Shunmyō Masuno

This is an interesting read from a Japanese Buddhist monk who uses this book to provide insight and tips into how to decrease anxiety from one’s life.

The book is simple, straightforward and the short chapters (or lessons) make it an easy, convenient read.

A lot of the tips are useful, and much of what he has to say is thought provoking. His essential message is that much of the stress and worry in our lives is manufactured by our own attitudes and mistaken perceptions. We create many of our own problems out of thin air. By changing our mindset, we can eliminate most of the stress and anxiety from our lives.

Although it is a worthwhile book, it is not without its flaws.

The translation is very clunky, which occasionally makes for disjointed reading.

Some of the chapters meander and veer off topic.

Many of the book’s examples and strategies are geared toward businessmen in large corporations and often seem less relevant for workers in other fields, or for people who are not defined by their jobs.

Based on my own life experience, I found a few of his observations to be untrue or inaccurate. Some of these, I’m certain, are due to cultural differences between Japan and the U.S. Others, I think, are due to his living in an ivory tower of sorts. Like a lot of scholars, he is so caught up in esoteric theory that some of his beliefs are only imaginary ideals which are not based on any sort of reality or any knowledge of how life really works. For example, he repeatedly makes the absolute statement that all human beings have redeemable qualities. That’s just not true; I’ve encountered several truly horrible people in my life who were inherently bad through and through and had absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever; they’re few and far between, but they are definitely out there. It’s great that he has never encountered people like that, but they do exist, even if he prefers to pretend that they don’t.

However, in spite of the book’s slight defects, many people will find the author’s insights useful & compelling, and I would recommend this book to almost anyone.… (mer)