled out over the course of a few days, these Zen-rooted gems might just be what the uninitiated need to get started on their own eightfold path—or at least get out of his or her own way. Each of the concise offerings occupies a page. Some, like “There’s a big difference between putting the effort in—and trying too hard” or “By constantly trying to solve other people’s problems, we’re avoiding solving our own,” already seem familiar and are thus readily absorbable. Others, however, such as “Life is a remembrance of who we truly are” or “our labyrinth is thoroughly known,” are a bit more esoteric and harder to grasp. In either case, the author urges earnest readers to ask what each of the sayings might mean to them and how the concepts might apply to their individual lives. Building from “Once we make a start, we are shown The Way” and continuing through “All is One,” each of the modest tracts is meant to subtly progress in profundity. A short “interview” section follows the collection of koans. In it, Black provides a little more background about himself, his philosophy, and how his observations coalesced following his own “dark night of the soul.”
Economical entreaty to the mighty wisdom of the “Eternal Now.”Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-1452525952
Page Count: 128
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
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
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