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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Fascinating and unique., 21 Mar 2006
This is a most fascinating and unique book. The author writes with tremendous frankness about subjects which most of us do not even bother to look at. To me, this book is very much a wake-up call. Is life really meant to be just an endless round of work, taking the kids to school, doing the housework and shopping, over and over? Anand seems to have had nothing to do with any of this. From his totally different experience of life, he says that a life not observed is a life not worth living. He has certainly had a very full life, full of a wide variety of experiences. It seems to me that the rest of us just run away from life. Reading this book certainly changed my own perspective.This book shows again and again that there are more things in life than most of us ever imagine. Goats that read your mind? Chatting with ghosts? Overcoming depression by befriending it? This book shares great depths of passion yet also displays the author’s tremendous acceptance of the way things are. I am usually very wary of books on self-development, or personal growth, or whatever you call it. The authors seem to claim to know all the answers, and then want their readers to copy them. Not so with this book. The author recounts his own experiences and shares his sufferings with his readers, yet he leaves all negativity behind, eventually finding peace through acceptance. This author is strongly against religion. He talks very negatively of Christianity and says he rejected it because it had nothing to offer. He dabbled with Buddhism and even lived for some time in a Theravadan Buddhist monastery, but eventually gave this up too. He seems to have little regard for psychologists, either. Still, I found the book strangely fascinating, and I kept on reading it. Meditators, especially those who meditate for growth and understanding rather than simply for relaxation, will also find much of value in this book. The author seems to have stumbled across the Buddha’s teachings without knowing that he had done so, and writes much about stream entry and what lies beyond. Highly recommended.
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