happydog33's review against another edition
4.0
This is the second? Third? Book by Mark Epstein I've read and have always learned something about mindfulness, meditation, and psychology from every one. Never simple answers to complex issues. Highly recommend.
bridg888's review against another edition
4.0
I honestly really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who is thinking of reading it. I hope to reread it soon and buy a personal copy as well. I found this to be a comforting read, I enjoyed learning about Buddhism and found many of the ideas to be reassuring. I'm definitely walking away with a slightly different mindset thanks to this book and I hope to incorporate some of its points into my daily life. I can see how some may be taken aback by the heavy amount of Buddhism in the book but I don't think the title is misleading it all. Although some talk about how not everything in the book is high-level trauma, I think the author does a great job of explaining this, of showing a spectrum of suffering from everyday annoyances to genuine PTSD. Overall 4 stars because I found it to be a bit dense at times but I got a lot out of it.
tanvika's review against another edition
2.0
Unfulfilled potential. there is a lack of clarity about "trauma" itself. Is missing a flight traumatic?
The attempt to connect Buddhism and western psychology(Winnicott) is very feeble. The critique of Freudian psychology is weak as there is a need to understand one's past to deal with the present troubles in life. Had the book stuck to only Buddhism, it could have been more clear, coherent and helpful for the people interested in Buddhism.
The attempt to connect Buddhism and western psychology(Winnicott) is very feeble. The critique of Freudian psychology is weak as there is a need to understand one's past to deal with the present troubles in life. Had the book stuck to only Buddhism, it could have been more clear, coherent and helpful for the people interested in Buddhism.
aditurbo's review against another edition
1.0
Stopping at 70% - this book gets more and more annoying as it goes on. I heard a lot of interesting things about it and was quite intrigued at first to learn how Epstein reconciles Western psychology and psychiatry with Buddhism. Clearly the writer is a very knowledgable man on both subjects, but writing is NOT his forte. Sentences are convoluted, jump from the theoretical to everyday examples (some of which are totally ridiculous), and many times are founded on too personal and idiosyncratic experiences. Many terms and ideas are described too vaguely or abstractly, and some of the ways in which Epstein suggests mindfulness is therapeutical seem far fetched and over the top. I concede that mindfulness and meditation have many positive effects on our minds and bodies, but to go as far as turning the Buddha into an expert on the subconscious seems a bit too far to me. Many "translations" of Buddhist myths, stories and terms into modern psychiatric understandings were completely contrived. It was difficult for me to find anything that may be helpful to me personally in this book, or that may give me a better understanding of Buddhism, mindfulness, meditation or modern psychology that I already have, or that I've read about in better-written books. If you'd like to read one of those, get yourself a copy of "10% happier" - a great book on the subject.
matttrevithick's review
2.0
Meditation is great, and I've played around with it. Buddhism seems worth learning lots about. But I found myself disagreeing with quite a few things in this book (which is all about Buddhism and the author's use of it to get through life). I simply cannot accept the author's repeated assertion that everyday life is 'full of trauma which in my own understanding of things, I find to be a severe misuse of the word (for instance - in one passage on page 39, he refers to his friends going to the wrong airport and narrowly making his flight as trauma averted. Is that really trauma?) By describing pretty much everything in life as a trauma to somehow endure, he waters the word down to make equal to 'annoyance' - this book would be better called 'the annoyances of everyday life' (in another example, he talks about how he misplaced his toast at a Buddhist retreat as he explored his mind and how this upset him. Not trauma, not even worth recording your diary, and certainly not a teaching moment, despite what he says).
He also must spend a clear fourth of this book talking about mother - infant relationships, which to me only served to mirror something going wrong with himself and got old fast. And when you check his popular writing (NYT, elsewhere), sure enough, all he does is talk about his mother and 'all the trauma' there. With what I've read, I doubt the author has ever experienced true trauma as many of us would define it: gone hungry for days, been cold in winter, been homeless, been penniless, experienced murder or incredible violence, had to endure incredibly difficult circumstances, etc. And for those reasons, the book comes across as a touchy-feely, 'life is so hard' tract that annoys rather than inspires new thinking. In other words, the author seems to be very troubled that there is no immediately obvious purpose to our existence, and describes the resulting thinking as trauma rather than simply 'life' which we all wonder about.
Two stars instead of one because I did learn a bit I didn't know about this Buddha character, and those sections were very accessible.
He also must spend a clear fourth of this book talking about mother - infant relationships, which to me only served to mirror something going wrong with himself and got old fast. And when you check his popular writing (NYT, elsewhere), sure enough, all he does is talk about his mother and 'all the trauma' there. With what I've read, I doubt the author has ever experienced true trauma as many of us would define it: gone hungry for days, been cold in winter, been homeless, been penniless, experienced murder or incredible violence, had to endure incredibly difficult circumstances, etc. And for those reasons, the book comes across as a touchy-feely, 'life is so hard' tract that annoys rather than inspires new thinking. In other words, the author seems to be very troubled that there is no immediately obvious purpose to our existence, and describes the resulting thinking as trauma rather than simply 'life' which we all wonder about.
Two stars instead of one because I did learn a bit I didn't know about this Buddha character, and those sections were very accessible.
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