Les Kaye

I hated this stupid book. It was exceedingly toilsome to make it through.

Vapid platitudes and advice from a place of no expertise are the inevitable result when the author is someone who believes the culmination of spirituality is to - literally - sit motionless and silent on a cushion (look it up: that's all that zazen is). Every time the typeface changed I rolled my eyes, as I knew more vacuous, stupid advice was on its way.

This book is the epitome of self-help books written for no clear purpose, written by people with a superficial understanding of the spiritual discipline they have invaded and who believe that it gives them something unique to share. This genre of book is notable for its emptiness. It is obvious that the content is stretched to meet a word count. I can barely stand it. I hope I never have to read another book like this one.

Amazingly, the author deigns to advise his unfortunate readers against studying the masters of spirituality from antiquity and sitting blankly in a room instead to achieve enlightenment. But there is a reason Buddha didn't just say "sit still," but rather advocated scores of principled stances on complex topics; entire volumes have been written to contain all of what the ACTUAL dharma is. There's no connection to a higher power, no meditation on anything specific (in fact this would be discouraged -- you're supposed to empty your mind, yes even of spiritual or beneficial thoughts).

The author should have spared us all by continuing to do zazen permanently instead of writing this shitty book. By his own account, it would have benefited his "spiritual practice" more, and it certainly would have saved the discriminating reader a lot of wasted time.… (mehr)