A charming collection of advice for creating a life that provides self-satisfaction and brings happiness to others.
A Spanish-language collection of inspiring meditations guiding the reader through a happy, fulfilled life.
In this spirituality book, Castillo (Las Reflexiones del Sr. Castillo, 2012) presents a series of short anecdotes and reflections that offer inspiration and religious guidance. The subjects of these brief stories, many just a paragraph long, are varied, from father-son relationships to unrequited love to the meaning of success, but they are linked by a central theme that emphasizes religious faith as the core of existence. While the book’s recommendations for contentment will be familiar to readers of inspirational literature—“El respeto hacia los demás es el respeto hacia ti mismo” (Respect for others is respect for yourself)—Castillo presents them in an engaging manner. Some of the book’s prescriptions for life are less common and seem rather ineffective: “Cuando mires a un niño o niña en la calle vendiendo cualquier cosa para ganarse la vida, no te sientas mal, triste o culpable, al contrario cómprale algo para que ese niño se incentive y sea una persona de bien” (When you see a girl or boy on the street selling something to earn a living, don’t feel bad, sad, or responsible, on the contrary, buy something so the child is incentivised and becomes a good person). Yet Castillo provides some justification for the book’s avoidance of broader social justice questions and enhances its plausibility by situating his writing within his own experience as an immigrant. The tone of the narrative is generally plainspoken, but there are occasional bursts of lyrical writing: “Si los arboles sueltan sus hojas para revestirse y mostrar su belleza ante la naturaleza en la cual tienen vida, ¿por qué los seres humanos no podemos hacer un pequeño cambio para mostrar que podemos ser mejores seres humanos cada día más de nuestra existencia?” (If the trees let go of their leaves to redress themselves and show their beauty before the nature in which they live, why can’t humans make a small change to show that we can be better humans each day of our existence?) Readers in search of inspiration and everyday guidance are likely to find them in these stories linked by their repeated exhortations to embrace kindness, reject bitterness, and act only after considering the effect one’s behavior will have on the rest of the world.
A charming collection of advice for creating a life that provides self-satisfaction and brings happiness to others.Pub Date: March 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5089-4859-9
Page Count: 94
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2015
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
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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